WIC is a program of the Dep't of Agriculture. The people who run it, and the congressional committees who oversee it, care first about farmers and only then about the program's beneficiaries.

Well there's a dead giveaway here -- both WIC and food stamps are not part of HHS, but the Department of Agriculture. The reason they exist is not because Congress gives a rat's ass about the nutritional status of poor kids, it's because the programs have an agribusiness constituency.

So their very political basis has nothing to do with nutrition policy in the first place.

Have you looked at the label of yogurt-intended-for-kids lately?

What they said. Also, how much we want to bet that chocolate milk is sweetened with corn syrup?

"soy and rice beverages" are not exactly low cal. Milk is rather healthy--esp. for children. And sometimes chocolate milk is the only way to get children to drink milk.

Also "soy and rice beverages" are not milk. They are liquids and are white. But that is the only thing they have in common with milk. They do not even taste like milk. Maybe you want to make a point that milk should not be treated special, but "soy and rice beverages" are less milk than orange-aid is orange juice.

I agree with ropty.

Milk -- cow's milk -- is highly nutritious and appropriate for most children.

Many kinds of diet restrictions, including restrictions on fats and carbs, that are highly appropriate to adults, are not at all appropriate to children. Many adult Americans do not digest lactose and should not drink milk.

As to the agri-business angle, dairies might be a somewhat better organized lobby than soy farmers, but many soy farmers are dairy farmers. It is not like there is, at base, any great inherent conflict in agri-business terms, which absolutely must triumph in distorting government policies. Any halfway-decent politician or bureaucrat could play one agricultural interest off against the other to arrive at a sensible result.

Besides, chocolate milk is sacred.

So your big problem with this food subsidy for underprivileged women and children is that it contains too many calories?

On the scale of problems, this isn't a bad one to have.

A surprisingly large number of children are sensitive/allergic to cow milk. It's recommended that these children drink soy milk not only because it provides some of the fat and protein that a growing brain needs, but also because it's a way of training them to think that milk is an appropriate thing to drink, so they'll continue to drink it once they've outgrown their sensitivity (as most kids do). USDA and the dairy industry may be shooting themselves in the foot on this one, even as they deny poor children a doctor-recommended beverage.

I do think soy and rice milk belong in different categories--rice milk is pretty nutritionally empty and in fact carries a warning label saying not to feed it to children under two except when advised to do so by a doctor. My dairy/soy(/everything else) allergic child does drink rice milk, but we all know that the only reason is to train him to drink real milk if he's ever able.

WIC is a truly fantastic program that has kept many children alive and healthy despite the poverty of their parents.

The system's greatest problem is that it is cumbersome and difficult to administer. Each individual set of food items has a specific check and those checks cannot be used in conjunction with any other purchase. A WIC family doing a week of grocery shopping can take upwards of 15 separate transactions. How much dignity does this leave them with?

WIC = subsidy for industrial food product. It may not cover the worst excesses of factory food, but you don't associate WIC with happy husbandry.

On the other hand, the whole 'that rice and soy shit ain't milk' thing is a bit beside the point. Lactose intolerance is a real issue these days.

Punning Pundit, in case you haven't noticed, people like Ezra only want to tell you how to eat. They could care less about the dignity of their 'lessers'.

Kids' yogurt is still better than a lot of the adult yogurt, sadly. And at least it has fat, which the littlest ones need.

WIC Program: Here's a really wide variety of free food to help your children stay healthy. No, you don't have to go to a food bank, you can go to the grocery store like everyone else. No, you don't have to buy uncooked foods, you can choose the more expensive heat 'n serve and 'instant' varieties.

Liberal Recipient: Waaaa......waaaaa.......waaaaa.....

What about almond "milk", Almond Breeze is the brand near us. About half the calories, no saturated fats, no cholesterol and less sugars. Slightly less calcium and very little protein, the only negatives I guess.

Also "soy and rice beverages" are not milk.

There's no such thing as "soy milk" because there's no soy titty. /Lewis Black

Okay, how about coconut milk?

Okay, how about coconut milk?

It's not the hippie types that are on WIC. Let's see the brothers and sisters in the 'hood line up to buy soy products, rice products or even coconut products.

Chocolate milk is a good way to get kids to drink milk. The chocolate is a cheap incentive to get kids to make a better nutritional choice then soda. Is abstinence education a good sex ed policy? No. It doesn't work with nutrition either. Chocolate milk is the mutual masturbation of the childhood nutrition world.

LA Times, 4/4/06: "I've been touting chocolate milk for years," says Felice Kurtzman, sports nutritionist for the University of California, Los Angeles' athletic department. "Chocolate milk provides carbohydrates, calcium, other trace minerals. And the important thing is that the kids drink it. I can tell you from our training table that football drinks it, swimming drinks it, track drinks it."

And since chocolate soy milk is the top-selling chocolate milk of any kind in the US maybe all you members of Soy Division should chill a bit with your holier than thou attitudes about chocolate and nutrition.

Oh come on people, you really think the poor little soybean industry is getting screwed by Big Ag? All those smalltime independent organic soybean farmers in Vermont? Get real.

Here's a quick question - is goat's milk acceptable for the WIC? Because amongst the lactose-intolerant folks I know, they often can drink goat's milk and will take it over soy "milk" in a heartbeat.

It's not the hippie types that are on WIC. Let's see the brothers and sisters in the 'hood line up to buy soy products, rice products or even coconut products.

Aside from pointing out you're a racist fuck, which, while a waste of time, never gets old, rice and coconut are actually a staple of much 'ethnic' cooking. Also, you're a racist fuck.

WIC is a truly fantastic program that has kept many children alive and healthy despite the poverty of their parents.

This should be the first sentence of Ezra's post. There may be problems, and soy products could be included, but compared to many things in the public and private sector, WIC is a very good program-- just not a perfect one.

wisewon - exactly

Soy products aren't always good for us, as they have more estrogens and manganese. Excessive manganese can be toxic to a baby.

But cow's milk isn't the best source of calcium either, and I would imagine the big push for cow's milk and government cheese has to do with the relationship to farm subsidies and the beef industry. Just a thought...

The underlying principle -- given the gaps in pre- and post-natal health coverage -- is obviously sound.

The implementation is problematic, not least the emergence of Orwellian 'WICtory' brands for the proles.

In most cases the egg allowance means battery eggs: no free range allowed. The dairy allowance means intensive dairy.

This isn't just nit-picking: if you're going to underwrite the diets of mothers and children, better to subsidise in-state producers rather than Big Ag's industrial practices.

Here's one sample WIC list from Maine. Note the oh-so progressive inclusion of carrots alongside battery eggs, crate dairy, and fortified juice and cereals.

It's not the hippie types that are on WIC. Let's see the brothers and sisters in the 'hood line up to buy soy products, rice products or even coconut products.

Aside from pointing out you're a racist fuck...

Heck, anyone who isn't on board the "enabling train" is a 'racist fuck' in the eyes of the far left. Let's face it. Asians eat a lot of rice, but soulfood recipies don't call for a lot of soy products.

If you can't acknowledge cultural differences publicly, how will your party ever solve the race problem??

WIC is about getting food to women, infants, and children. It's a grant program where states choose their own foods. Most states choose the cheapest foods to ensure the program has the broadest coverage.

Have the balls to tackle the agriculture subsidies on the front end and fight Congress. It's pathetic to address this problem from the WIC end of the spectrum. Suggesting states buy soy milk and free range eggs -- a move that would increase per capita expenditures -- is the same as suggesting you think WIC should serve fewer people. Offering pricier options means shrinking the coverage of the program.

I'm all for putting farm subsidies in sync with the food pyramid but it's just about the dumbest most out of touch suggestion I've seen to address the problem of food subsides at the WIC level.

WIC isn't just about food coupons. For every 5 retail outlets that take WIC coupons there is a WIC affiliated clinic that offers all kinds of educational programs to mothers and pregnant women.

Soy milk? Popular with Asians. Yogurt? Popular with Turks and Arabs.

Obviously the intent of the restrictions is to stop American children turning foreign...

Basically, I like the WIC program. However, one of the huge problems is the type of food *allowed* such as cookies, candy expensive pre-cooked microwavable items that can cost up to 10 times what 'slow food' would cost.

I like helping the poor and less fortunate. I don't like doing it on their terms and on their demands.

Nutrition is a complicated field of study. Internet blogs are not a good source of information. Best source of info is your local college; nutritionists start with their own biases, but at least they START with evidence-based info. But here's my 2¢: there is no estrogen in soy; there is PHYTOestrogen, which is structurally similar to but which is NOT estrogen, a hormone essential to the reproductive cycle of women. There is no proof that soy is harmful, and much indication that it is beneficial. BTW, naturally occurring estrogen in a woman's body is associated with higher cancer rates, making late menses and early menopause desirable as far as cancer is concerned.

Also, milk is clearly linked to the development of diabetes mellitus 2 if given to infants. This is not vegan philosophy; this is mainstream medical science.

FYI - below is an excerpt from an LA Times article written by Dr. Susan Bowerman:

For the first time in its 35-year history, the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Supplemental Nutrition Program -- which provides food vouchers to millions of households nationwide -- will, starting October 2009, allow participants to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and soy-based products....
The new WIC plan also will allow the purchase of whole-grain products such as breads, oatmeal and brown rice -- in contrast to the old package, which allowed only fortified cereals, which were not necessarily whole-grain....In other WIC changes, whole-milk purchases will be allowed only for the youngest children -- those older than 2 will get milk that's 2% fat or less -- and the amounts of cheese, eggs and fruit juice that can be purchased will be reduced. These changes are geared at reducing dietary saturated fat and cholesterol, and calorie-laden beverages such as fruit juice.

The changing ethnic composition and dietary preferences of WIC participants is being acknowledged too -- the number of Latino participants has doubled since 1988, and the number of Asian participants has grown sharply. Families will now be able to use vouchers to buy items such as soy milk, tofu and whole-grain flour or corn tortillas.
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/health/la-he-eat28apr28,1,1595009.story

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