McArdle and Food

A. J. Rossmiller weighs in on Megan McArdle's ridiculous comments on food stamps and obesity. On the whole he's on point, but he makes one statement with which I take strong issue:

[A] proper, balanced diet promotes health and often correlates with avoiding obesity. Cheap food generally does not make such a diet, and food stamps make the problem worse, rather than better.

That's not necessarily the case. It's what you buy with the food stamps that is going to make the difference, and I have news for everyone: food stamps can be used to buy good, nutritious food as easily as cheap, not so great food. In fact, they can make it possible to buy good, nutritious food. If you have a little bit extra to spend, so much the better. (And it doesn't really take that much more -- literally, a couple of bucks can make the difference. You don't, as Rossmiller did, have to spend twice as much.)

His conclusions are pretty much OK, but I don't want to let that particular misstatement go unchallenged.