Dr. Ben Carson told Newsmax on Friday that a bipartisan group of senators ignored "common sense" by blocking an amendment that would have barred Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients from using federal benefits to buy junk food.
Carson, the Agriculture Department's national adviser for nutrition, health, and housing, told "Ed Henry: The Big Take" that the government should not subsidize foods that contribute to chronic disease.
"Especially, you know, when you look at the statistics, you see that our life expectancy in this country, which was steadily going up, has plateaued and in some cases is going down, whereas many other countries, they're continuing to go up," Carson said.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Wednesday voted to table an amendment by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., during its markup of the Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act.
The committee later advanced the underlying bill on a bipartisan vote.
Paul wrote Wednesday on X that 16 senators voted to table the amendment. In another post, he said the amendment would have stopped "food stamps from buying junk like Twinkies and Ding-Dongs."
He argued the proposal would have kept overall SNAP spending unchanged while steering purchases toward healthier foods.
Carson said the United States has allowed processed foods to become too large a part of Americans' diets.
"When you look and you try to see what is different, the difference is we allow all these processed foods, all junk food into our system. It can't do you any good when you take natural nutrition and replace it with artificial colors and artificial flavors and artificial sweeteners and artificial this, that, and the other," he said.
"That's not how our bodies were made. Our creator didn't make them for all this artificial stuff, and we're paying the consequences."
Carson said the Trump administration is trying to reverse those trends through its "Make America Healthy Again" agenda.
"We're simply in this administration trying to turn things around and let's think logically again. What you put into your body is what you're going to get out of it," he said.
"And if you put junk in, you're going to get junk out. You're not going to be nearly as healthy," Carson continued.
"You're not going to be able to resist things nearly as well. It's common sense."
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