DHEC chief: Restrict food stamps, curb obesity - Live5News.com | Charleston, SC | News, Weather, Sports

By MEG KINNARD
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina's public health chief says further restricting what people can buy with food stamps might be a way to cut down on the state's obesity problem.

Department of Health and Environmental Control director Catherine Templeton told The Associated Press on Wednesday she'd like to see people who get public food assistance restricted to basically the same food list available to women and children who get similar help.

Templeton's agency administers a federally funded program that helps pregnant women and mothers buy healthy food. Benefits can only be used on foods like milk, grains and fresh vegetables, a list Templeton says should also apply to the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beneficiaries.

Templeton says she doesn't support banning junk food but says taxpayer money shouldn't be used to buy it.

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