The number of Americans receiving food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has ballooned in the past five years–from 26 million people in 2007 to more than 44 million people today, according to the latest numbers. That means the government has a hold over what one in seven U.S. citizens are and aren’t allowed to purchase for consumption–and could feasibly use that power to force them to eat healthier.

Currently, New York City is in a full-fledged food stamp battle with the soft-drink industry, as the city attempts to make it illegal to use government money to buy delicious, fattening soda. As long as local governments are determined to get all Big Brother on making sure food stamp recipients use their subsidies wisely, we have some suggestions for products that shouldn’t be covered by the SNAP program. Note: It’s highly unlikely that any of these things will come to pass, because any exemption from current food stamp guidelines would have to come with federal approval (and the lobby of companies that make unhealthy food is very powerful).

Bottled Water

Tap water is generally plentiful and clean. We do not live in a country where the tap water is incredibly unsafe for consumption; let’s encourage people to take advantage of all the effort that goes into making that happen. There is one major caveat to this: Some people really do have unsafe tap water (people who live near fracking sites, for example). So a ban like this would have to at least have to be county-specific. But if you live in cities like New York City and San Francisco, you should revel in your clean tap water, and save your food stamps for other things.

Soda

Mayor Bloomberg may be on to something with his proposed soft-drink ban for New York. If passed, the ban would prevent people from using food stamps to buy carbonated and non-carbonated beverages that

are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup or sugar and have more than 10 calories per eight-ounce serving. Is this over the top? Quite likely. But it’s an interesting thought experiment: What would happen to obesity and diabetes rates if soda was taken off the food-stamp approval list?