Musical Musings: Weird Al and Nutrition Policy

Are you hungry for some health policy and ridiculousness?? Today’s podcast has some musical musings about SNAP- the 119 billion dollar federal food stamp program and school lunch programs, sparked by two parody songs of Weird Al Yankovic.   Yes, we did.

Music:

“Eat It” by Weird Al Yankovic, parody of “Beat It” by Michael Jackson

“Eat It” Lyrics

“Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch” by Weird Al Yankovic, parody of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper

“Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch” Lyrics

All about Erik:

Dr. Erik Nesson, PhD

A few research articles related to the podcast discussion:

A fact sheet about SNAP from the Pew Research Center

My substack writings on changes in obesity

David E. Frisvold, “Nutrition and cognitive achievement: An evaluation of the School Breakfast Program," Journal of Public Economics,Volume 124, 2015,Pages 91-104.

Bhattacharya J., T. Deleire, S. Haider, and J. Currie. “Heat or Eat? Cold-Weather Shocks and Nutrition in Poor American Families." American Journal of Public Health 93, 7 (2003): 1149-1154.

Youths at Nutrition Risk: Malnourished or Misnourished?, Jay Bhattacharya, Janet Currie. in Risky Behavior among Youths: An Economic Analysis, Gruber. 2001