My column on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (better known as “food stamps”) ran last month in USA Today under the headline “Do Food Stamps Feed Obesity?”

My thesis is that they do, but not for the reasons you may think. The big problem is that SNAP clients tend to do the bulk of their shopping once per month, then struggle to ration the food over 30 days (especially since the benefits are not terribly princely). By the end of the month people are out of food and money, which leads to a starve-then-binge cycle. Anyone reading supermarket tabloids knows this packs pounds onto the celebrities who try it, before you even get to the question of whether people are eating nutritious food or junk.

To be sure, not everyone shops this way (I interviewed a woman who bought seeds with food stamps in order to plant a garden). But on the margins, this cycle contributes to obesity, which suggests a simple solution: pay out food stamp benefits twice a month, rather than once.

Judging by the 130 comments, I’m not sure many people agreed with me, but it’s certainly a topic that inspires strong feelings either way!