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Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Latest from Food Politics: What has MAHA accomplished to date?

By Marion Nestle

July 15 2026

What has MAHA accomplished to date?

Background (numbers refer to citations at the end)

The Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) commission set an important goal, albeit one ironically similar to Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move” campaign: end childhood chronic disease.[1] Unfortunately, hallucinated references in the report suggested that at least some of it had been written by AI, thereby detracting from its scientific credibility.[2]

Trying to achieve this goal is surely difficult within the context of drastic staff reductions in the HHS and USDA agencies responsible for food policy, and of the deliberate undermining of public confidence in basic public health measures like water fluoridation and vaccination; these actions will harm child health, not improve it.

Also, policies of EPA (approving PFAS, encouraging coal-burning power plants), of USDA (eliminating farm-to-school programs [3], cutting school meal budgets), and of presidential executive orders (glyphosate[4]) directly oppose MAHA goals.

MAHA promises

In September 2025, the commission outlined its strategies.[5] Here are its main promises about food, and my understanding of what has been done about them to date. [Stat lists non-food ones as well. I wrote about its report here]

Issue the 2025-2030 dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs)[6] and new food guide.[7] Accomplished. I wrote about them here. They have some strengths (eat real food; limit ultra-processed foods), but are undermined by errors, inconsistencies, and ideological interpretations of inconvenient science. More recent recommendations of the American Heart Association better reflect scientific consensus.[8]
Eliminate petroleum-based food colors. Accomplished, but voluntarily. To date, 27 food companies have agreed to replace these dyes with those derived from plant sources.[9] Voluntary could mean that the change won’t last; these foods will still be highly processed.
Establish post market review of chemical additives in food. In progress, but no rulemaking or regulation as yet.
Define ultra-processed foods (UPFs) for research and policy. In progress, but rumored to be held up.
Develop a front-of-pack nutrition information logo. In progress, but rumored to be held up. RFK Jr has stated that the FDA is working on one with traffic light colors. We haven’t seen it yet.
Close the GRAS (generally recognized as safe food additive) loophole. In progress, but no rulemaking as of yet. [10] It is hard to know how the FDA will do this, given that it has lost 20% of its staff.[11]
Improve nutrition and safety standards for Infant Formula. In progress.[12] Operation Stork Speed is supposed to review nutrition standards and test for heavy metals, but says nothing about microbial safety, a huge issue right now. The FEA is checking for heavy metals, and isn’t finding much. A program to monitor foods in general for heavy metals has been announced. Microbial safety? I’m not hearing much about stronger regulation of infant formula.
Promote breastfeeding. Nothing on this.
Improve quality of food served to veterans. In progress. Presumably, this will happen as a result of the dietary guidelines, but I’ve not seen rules.
Serve healthy food in hospitals. In progress. A letter was sent to hospitals saying that federal benefits would be withheld if they did not comply.[13] And HHS has just urged hospitals to take ‘Make Hospital Food Healthier’ pledge. This is voluntary, and it is not clear whether or how tit will be enforced. Also, medical schools have been asked to increase hours devoted to nutrition instruction, and some have agreed. Again, this is voluntary.[14]
Set guidelines to limit the direct marketing of UPFs to children. Nothing on this.
Promote whole, healthy foods across its 16 nutrition programs. In progress. Presumably, this will happen as a result of the dietary guidelines, but no rules yet.
Encourage state SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) waivers. Accomplished (maybe). The USDA has approved waivers for 23 states as of July 2026.[15] These ban the use of federal SNAP dollars for sugar-sweetened beverages and, in some states, candy and other sweets. Will the waivers improve the diet and health of participants? We don’t know yet. But since July 2025, SNAP enrollments have dropped by 10% overall and by much greater percentages in some states; losses include more than 800,000 children in the 13 states that report these data.[16] Advocates expect the waivers to make participation even more difficult.[17] Furthermore, the state SNAP waivers are being litigated, and some have been blocked. The waivers may not last.
Provide MAHA Boxes to SNAP participants. I’ve heard nothing on this yet.
Food Deregulation: Remove restrictions on whole milk sales in schools, allowing full-fat dairy options alongside reduced-fat alternatives. Accomplished.[18] Will this make a difference to kids’ health? I doubt it.
Education campaign based on the updated dietary guidelines. Nothing on this yet. NOTUS reports: “the White House killed an RFK Jr. ad campaign. He can blame Kristi Noem: Trump officials abruptly canceled the health campaign focused on processed food and diabetes over cost and image concerns.

Comment

This administration counts much of the work in progress as MAHA wins,[19] but the actual accomplishments seem limited. The promises most likely to make a real difference to child health—regulation of ultra-processed foods and marketing to kids, better food in schools, a major education campaign—are either held up, ignored, or still waiting for rulemaking.

When I said something like this to Calley Means at the Aspen Ideas Festival (see yesterday’s post), he pointed out that MAHA has had only had a year and a half to get things done, whereas advocates like you, Marion, had been trying to do these things for decades and failed. We did fail, but MAHA has (or had) the power. I hoped they would be able to use it . Their inability to do is is disappointing, as is their taking credit for actions they haven’t yet taken.

References

[1] The MAHA Report: Make Our Children Healthy Again: Assessment. May 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WH-The-MAHA-Report-Assessment.pdf.

[2] Jacobs P. Trump officials downplay fake citations in high-profile report on children’s health. Science. May 30, 2025. doi: 10.1126/science.zmgabo5.

[3] Brown M. USDA cancels $1B in local food purchasing for schools, food banks. Politico, March 10, 2025. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/10/usda-cancels-local-food-purchasing-for-schools-food-banks-00222796

[4] The White House. Promoting The National Defense by Ensuring an Adequate Supply Of Elemental Phosphorus And Glyphosate-Based Herbicides. Executive Orders, February 18, 2026. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/02/promoting-the-national-defense-by-ensuring-an-adequate-supply-of-elemental-phosphorus-and-glyphosate-based-herbicides/

[5] MAHA. Strategy Report: Make Our Children Healthy Again. September 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/The-MAHA-Strategy-WH.pdf

[6] HHS, USDA. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://cdn.realfood.gov/DGA.pdf.

[7] USDA. Real food wins. https://realfood.gov/.

[8] Lichtenstein AH, Khera A, Anderson CAM, et al. 2026 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health: A scientific statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2026;153(18):e1285-e1295. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001435.

[9] FDA. Tracking Food Industry Pledges to Remove Petroleum Based Food Dyes. June 16, 2026. https://www.fda.gov/food/color-additives-information-consumers/tracking-food-industry-pledges-remove-petroleum-based-food-dyes.

[10] HHS. HHS Secretary Kennedy Directs FDA to Explore Rulemaking to Eliminate Pathway for Companies to Self-Affirm Food Ingredients Are Safe. March 10, 2025. https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/revising-gras-pathway.html

[11] Akst J. FDA hiring 2,200 people to staff up after last year’s DOGE cuts. BioSpace, June 24, 2026. https://www.biospace.com/fda/fda-hiring-2-200-people-to-staff-up-after-last-years-doge-cuts

[12] HHS. HHS, FDA Announce Operation Stork Speed to Expand Options for Safe, Reliable, and Nutritious Infant Formula for American Families. March 18, 2025. https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/operation-stork-speed.html.

[13] HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Letter to Hospital/CAH Providers. Hospital nutrition service obligations in light of updated federal nutrition guidelines. March 30, 2026. https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qssam-26-03-hospital-cah-original-release-2026-03-30.pdf.

[14] HHS. Secretary Kennedy Announces Historic Development in Nutrition Accreditation Standards, New Medical School Pledges. June 8, 2026. https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/secretary-kennedy-announces-historic-development-nutrition-accreditation-standards-new-medical-school-pledges.html

[15] USDA. SNAP food restriction waivers. Undated. https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/waivers/foodrestriction

[16] Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. SNAP Tracker: People Are Losing Food Assistance as the Republican Megabill Is Implemented. June 22, 2026. https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-tracker-people-are-losing-food-assistance-as-the-republican-megabill

[17] Food Research & Action Center. SNAP food restriction waivers. Undated. https://frac.org/snap-restrictions

[18] USDA. Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 – Implementation Requirements for the National School Lunch Program. January 14, 2026. https://www.fna.usda.gov/nslp/wmfhka-implementation

[19] HHS. Celebrating Big Wins of the Trump Administration. Undated. https://www.hhs.gov/hhs-big-wins-maha/index.html

[20] Wallace-Wells D. Has the MAHA Movement Given Up?New York Times, July 3, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/03/magazine/maha-movement-survival-rfk.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

________________

Pub date is September 8. Pre-orders through UC Press get a 30% discount. Use promo code UCPSAVE30.

The post What has MAHA accomplished to date? appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle

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Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, Emerita

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Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Latest from Food Politics: Setting the record straight: Calley Means and more...

By Marion Nestle

July 14 2026

Setting the record straight: Calley Means

Washington Post reporter, Tim Carman, contacted me for comment about a speech he heard made by RFK Jr’s top food advisor, Calley Means, in which Means made patently false charges about my work. From Carman’s report, MAHA Mondays at the Great American State Fair miss one obvious problem:

Means suggested her research had been bankrolled by sugar and tobacco industries, the latter of which once owned major food companies. The industries “funded her to say that basically the base of our diet should be carbs,” Means said. He added that the report made Americans afraid of foods other than grains.

These charges surprised me for two reasons: (1) Anyone even remotely familiar with my work would know these statements could not possibly be true, and (2) I am not MAHA’s enemy. I support parts of its agenda, and am on record as calling for coalition-building around common objectives.

Means began making the false claims on June 30, when we were on a panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival, moderated by Corby Kummer. You can watch the session here and make your own decision about how it went.

I would have let the whole thing go, except that Calley Means followed it up with his speech at the Great American State Fair on July 6. Tim Carman sent me a transcript of Means’ remarks:

In the 1980s, a group called the Sugar Research Council paid her to do a lot of research. And they really funded her to say that basically the base of our diet should be carbs, and the base our diet to be grains, and we should fear fat. And really, we should fear a lot of natural foods in favor of grains. And her research, she claims credit for being the architect of the 1992 food pyramid. And I told her, when we talked last week, I think it’s actually demonstrable that the dietary guidance from the 1990s has been the most destructive public health document in modern history, because they put grains and carbs at the base of the pyramid. And they didn’t differentiate whole grains or refined grains. Why did they do that? That was directly prompted by the food industry, which at the time was the cigarette industry.

Carman asked: “Any of this true?”

Good grief no. Not only are these statements false; they are spectacularly false.

Let’s take them line by line.

Means: In the 1980s, a group called the Sugar Research Council paid her to do a lot of research.

False. In the 1980s, I was teaching nutrition to medical students at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) school of medicine and running a nutrition education program funded by NIH and, later, by the John Tung Foundation. To avoid conflicts of interest, I have a long-standing policy of not taking payments from food companies. The policy is posted on this site here.

Means: And they really funded her to say that basically the base of our diet should be carbs, and the base our diet to be grains, and we should fear fat.

False. Here, I think he must be referring to the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF) which funded researchers at Harvard who wrote a skewed review of diet and heart disease in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1967; the review downplayed sugar, and emphasized fat. The SRF’s role in this research was exposed in 2016 in JAMA Internal Medicine by Cristin Kearns, Laura Schmidt and Stanton Glantz: Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research: A Historical Analysis of Internal Industry Documents. I wrote the commentary on this study: “Food industry funding of nutrition research: The relevance of history for current debates.” I also wrote about both pieces on this site.

Means: And really, we should fear a lot of natural foods in favor of grains.

False. Here, I think, he must be talking about my role as managing editor of the 1988 Surgeon General’s Report on Nutrition and Health. The report summarized the research consensus of that time.

“Fats and cholesterol. Reduce consumption of fat (especially saturated fat) and cholesterol. Choose foods relatively low in these substances, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grain foods, fish, poultry, lean meats, and low-fat dairy products.”

“Complex carbohydrates and fiber: Increase consumption of whole grain foods and cereal products, vegetables (including dried beans and peas), and fruits.”

The National Academies’ even more comprehensive report, Diet and Health: Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk, made similar recommendations in 1989.

Means: And her research, she claims credit for being the architect of the 1992 food pyramid.

False. I have never claimed such responsibility; I had none. My only role in the 1992 pyramid was to work closely with a reporter for the New York Times, Marian Burros, to expose how the meat industry induced the USDA to suppress the pyramid when it was about to be released in 1991. I devoted an entire chapter of my book, Food Politics, to providing the evidence for this.

Means: And I told her, when we talked last week, I think it’s actually demonstrable that the dietary guidance from the 1990s has been the most destructive public health document in modern history,

True. This is what he said and, I assume, is what he thinks.

Means: because they put grains and carbs at the base of the pyramid. And they didn’t differentiate whole grains or refined grains.

False. The USDA’s pyramid brochure said: “Choose a diet with plenty of grain products, vegetables, and fruits which provide needed vitamins, minerals, fiber, and complex carbohydrates, and can help you lower your intake of fat.”

It also says, “Here are some selection tips: ☛ To get the fiber you need, choose several servings a day of foods made from whole grains, such as whole-wheat bread and whole-grain cereals. ☛ Choose most often foods that are made with little fat or sugars. These include bread, english muffins, rice, and pasta… ☛ Baked goods made from flour, such as cakes, cookies, croissants, and pastries, count as part of this food group, but they are high in fat and sugars.”

Means: Why did they do that? That was directly prompted by the food industry, which at the time was the cigarette industry.

Misleading. Yes, the cigarette industry owned Kraft Foods and other food companies at that time, and taught those companies how to use the tobacco playbook to promote unhealthy products (as we only recently learned). But the major food industry influences on dietary guidelines and food guides in the 1980s and 1990s were the meat and dairy industries, as I describe in Food Politics. As far as I can tell, they still are, as witnessed by the 2025-2030 guidelines and inverted pyramid.

But that’s not all. Calley Means said on Instagram: “At @aspenideas, I spoke with @marionnestle – an architect of the 1990s U.S. Dietary Guidelines that led to an explosion of refined carbohydrates and ultraprocessed food in the American diet.”

Misleading again. I was indeed a member (although hardly the architect) of the 1995 Dietary Guidelines Scientific Advisory Committee. Here is what the 1995 guidelines said about grains.

“Most of the calories in your diet should come from grain products, vegetables, and fruits These include grain products high in complex carbohydrates—breads, cereals, pasta, rice—found at the base of the Food Guide Pyramid, as well as vegetables such as potatoes and corn. Dry beans (like pinto, navy, kidney, and black beans) are included in the meat and beans group of the Pyramid, but they can count as servings of vegetables instead of meat alternatives.”

Doesn’t this look a lot like what the 2025-2030 guidelines say about grains? I think it does.

Yes, the 1995 guidelines did not say anything about reducing intake of ultra-processed foods. How could they? The term was not coined until 2009.

So: Why on earth is Calley Means attacking my work?

I can only speculate. I see the underlying issue in our current food problems as the food industry having profits to stockholders as its primary fiduciary responsibility, as I have described for decades in my daily newsletter foodpolitics.com, and in my books, most notably,

In making false charges, could Calley Means possibly be attempting to deflect attention from the difficulties MAHA is confronting in implementing its agenda? (I will say more about that tomorrow). Means seems to view me as an appropriate target for deflection. Obviously, I disagree.

MAHA’s agenda appears to be running up against the pushback that inevitably happens when you do something that might threaten food industry profits. See, for example:

Food Dive: As MAHA clashes with courts, is RFK Jr’s food policy agenda on life support?
Food Fix: Major MAHA policy plans now seem less imminent
New York Times: Has the MAHA movement given up?
Rolling Stone: Are MAGA and MAHA Heading for Divorce?

A final comment

Reasonable people can disagree about elements of nutrition policy. But reasonable people cannot invent a history that did not exist.

If Calley Means or anyone else believes that I have misrepresented the science or the historical record in my lengthy body of work, show me the evidence. I will be happy to consider it.

That’s how Gold Standard Science works. Otherwise, it’s just name-calling.

_____________________

Pub date is September 8. Pre-orders through UC Press get a 30% discount. Use promo code UCPSAVE30.

The post Setting the record straight: Calley Means appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle

San Antonio: American Public Health Association

This will be a Food and Nutrition section panel. Details to follow.

The post San Antonio: American Public Health Association appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle

Now Available: What to Eat Now

My new book, What to Eat Now, is officially out!

It's both a field guide to food shopping in America and a reflection on how to eat well—and deliciously.

For more information and to order, click here.

Visit the Site »

Marion Nestle

Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, Emerita

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Lifestyle Sports

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Latest from Food Politics: What has MAHA accomplished to date?

By Marion Nestle

What has MAHA accomplished to date?

Related Posts

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Latest from Food Politics: Setting the record straight: Calley Means and more...

By Marion Nestle

Setting the record straight: Calley Means

Related Posts

San Antonio: American Public Health Association

Latest from Food Politics: What has MAHA accomplished to date?

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