Photo Andrew Harnik
The MAHA Commission, a landmark intergovernmental agency initiative to study the root of America’s worsening chronic health epidemic, released a 68-page report Thursday called “Making Our Children Healthy Again.”
The comprehensive assessment provides a wide ranging look at the various factors driving chronic disease in children.
It named, among other factors, a sharp rise in the consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF), the cumulative load of environmental toxins, and overmedication of children as chief factors in the worsening health of American children.
“Most American children’s diets are dominated by ultra-processed foods (UPFs) high in added sugars, chemical additives, and saturated fats, while lacking sufficient intakes of fruits and vegetables,” the report states.
Almost 70 percent of an American child’s calories today come from ultra-processed foods, according to the Commission.
The assessment defines ultra-processed foods as “a category of industrially manufactured food products that undergo multiple physical and chemical processing steps and contain ingredients not commonly found in home kitchens.”
America’s overall caloric share of ultra-processed foods sits at over 50 percent, significantly higher than peer countries like France, Portugal and Italy, where citizens’ average caloric intake is between 10 and 31 percent, the assessment states.
Ultra-processed food dominance has made three ingredients – ultra-processed grains, sugars and fats – staples of American children’s’ diets, according to the report
“The ultra-processing of these ingredients displaces nutrient-dense whole foods, resulting in a reduction of essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytonutrients needed for optimal biological function,” the report states.
Ultra-processed food is driving the obesity epidemic. When we get President Trump back in the White House and me to Washington, we’re going to fix our broken food system and Make America Healthy Again. #MAHA 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/AHEvEgztdM
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) October 12, 2024
The Commission specifically laid out how the three ingredients negatively impact health.
Grain processing removes bran and germ from the grain, robbing the food product of essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber, the assessment states. This vitamin removal can lead to blood sugar spikes, increasing the risk for type 2 diabetes, according to the assessment.
The ultra-processed sugars, found in over 75 percent of packaged foods, are a likely cause for skyrocketing rates of childhood obesity, type-2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), according to the assessment.
The assessment also took aim at an oft-maligned target of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s: seed oils.
“Over the course of the 20th century, U.S. dietary fats shifted from minimally processed animal-based sources like butter and lard—rich in fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and E, supporting brain and immune health—to industrial fats from refined seed oils, such as soybean, corn, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, and canola.”
This shift, the report says, reduces micronutrient content and contributes to an imbalanced omega-6/omega-3 ratio.
Evidence suggests that humans evolved with a ratio of 1/1 of these fats, but in Western diets the ratio is between 15/1 and 16.7/1, according to a study conducted by researcher Artemis P. Simopoulos, a founding member of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids and a former chair of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) nutrition coordinating committee.
Elevated levels of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats (PUFA) in diets “promote the pathogenesis of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases,” according to the study.
Are vegetable / seed oils really that bad for your health?
Short answer: Yes.
They are high in omega-6 fatty acids. Modern diets have a very high omega:6-omega-3 ratio, which promotes inflammation.
Learn more in my conversation with Dr. Artemis Simopoulos (link in bio). pic.twitter.com/oh19uWDEih
— Nick Jikomes (@trikomes) January 3, 2024
Children are also uniquely vulnerable to the over 40,000 chemicals currently approved for use in the US, according to the report.
“The cumulative load of thousands of synthetic chemicals that our children are exposed to through the food they eat, the water they drink, and the air they breathe may pose risks to their long-term health, including neurodevelopmental and endocrine effects,” the assessment reads.
The report recommends further studies into environmental toxins, as “current risk assessment methods may not allow us to fully understand how these exposures affect human health.”
The report acknowledges that vaccines benefit children and protect them from infectious diseases and states that there is a need to balance benefits with potential harmful side effects.
