A new federal report from the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission suggests a worrying decline in children’s health. The report attributes this decline to factors like poor diet, chemical exposure, excessive medical treatment, and insufficient physical activity. It primarily blames industry groups, the American healthcare system, and parental choices, while downplaying the impact of socioeconomic factors that research indicates significantly influence these issues.
President Donald Trump commissioned the report in February, establishing the MAHA Commission with the core objective of tackling chronic childhood illnesses. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leads the commission.
The report identifies four key contributors to chronic childhood illness, with a strong emphasis on children’s diets and daily routines. It particularly targets ultra-processed foods, referencing a 2021 study showing that almost 70% of an American child’s calorie intake comes from this category, which it claims promotes weight gain.
The report also asserts that children are excessively exposed to chemicals, receive too much medication, lack sufficient physical activity, and are overly reliant on technology. While the report assigns some responsibility to the food and pharmaceutical industries, which it alleges exert undue influence on dietary guidelines and drug research, it also criticizes specific decisions made by parents.
For example, the report links the rise in chronic childhood diseases directly to children’s diets and suggests that the dependence on ultra-processed foods “is a dramatic change since the 1960s when most food was cooked at home using whole ingredients,” hinting at demographic shifts where more women are employed outside the home.
It further states that over a third of parents leave electronic devices on in their children’s bedrooms overnight, disrupting their sleep patterns.
It also suggests that children are over-medicated partly due to “well-intended physicians and parents attempting to help a child.”
Additionally, the report claims that pregnant women consume too many ultra-processed foods, that pesticides, microplastics, and pollutants are commonly found in the blood and urine of children and pregnant women, and that almost every breast milk sample tested in America “contains some level of persistent organic pollutants.”
The report’s authors contend that teenagers from single-parent families are more prone to anxiety, depression, and ADHD than those from two-parent households, citing studies from 2017 and 2015. They also criticize “gentle parenting,” a popular approach that emphasizes empathy and respect, referencing a report that suggests it and trauma-informed care “potentially pathologize normal emotions, undermine resilience, and contribute to rising anxiety and depression rates among children and teenagers.”
Some have praised the report’s comprehensive scope and its emphasis on the numerous challenges families face in raising healthy children. Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, a national nonprofit focused on food, farming, and the environment, stated, “Parents are being set up to fail. There are simply too few good choices and too many bad choices.”
The report is representative of the Make America Healthy Again platform, which concentrates on the idea that food and chemicals are detrimental to people’s health. The movement has support from figures like Surgeon General nominee Dr. Casey Means and a network of doctors across the country. Echoing many policies of the Trump Administration, it seeks a return to a perceived better time in America decades ago, a claim that is debatable concerning health.
Peter Lurie, the president and executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit focused on food safety, nutrition, and health, commented, “In this report, there are these ideas that we need to get back to some nostalgic, pre-existing state where children didn’t have cellphones, slept more, and went camping. It doesn’t seem to really live in the real world.”
This isn’t the first time a presidential administration has investigated the decline in child health in America and attributed it to lifestyle choices. The Biden Administration also issued a report, and the Obama Administration established a Task Force on Childhood Obesity that reported to the president. However, the MAHA Commission’s report stands out because it gives scant attention to socioeconomic factors that worsen obesity and childhood disease, such as limited access to healthy food or green spaces.
People may understand what constitutes a healthy lifestyle but lack convenient access to nutritious food due to the absence of grocery stores in their area. They might desire for their children to spend more time outdoors but are concerned about crime or the lack of available green spaces. Nour Makarem, co-leader of the chronic disease unit at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, suggests, “One approach is to invest in these communities so that people have access to the resources they need.”
The commission now has 80 days to develop a strategy, based on the report, to improve the health of American children. However, some critics highlight that efforts to address some of the issues raised in the report have been reduced by the current Administration.
The report’s release coincides with significant cuts or eliminations of numerous government programs that aim to address these issues. Layoffs have severely impacted the chronic disease prevention center at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Trump Administration ended a program that provided food from local farms to schools. Shortly before the MAHA report was published, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would reduce funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which assists low-income families in purchasing food.
Makarem adds that clinical trials and studies examining chronic disease prevention and strategies to improve access to healthy foods have been affected by the Administration’s grant cuts from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and other sources.
She concludes, “I don’t know that we’ve identified the most innovative approaches to knowing what’s healthy and having people engage in healthy behaviors. None of that can be accomplished without research and clinical trials.”
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