The Trump-Vance Administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has released a new report identifying the key contributors to rising rates of chronic disease among American children. According to the report, ultra-processed foods, exposure to environmental chemicals, lack of physical activity, and the overuse of medications and vaccines are among the primary drivers.
President Trump signed an executive order earlier this year creating the MAHA Commission to investigate and address the root causes of childhood chronic disease. The Commission’s first publication, Make Our Children Healthy Again: Assessment, aims to lay the foundation for evidence-based policy, institutional reforms, and societal changes. A follow-up strategy report, also required by the executive order, is expected later this year.
The Commission describes a worsening public health crisis among children, citing increasing rates of obesity, diabetes, neurodevelopmental disorders, cancer, mental health conditions, allergies, and autoimmune diseases. “Today’s children are the sickest generation in American history in terms of chronic disease,” the report states.
According to the Commission, the four major contributors to these trends are poor diet, chemical exposure, technology overuse, and excessive medical intervention. The report also points to “corporate capture and the revolving door” as barriers to change.
The American diet has shifted towards ultra-processed foods (UPFs), according to the report, increasing caloric intake and depleting nutrition. While noting that UPFs were developed with good intentions, the report warns that their overconsumption is linked to rising rates of obesity and diabetes. It argues that prioritizing “whole foods produced by American farmers and ranchers” in healthcare is the most effective step the country can take to improve childhood health.
The report also highlights children’s ongoing exposure to thousands of synthetic chemicals through food, water, and air, and notes that some of these chemicals have been associated with higher rates of chronic disease. The Commission raises concerns about a decline in physical activity as screen time and sedentary lifestyles become more common. American children are also “overmedicalized,” the report claims, calling for further research into possible links between childhood vaccination and chronic disease.
The report has drawn mixed reactions. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, the Director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, commended its focus on the harms of UPFs but expressed disappointment that it did not address other serious shortcomings in the American diet. Dr. Susan Mayne, former Director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, questioned the report’s criticism of the federal dietary guidelines for emphasizing sodium reduction. “They ignore the totality of the science,” Mayne says.
Several current and former federal health officials also raised concerns, telling CBS News that the report misrepresented key facts and omitted widely recognized drivers of childhood chronic disease—many of which are already the focus of public health efforts.
Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, said the report “did a phenomenal job” highlighting the dangers of UPFs but questioned how the administration will fix the problems that are articulated in the report. Federal agencies and programs, including those relevant to food, health and nutrition, have seen mass layoffs and substantial funding cuts as part of a broader Trump administration effort to downsize the federal workforce.
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