After decades of letting kids chow down on chemicals made from petroleum – yes, the same stuff that fuels your car – the FDA is finally phasing out many artificial food dyes. And the driving force behind this is the new HHS Secretary: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Cheering from the sidelines is Vani Hari, a.k.a. the Food Babe who has been sounding the alarm about food dyes for decades.
Forget soft launches – RFK Jr. and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary came in hot recently, advancing the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) initiative with their announcement at the press conference on Tuesday, April 22. What was the news? There are going to be new national standards to kick petroleum-based dyes out of the food supply.
Commissioner Makary said during the press conference, “In summary, we are simply asking American food companies to replace petroleum-based food dyes with natural ingredients for American children, just as they already do for children in other countries. American children deserve good health.”
Studies have linked the chemicals in our foods to a range of chronic health conditions, including ADHD, obesity, diabetes, cancer, gastrointestinal issues, and allergies.
Just weeks into his job as Health and Human Services Secretary, RFK Jr. did what years of “health experts” refused to. He told Big Food to knock it off with the artificial dyes and start feeding Americans the same cleaner recipes they use overseas. His move follows through on a promise made during his campaign – to make sure American kids (and adults) aren’t stuck eating food not even legal in Europe without a warning label.
For many years, Vani Hari has been pointing out the hypocrisy of U.S. food giants like Kraft and Kellogg’s, who sell dye-free cereal in the UK while giving American kids the neon version. When Kellogg’s ignored 400,000 petition signatures last year, RFK Jr. didn’t. Instead, he made their chemical clown-show part of his national health agenda.
During the press conference that Hari was in attendance for, she said, “For over a decade, I have said the FDA is asleep at the wheel. And today, I get to stop saying that. The FDA has woken up and is steering us towards a healthier future for our children.”
For decades, the FDA acted like a sleepy mall cop while Big Food threw a rave in the cereal aisle. Now, with RFK Jr. in charge and the Food Babe cheering from the front row, the days of Red No. 3 and “breakfast with a side of cancer risk” may finally be over. Yes, it looks like America’s food just got a lot less colorful – and a whole lot safer.
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