5 Food Experts Making Sense of MAHA’s Vision for a New Way of Eating
Here are a few things we know about how Robert F. Kennedy eats. He likes raw milk, full-fat dairy, and intermittent fasting. He’s suspicious of artificial food dyes and seed oils, and says “sugar is poison.” He doesn’t drink alcohol. If he spots roadkill, he may try to eat it, though not right away.
The health secretary’s personal nutrition views and habits matter because they have direct bearing on the policies of his Make America Healthy Again movement, which aims to fix the problem of chronic disease in the U.S. with a big focus on overhauling the food system and Americans’ diets.
In the first months of Kennedy’s tenure, he’s championed state efforts to make soda ineligible for food benefits, ban artificial dyes and additives, and get ultra-processed foods out of school lunches. Last week, he made an announcement that caused a fair bit of confusion about whether the government had persuaded food and beverage manufacturers to voluntarily stop using eight petroleum-based dyes, potentially changing Froot Loops and M&Ms forever.
New Report Identifies ‘Toxic’ Impact of No-Till Agriculture, Inaccurately Referred to as ‘Regenerative’
Historically, the Institute’s scientists have been concerned about the rapid rise in chemical use on the majority of farmland across the U.S. and more recently its relationship to the rise in no-till farming. Many other farmers, scientists, and agricultural and environmental organizations have also shared this concern.
Rodale Institute has had the opportunity to review a recent report by Friends of the Earth titled Rethinking No-Till: The toxic impact of no-till agriculture on soil, biodiversity, and human health. The findings — which are a review of the scientific literature related to herbicide and insecticide use in no-till farming in the U.S. — are consistent with Rodale Institute’s decades-long research, including our long-term Farming Systems Trial.
Some of the report’s key findings are:
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- One-third of the U.S.’s total annual pesticide use (a term that includes herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides) can be attributed to no- and minimum-till corn and soy production alone.
- 93% of acreage of the top two no- and minimum-till crops, corn, and soy, use toxic herbicides that can have devastating consequences for soil life and human health.
- These chemicals, being broadcast across nearly 100 million acres nationwide, predominantly in the Heartland and Great Plains, have been linked to cancer, birth defects, infertility, neurotoxicity, disruption of the gut microbiome, endocrine disruption, and more.
- The most predominant of these chemicals are classified as highly hazardous.
Cutting This One Food Could Drastically Reduce Your Cancer Risk, Mainly in the Colon
Just this week and last week, we saw patients as young as 16 years old [being diagnosed with colorectal cancer],” said Pashtoon Kasi, M.D., medical director of gastrointestinal oncology at City of Hope, Orange County. “It was a challenging conversation.” Just a few years ago, this would have been an anomaly, a case study for medical journals. Now, it’s becoming disturbingly common.
Colorectal cancer was once considered a disease that primarily affected those in their 60s and beyond. Today, the rising incidence in younger populations has become so concerning that screening guidelines have shifted, recommending tests begin at age 45 instead of 50. While multiple factors likely contribute to this troubling trend, processed meat consumption increasingly appears to be a significant player in this unfolding public health crisis.
Other factors such as environmental pollutants, genetic predisposition, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption, antibiotic use, declining rates of preventive screening and chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease play important roles.
This means that the development of colorectal cancer cannot be directly attributed to processed meat consumption alone. Rather, research suggests processed meats may be a more significant contributing factor than previously understood, particularly when combined with other risk elements.
Urgent Vine Ripe Tomato Recall Spans 11 States After Alarming Warning
A major recall of vine-ripened tomatoes spans 11 states, and the health risk could lead to death in some people. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Ray & Mascari Inc. is recalling “four-count Vine Ripe Tomatoes” because of the “possible health risk.”
The FDA published notice of the recall on May 3, 2025. The recalled tomatoes “were sold by Gordon Food Service Stores in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin,” the FDA noted, adding that people should not consume the product.
Ray & Mascari Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana, “is recalling 4 Count Vine Ripe Tomatoes packaged in clamshell containers, and a master case label with Lot# RM250424 15250B or Lot# RM250427 15250B because of the potential for them to be contaminated with Salmonella,” the FDA wrote. Salmonella can cause death in some people.
“Salmonella is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems,” the FDA noted.
