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New Dietary Guidelines Will Recommend Americans ‘Eat Whole Food,’ Says RFK Jr.
Dietary guidelines that are set to be issued by the federal government later this year will recommend Americans eat “whole food,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on May 14. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are working on a new set of guidelines that will be in place through 2030.
“We are about to reissue the dietary guidelines, and we’re going to do it very quickly. We have until January, but … I think we’ll have it done even before August,” Kennedy said in Washington while testifying to a House of Representatives committee.
The current dietary guidelines, published in December 2020, run 164 pages. They say that people should eat a healthy diet and limit sugary foods and drinks. Health and agriculture officials in late 2024 received a draft of updated guidelines from an advisory committee that spans 421 pages and proposed instructing Americans to eat less meat, avoid full-fat dairy products, and ingest more plant-based proteins such as lentils.
Kennedy said on Wednesday that the 2024 update was “clearly written by industry” and driven by the “kind of carnal impulses that put Froot Loops at the top of the food pyramid.” In the past, some members of the advisory committee have been found to have links to corporations, including Kellogg.
Oklahoma Just Made History: Doctors Can Now Legally Prescribe Carrots Instead of Costly Pills
Hold onto your shopping carts, Oklahoma — because your state just pulled off something that sounds too good to be true. Governor Kevin Stitt quietly signed legislation on May 10th that could revolutionize how Americans think about healthcare.
Welcome to the age where your doctor might hand you a prescription that reads “one bunch of organically grown kale, twice daily.”
Senate Bill 806, innocuously titled the “Food is Medicine Act,” is perhaps the most audacious medical initiative America has seen in decades. This is a direct challenge to a healthcare system that profits from keeping people sick rather than making them well.
Here’s the bombshell: Starting July 1st, Oklahoma Medicaid will cover doctors prescribing actual food as medicine. Not supplements. Not pills disguised as nutrition. Real, fresh, locally-grown food that your grandmother would recognize.
“Giving someone an insurance card doesn’t make them healthy, it just changes who pays the bill,” declared Republican Senator Adam Pugh, the bill’s architect, in a moment of startling clarity that cuts through decades of healthcare doublespeak.
Fast Food, Fast Impact: How Fatty Meals Rapidly Weaken Our Gut Defenses
A study led by researchers from WEHI (Melbourne, Australia) has become the first in the world to unravel the immediate effects of a high-fat diet on our gut health. The pre-clinical study found even a few meals high in saturated fats can cause inflammation in the body, despite physical symptoms — in the form of chronic inflammation — potentially taking years to appear.
The landmark findings are the first to show how rapidly the foods we eat can impact our gut defenses, paving the way for future interventions that could boost gut health and tackle chronic inflammation.
Dr. Cyril Seillet, a senior author on the paper, said the team’s findings were a significant breakthrough that could help pinpoint how chronic inflammation occurs at the source.
“We’ve shown that every meal we consume actively shapes our gut health,” Dr Seillet said.
RFK Jr. Demands Healthier School Meals as Trump Cancels Program That Funded Them
First-graders at John B. Wright elementary school in Tucson bounced into the brightly lit lunchroom, chattering with friends as they grabbed trays featuring juicy mandarin oranges, cherry tomatoes and butter lettuce, all grown at nearby farms that coax fresh produce from the Sonoran Desert.
Those fruit and vegetables were supplied with the help of the federal Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, or LFS, which was set to distribute $660 million to school systems and child care facilities in 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The USDA abruptly canceled the program in March as part of President Donald Trump’s plans to gut the federal government. “People think it’s crappy food, it’s processed, unhealthy, they think it’s mystery meat,” said Lindsay Aguilar, who heads up the Tucson Unified School District’s nutrition program. “Parents associate it from when we were in school 23 years ago. It is completely different from what it used to be.”
The Trump administration’s mixed messages on school meals — funding cuts alongside calls for healthier, and more costly options — create a challenge for those involved with school nutrition programs, they told Reuters.
Dum Dums Lollipops Maker Will Not Stop Using Artificial Dyes
The U.S. government is pressuring food companies to replace synthetic dyes with natural colors. While many have openly accepted the new ingredient suggestions, the Spangler Candy Company is resisting the movement.
Spangler, which makes iconic candies like Dum Dums lollipops and Sweethearts, uses Yellow 5 and Red 40 in some of its products. The Ohio candy maker wants to keep its current formulations as long as possible, saying some natural colors alter the taste of the final product. “That’s a nice red, but it tastes like beets,” said Spangler CEO Kirk Vashaw, referring to using beet juice as a red dye, per Bloomberg.
Vashaw also mentioned that the company temporarily switched to carmine to replace artificial red colorant. Carmine is derived from cochineal insects. “People said, ‘I’d rather get cancer than eat the bug,” he explained.
Publix Recalls Baby Food Pouches Over Potential Lead Contamination
Publix, a national supermarket chain, is voluntarily recalling baby food that could be contaminated with lead, the company announced this week. The company said it discovered the problem through routine testing and has pulled its GreenWise Pear, Kiwi, Spinach & Pea Baby Food pouches from its shelves, according to a news release, which said there were “no reported cases of illness” related to the product.
It’s the second recall of baby food for potential lead contamination in recent weeks — and in both cases, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) didn’t issue its own news release to warn the public, which safety experts and advocates said surprised them.
The FDA did not explain why it hadn’t issued a news release for the Publix recall or Target’s voluntary recall in March of its Good & Gather Baby Pea, Zucchini, Kale & Thyme Vegetable baby food puree. In that case, the FDA posted details about the recall in the agency’s public recall-monitoring database. “The FDA is committed to ensuring that all necessary information regarding product recalls is promptly communicated to protect public health,” the agency said in a statement.
FDA Recalls Cucumbers Due to Multistate Salmonella Outbreak Sickening Over 20 People
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a recall of cucumbers grown by Bedner Growers, Inc., and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales, Inc., due to a multistate Salmonella outbreak that has sickened over 20 people. According to a Monday news release from the FDA, the Florida-based companies distributed the cucumbers to restaurants, wholesalers, retailers, and distribution centers from April 29 to the present.
The FDA is still working to determine where the potentially contaminated vegetables were sold. “Cucumbers may have been sold individually or in smaller packages, with or without a label that may not bear the same brand, product name, or best by date,” the FDA warned. “For distributors, restaurants, and retailers who have purchased these cucumbers, the products were labeled as either being ‘supers,’ ‘selects,’ or ‘plains.'”
FDA investigators conducting a follow-up inspection of the cucumbers last month collected a sample that came back positive for Salmonella Montevideo and “matched recent clinical samples from ill people,” the FDA said.
