By Miya Cao, Co-Copy Editor
Make sure to avoid toxins, dyes, seed oils, ingredients you can’t pronounce, anything that’s banned in Europe. Eat natural, not processed. Natural is better, unless you want chronic inflammation or cancer — at least, that’s what the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement has claimed since its introduction in July 2024.
Led by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the MAHA movement is a grassroots coalition that aims to combat chronic disease through clean eating and preventative healthcare, according to its super PAC website. While the U.S. does face a chronic disease epidemic — affecting 50% of Americans and consuming 85% of healthcare costs — MAHA’s methods are rooted in fear and pseudoscience rather than facts and research.
Fearmongering is the raising or exciting of alarms needlessly, a strategy that the MAHA movement and its followers employ —and it’s effective. People are more likely to respond to sensational, all-or-nothing, oversimplified headlines because they’re easy and actionable. Similar to how disordered eating occurs, cutting out canola oil or other foods arbitrarily gives people a sense of control over their health. Food is not inherently clean or dirty, and it should not be labeled as such without consideration of the serving size. Everything, even water, is toxic in high enough doses.
The movement also vilifies processed foods, yet research from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition indicates that processing alone does not make food unhealthy. Pasteurization, for instance, is a form of processing that prevents bacterial contamination. The real issue isn’t processing — it’s nutrient quality, food access and education.
MAHA takes advantage of Americans’ real experiences with chronic disease and the healthcare system, erodes trust in science by disregarding scientific consensus and distracts from meaningful solutions. For example, MAHA’s philosophy includes removing fluoride from tap water, which has been in water since 1945 to reduce tooth decay in children. In Kennedy’s X post where he said he would “advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” he linked a video from prominent anti-vaccine advocate and conspiracy theorist Del Bigtree. The people who will suffer most from Kennedy’s ignorance and pseudoscience are children and those who cannot afford oral hygiene products with fluoride.
A truly healthier America isn’t built on fear-driven narratives. Instead of banning Doritos, we should focus on science-backed policies that empower citizens to make informed choices and promote accessible healthcare and trust in research.
Miya Cao can be reached at [email protected].
