Loud and Misdirected Anger: Exploring the Focus on Ultra-Processed Foods, Fluoride, and Red Dye #3
The "enemy" is not our foods, the enemies are the systems.
As I write this, RFK Jr. faces his final confirmation hearings, in which he has already stated many unfathomable amendments to common public health practices. Largely fueled and supported by pseudoscience, data misrepresentation, and general lack of understanding of how the body or the food system works.
“MAHA”, or “Make America Healthy Again”, a movement of individuals who seem to feel they are doing what is best for America when it comes to “health”…. but yet, have trouble defining what that health should look like… or even how to get there?
What DOES seem to be the case is the focus on small “wins”, if you could call them that. Little healthisms. These pushes often focus on fixes that demonize individuals, rather than focus on the structural systems that caused an issue in the first place.
For this piece, I will be focusing on three big ones: Ultra-Processed Foods, Fluoride, and Red Dye #3. These are directly related to my field of interest, nutrition and it’s connection to chronic disease prevention and management.
As a precursor, I’d like to emphasize that all health recommendations require nuance. These are general overviews of each topic, and my thoughts on the use of these as a focus by MAHA.
Let me state clearly, no you should not eat only processed foods forever, Fluoride in mass amounts can be bad, and Red Dye #3 is already banned.
But as with all things, we must look at the bigger picture, the underlying issues related to public health.
Ultra-Processed Foods, The Scapegoat of the Nutrition Community
Let’s first take, Ultra-Processed Foods, or UPF. For many years, the nutrition community has been focusing on demonizing these foods as a way to mitigate chronic health issues like diabetes or high blood pressure. It makes sense! Easy to point to as a problem, high food market saturation, high sodium and sugar content. Logically, it’s a perfect fit.
UPFs, a Symptom of a Larger Problem
The hyper focus on individual choices as the cause of all health issues is an exhausting take. The push to ban these foods is an overly simplified fix to a larger societal issue in the United States. Sure, no one is saying to drink sugar-sweetened beverages every single day or eat only McDonald’s cheeseburgers. What many people ARE saying is to perhaps looks at the barriers that cause people to make these choices.
What if instead, we focused on the WHY. The average McDonald’s Big Mac meal (which is even up in cost by the way) is around $9.29.
So let’s use a hypothetical.
Imagine: you have to get through a whole day of work/activities, you have limited time, there is a McDonald’s on every corner, and around $80 in your checking account until your next paycheck in two days.
Do you think the natural choice is to run to the grocery store and walk through aisles for something potentially more expensive, in need of preparation, or even more time to consume? Or do you think grabbing a meal that will fill you up for the full day or at least several hours, and satisfy a taste craving will be the choice?
This is why I feel the focus on demonizing these foods is futile. Of course, as nutrition professionals, it is our job to educate, and encourage behaviors surrounding nutrient dense foods. However, that is simply NOT the reality of the country we live in.
The rising price of groceries, increasing food contamination/recalls of produce, rise in bird flu, and general intensive work schedules, encourage the use of UPFs. People are doing what works for them and what also happens to taste good.
Sure, marketing of these products is an issue, but you know what else is? No full grocery stores in rural, inner city, and low-income areas. (I wrote a piece on the importance of dollar trees for this reason here.)
What about transportation? Bus stops that don’t go to disenfranchised neighborhoods. Schools? No nutrition education, no school meals. It all starts to add up…
These fixes will not be done by raising taxes on sodas or potato chips, the change we want to see starts with addressing these issues first.
Fluoride, The Misunderstood Mineral Protecting Your Teeth
Fluoride has been the main topic of conversation for RFK Jr. for some time now. This focus has been quite unsettling as the research showing the benefits of fluoride for reducing dental caries has been substantial for over 100 years. Mass community fluoridation has been seen as one of the greatest public health accomplishments in the last century because of this. However, as it happens with MAHA talking points, the science has been twisted.
Fluoride, like any chemical, at very high amounts can cause potential threat to humans. However, the recommended amount of fluoride in water systems is 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water, a very low amount compared to the upper limit of 10 mg which could be considered dangerous for adults older than 19.
(for more on this, please read Unbiased Science’s open letter on this.)
Why This is Misdirected: Flint, Michigan still has lead in their water. Chicago still has lead in their water. The EPA reported in 2024 that 9 million households still have lead service lines.
The problem is not the minuscule amount of fluoride that serves as a protective mineral for our teeth, perhaps instead the focus should be the failing water systems and infrastructures plaguing the United States.
Lead, unlike fluoride, can have drastic adverse affects for humans at a very small amount. We DO know the statistics around this, we DO know the science.
It is easier to focus on quick, and unsubstantiated pseudoscience because that means people like RFK Jr. will not be held accountable for the very real problems that impact US drinking water. Making Americans… not healthy again.
Red Dye #3, The Pivot to Parents
Finally, Red Dye #3, the recently banned color additive.
I would like to start this section off by recognizing I am not a parent, and I am not tasked with raising a child in this food climate. I can imagine there is a LOT of fear, disinformation, and confusion.
Food recalls, conflicting science, and parental shaming runs rampant. This is exactly why the red food dye ban felt a bit…interesting to me.
Red Dye #3 is a color additive that can be found in foods like candies or sodas, foods that small children are often more likely to eat. Naturally, any parent should and would be concerned about what their child eats. I support that!
Where the Confusion Begins: The reason for the ban is largely due to the campaign to ban this additive, and comparisons to countries like Canada. However, Canada and many European nations have significantly different rules and regulations surrounding food, and that must first be addressed, before we can continue these comparisons.
The Delaney Clause
Red Dye #3 has been linked to promotion of thyroid tumors in male rats, due to a hormonal mechanism within these rats. However, as the FDA has continued to report Red Dye #3 has NOT shown the same affect in other animals, nor humans. The Delaney Clause, which prohibits use of carcinogenic (cancer-causing) food additives being approved, specifies that a additive cannot be used if it can be linked to cancer for animals or humans.
This is a good thing! Having safe guards around food additives is important, but also has ALWAYS been happening. It seems MAHA individuals seem to think that there is some mass plot to poison children with all of these color additives. Simply not true, nor helpful and promotes distrust of scientists’ work.
Attacks on Neurodivergence: We saw this happen with Red Dye 40, we will continue to see it happen with Artificial Food Colors (AFCs). As I stated, I am not a parent, and cannot imagine the stress and fear surrounding advice for children with neurodivergence. However, the rhetoric and emphasis on food dyes as the ONLY cause of neurodivergence is simply not statistically sound.
There are so many factors that go into a child’s development, food is one of them, but not the deciding factor. Genetics, schooling, the environment, life! All of these are determinants for not only physical health, but cognitive development.
I am not a neurologist or neuroscientist, and I will leave the exact scientific mechanisms to professionals in that field. What I will say as an individual who had a late ADHD diagnosis, eating Scooby Doo fruit snacks, did not impact my grades (I was and am a very good student).
I am not recommending ignoring AFCs in your foods, or recommending their excessive use. Many studies have cited a connection between AFCs and behavioral changes in children. However, many acknowledge how other factors like genetics or cannot be discounted when assessing behavioral issues or cognitive development.
Parents have it very hard already, and shaming parents for grabbing quick and tasty options is not the only solution to addressing AFCs. In addition, the fear-mongering and belittling of neurodivergent individuals due to their learning differences is not the solve.
Every time we use the threat of “Autism” or “ADHD” as the worst possible thing that could occur to a child, I get a chill up my spine. You know what is the best type of child, one that is happy and healthy. Regardless of how a child’s brain works, I’d rather us focus on these children even having ACCESS to nutrient dense food.
Perhaps the real fix is simply providing children with meals in schools? Nutrient dense meals even? Providing new parents with nutrition education? Giving people tools to succeed instead of shaming them for what they do not know or understand?
What a concept.
The saddest part is I do agree with the generic sentiment, there is a massive public health crisis occurring in this country. However, the real fixes are not easy, fast, or sexy. They require addressing the multifaceted inequities that affect millions of Americans.
Making Americans “healthy again” requires compassion, something many MAHA supporters seem to be fundamentally lacking.
Here’s to hoping through the twisted rhetoric they realize the issue is not a bag of skittles, but instead an issue that will take a concerted effort from all of the powers that be.
References:
https://yourlatinanutritionist.com/blog/healthism
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6389637/
https://www.today.com/food/restaurants/mcdonalds-average-menu-item-price-rise-rcna154746
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/documentation
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-is-fluoride-why-is-it-added-us-water-supply-2024-11-25/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4547574/#:~:text=Community%20water%20fluoridation%2C%20which%20celebrates,achievements%20of%20the%2020th%20century.
https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/about/index.html
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Fluoride-Consumer/
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2024/04/25/flint-10-years-later/
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/04/01/1241470280/lead-pipes-plumbing-water-contamination
https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-05/fact-sheet_one-time-update_2024.04.30_508_compliant_1.pdf
https://www.fda.gov/food/hfp-constituent-updates/fda-revoke-authorization-use-red-no-3-food-and-ingested-drugs
https://www.fda.gov/industry/color-additives/fdc-red-no-3
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/chemical-substances/challenge/batch-3/pigment-red-3.html
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5917475/#_pon93_
https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/changes-science-law-and-regulatory-authorities/part-iii-drugs-and-foods-under-1938-act-and-its-amendments
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878747923017336