The best MAHA Mom moment came yesterday.
RFK Jr. announced food dye bans, and I watched the announcement – in its entirety – live.
If you want to see it, you can watch it, too:
Where This All Started
I wasn’t always a MAHA Mom—of course not, since the term is new. But even at the beginning of my journey, I wasn’t one…because I wasn’t yet a mother.
These values around food have been consistent in my life since 2009, long before clean eating became mainstream conversation.
The awareness of harmful ingredients infiltrated my life not by choice, but because I got sick.
A Gutsy Girl
In 2012, I started documenting these concerns in detail because I was tired of mainstream medicine telling me that FOOD DID NOT MATTER.
I wrote articles like:
- 7 Scary Food Additives to Avoid + 5 More Scary Food Additives to Avoid [2012]
- Natural Flavoring [2013]
- Tricked by Red JELLO [2014]
….and Then I Became a Mom
I became a mother by the grace of God in November 2013.
The way I fed them as babies and toddlers was anything but conventional.
They had bone broth in their bottles, little spoonfuls of cod liver oil, and pureed fruits, fats, vegetables and meats over the standard “grain baby foods.”
Because of my own healing journey, research, and work in the food industry, I knew what I wanted for my children.
But Babies Grow Up
As children get older, they inevitably pop the protective bubble we’ve created around them.
Birthday parties, school lunches, hangouts with friends, and innocent requests at the store expose them to exactly what will now (ultimately) be banned:
- Initiating the process to revoke authorization for two synthetic food colorings—Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B—within the coming months.
- Working with industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes—FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6, FD&C Blue No. 1, and FD&C Blue No. 2—from the food supply by the end of next year.
[source: FDA]
Fighting for Those Who Can’t
Here’s why this announcement matters so profoundly: it’s fighting for those who can’t fight for themselves.
It’s finally removing harmful ingredients from our food supply so our children (and ourselves!) are no longer exposed to them for corporate profit.
As HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. stated yesterday:
For too long, some food producers have been feeding Americans petroleum-based chemicals without their knowledge or consent. These poisonous compounds offer no nutritional benefit and pose real, measurable dangers to our children’s health and development. That era is coming to an end. We’re restoring gold-standard science, applying common sense, and beginning to earn back the public’s trust. And we’re doing it by working with industry to get these toxic dyes out of the foods our families eat every day.
America is Sick!
If you read my words “America is sick” and roll your eyes, then count yourself fortunate that neither you nor anyone you love has experienced serious illness.
Family members on both sides have Colitis.
My dad died from Colon Cancer.
And without revealing anything about any child in particular, we know the ugly face of both ADD and ADHD in our house.
The research out there backs all of this up:
- Notably, the pediatric population has experienced significant increases in UC diagnoses. Between 2009 and 2020, there was a 29% rise in UC cases among children. (source)
- Projections estimate that early-onset CRC incidence will increase by more than 140% by 2030, with over 27,000 people under age 50 expected to be diagnosed that year. (source)
- As of 2022, approximately 7.1 million U.S. children aged 3–17 years (11.4%) have been diagnosed with ADHD, marking an increase of 1 million cases since 2016. (source)
While I will never solely blame food for these health crises, with every ounce of my being, I know food plays a significant role in this epidemic.
A Win for All Americans
This move to ban harmful food dyes isn’t about politics—it’s about protecting public health.
The chemicals being removed have no nutritional value whatsoever. They exist solely to make food more visually appealing, often to children, while potentially compromising their health and development.
Food safety shouldn’t be a partisan issue, and historically, it rarely has been.
Whether you lean left or right, no parent wants their child consuming petroleum-based chemicals with meals. No family wants to face preventable health conditions because of hidden ingredients in everyday foods.
The food industry has operated for decades with practices that prioritize shelf appeal and profit margins over health outcomes. This regulatory shift simply aligns our food standards with those already established in many other developed nations, where these same dyes have long been restricted or banned.
Label Detectives
For too long, concerned parents like me have had to become food label detectives, scrutinizing every ingredient while shopping.
We’ve had to explain to disappointed children why they can’t have the brightly colored treats their friends enjoy. The burden of protection has fallen entirely on individual families.
With these changes, all Americans can shop with greater confidence that what’s on grocery shelves meets a higher standard of safety—regardless of their awareness level about food additives or their ability to afford premium “clean” brands.
The Moment + Moving Forward
While the best MAHA Mom moment came yesterday, I am so ready to move forward and watch words come into action.
Yesterday’s announcement isn’t just policy—it’s personal.
And it’s validation for every parent who’s been labeled “extreme” or “paranoid” for questioning what’s in our food supply.
It’s a victory for our children’s health and future.
Selfishly, I used to fight this for myself.
Today, I fight it for my 3 precious children.
p.s. And isn’t it ironic that in the wink of an eye timing is everything?
Xox,
SKH
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