The USDA claimed there is a “war on protein” when it released the new Dietary Guidelines. Seems more like a war on science to me.
I recently read a post from the Genetic Literacy Project and agree with his commentary this view. Federal health and safety agencies, led by RFK Jr, are becoming a coalition of wellness influencers leading this “real food” activism (which began as anti-vaccine activism). This is not a step forward for science.
For the first time in my career as a nutrition communication writer and consultant, I can’t regularly report food, nutrition, and medical information from government agencies like I always have (like the FDA, USDA, and HHS) because of questionable information now shared on their websites.
Public Health: Moving Forward or Backward?
Sometimes I see public comments about vaccines that wonder why a food and nutrition professional cares about anti-vaccine views. As I mentioned, in my view, the current US Department of Health and Human Services is becoming a coalition of wellness influencers leading this “real food” activism, which in this case began as anti-vaccine activism. Kennedy’s anti-vaccination organization Protection of Children’s Health has taken advantage of people’s uncertainty about vaccines and continues to promote misinformation about vaccines. Now it’s time to eat.
A quick personal story
In my work, I always look through the lens of public health. Medicine, nutrition, food, and public health often intersect in the careers of most registered dietitians. Registered dietitians are trained in food, nutrition, and medicine. Our supervised practice before we can become certified includes clinical work in medicine and preventive medicine includes appropriate vaccination, healthy lifestyle behaviors, diet and exercise.
We are also shaped by our own life experiences. For example, when I was a child, parents took their children to public clinics to get vaccinations. These clinics were partially funded by the government to enable safe access to health in entire communities. This improves health. My mother was glad that she could protect her child, especially since my older brother had suffered some illnesses before the vaccine (mumps).
More progress was made with the chickenpox vaccine. While I got chicken pox (varicella zoster virus)my kids won’t. During their childhood, a safe and effective vaccine was developed. Those who have chickenpox are at risk of getting shingles. I got the shingles vaccine as soon as it was available to me because my father got shingles late in life and I watched him suffer from postherpetic pain (severe, burning nerve and skin pain) for the last 6 years of his life. This was a man who had arthritis, three knee replacements, almost every possible benign operation, he was in World War II, but he said the pain of shingles was the worst pain he had ever experienced.
Scientific Literacy
Yet here we are in 2026. Instead of protecting our bodies from such pain, we are retreating away from the science and technology that can and has protected us. We currently live in an age where misinformation from self-proclaimed “Wellness Influencers” embraces information shared by science or health professionals. The words “processed food” and “ultra-processed food” are used interchangeably and often misleadingly in relation to health. The Florida Surgeon General adds to the illiteracy in the current state of the science. It openly promotes fear of food by showcasing “toxic foods” that should be avoided. In his new “Healthy Florida First” initiative, has (so far) targeted bread products, baby milk and candy, to test for “toxic” chemicals.
“Toxic” according to the Oxford dictionary is defined as: harmful or dangerous to health or life when taken into the body; poisonous. Let me be clear:
- Baby milk is NOT TOXIC
- Packaged bread is NOT TOXIC
- The candy does NOT contain toxic levels of arsenic
Healthy Florida first shares lists of foods with assigned numbers coded to the products. They clearly don’t provide any real explanation of what the numbers mean. The claim is that they are taking “precautionary measures to strengthen national food safety standards”. However, they don’t seem to understand toxicology at all. This governing body literally made things up to suit an agenda. The levels they report are not toxic, not even high.
Food Safety and Fear of Chemicals
One of the basic tenets of toxicology is hazard and risk. Hazard is the property of a chemical substance that has the potential cause adverse effects with exposure. But the risk is the likelihood of the adverse effect occurring. Misunderstanding these basic principles of toxicology is what drives this fear of chemicals.
Trace chemicals are widespread throughout nature and our environment (our body is made up mostly of chemical elements and is made up of 99% hydrogen oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus). The Florida “study.” (I can only find their results, not sure how they conducted this study) not supported by the body of evidence. Any evidence of damage comes from rodents fed massive amounts of a particular ingredient. The rat studies have their place, but there is little to no evidence of harm to humans at these trace exposure levels.
I’m sure there will be more to come on this. Meanwhile, don’t serve candy as a meal Eat smaller portions of everything and a variety of foods. Your food is safe. You are not harming your baby with milk, nor are you harming your child with an occasional treat.
Read more about Hazard and Risk here.
