A new report from the White House’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission delivers a stark assessment of American childhood health, warning that chronic disease rates have reached historic highs.
The Commission identifies ultra-processed food, toxic chemical exposure, technology-driven lifestyles, and pharmaceutical overuse as the main drivers behind this nationwide crisis.
Key Facts:
- Over 40% of U.S. children suffer from at least one chronic health condition, including obesity, asthma, ADHD, and diabetes.
- Nearly 70% of children’s calories come from ultra-processed foods (UPFs), which are nutrient-poor and high in sugar, fats, and additives.
- Environmental exposure to chemicals such as pesticides and plastics has increased, with children absorbing them through food, air, and water—many at levels considered hazardous.
- Screen time and sedentary behavior are contributing to mental and physical health problems, with teens now averaging nearly 9 hours of non-school screen use per day.
- Prescription drug use among children has skyrocketed, with stimulant, antidepressant, and antipsychotic prescriptions increasing hundreds of percent over recent decades, despite questionable long-term benefits.
- Federal nutrition programs like SNAP and school lunches are heavily subsidizing unhealthy foods, often steering children toward ultra-processed products rather than whole, nutritious options.
The Rest of the Story:
The Make America Healthy Again Commission, chaired by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was formed by Executive Order in February 2025.
Its first official report paints a devastating picture: American children are increasingly unhealthy, with long-term consequences for national security, workforce readiness, and economic resilience.
The Commission’s assessment lays the blame on four primary drivers:
- Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs): Nearly 70% of what American children eat now comes from highly engineered products like packaged snacks, sweetened cereals, and fast food. These items are cheap, addictive, and nutrient-depleted, displacing whole foods like vegetables, fruits, and lean proteins. Research cited in the report links UPFs to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic disease. Even during pregnancy, over 50% of maternal calorie intake is UPFs, compounding risks before birth.
- Environmental Chemicals: Children are being exposed to thousands of synthetic chemicals—many unregulated or poorly understood. These include pesticides, PFAS (“forever chemicals”), and microplastics, many of which accumulate in blood and tissue. The report emphasizes that risk assessments have failed to account for the cumulative impact of these chemical cocktails on children’s developing bodies and brains.
- Technology, Isolation, and Inactivity: A generation once active in playgrounds is now glued to screens. Children today get less physical activity, less sleep, and more screen exposure than any previous generation. The consequences include higher rates of anxiety, depression, attention disorders, and even suicide. Between 2007 and 2021, suicide among 10- to 24-year-olds rose 62%, and 3 million high school students seriously considered suicide in 2023 alone.
- Pharmaceutical Overuse: The health system has responded to rising chronic illness not with prevention, but with more pills. ADHD stimulant prescriptions rose 250% between 2006 and 2016. Antidepressant use among teens jumped 1,400% since 1987. Antipsychotic use increased 800% from 1993 to 2009, often for off-label purposes. The report warns that these drugs are being used to mask symptoms rather than address root causes like diet and lifestyle.
The report also calls out the corporate capture of scientific research and government oversight.
Major industries—food, pharmaceutical, and chemical—fund the vast majority of studies in their fields, often swaying outcomes in their favor.
More than 95% of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee had ties to food or pharma companies, and regulatory agencies like the FDA and EPA are staffed by former industry executives.
Government programs are contributing to the problem rather than solving it.
SNAP, which serves 1 in 5 American children, spent an estimated $21 billion on ultra-processed products and sugary beverages in FY2025, nearly double what it spent on fruits and vegetables.
School meal programs, though well-intentioned, allow Smart Snacks and rebranded junk food to pass as “healthy” under loose guidelines.
While many Western countries are beginning to curb UPFs through national dietary guidelines, the U.S. has fallen behind.
Nations like Brazil, France, and Sweden explicitly warn against UPFs and prioritize local, minimally processed, nutrient-dense foods.
In contrast, the U.S. guidelines remain vague and reductionist—focusing on nutrients instead of food quality or processing methods.
.@POTUS reads out the "alarming findings" of the MAHA Commission Report on childhood health:
– More than 40% of American children have at least one chronic health condition.
– Since the 1970s, rates of childhood cancer have soared by nearly 50%.
– In the 1960s, less than 5% of… pic.twitter.com/U5SvbRkbQh— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 22, 2025
The Bottom Line:
The MAHA Report is a wake-up call.
America’s children are getting sicker, not healthier, and current food, medical, and policy systems are failing to reverse course.
The Commission is calling for a fundamental shift—from a symptom-focused, over-medicated model to one rooted in whole foods, clean environments, and meaningful reforms.
If nothing changes, this public health crisis will only deepen.
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