The Trump administration is laudably committed to rooting out waste across the federal government and axing large and ineffective programs. There are some early encouraging signs that the Food and Drug Administration will reduce spending and needless red tape in line with the administration’s government-wide push.
For example, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has pledged to create an expedited pathway for approving therapies for rare diseases and to use artificial intelligence to expedite approvals.
However, the “Make America Healthy Again” crowd is likely to undermine this project with the release of a “Commission Report” proposing more bureaucracy and regulation. MAHA can bolster Americans’ health, but only by rejecting big government and embracing innovation.
Few policy priorities seem as high on Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda as getting dyes out of food products. Even before the report, the health secretary reportedly told food executives he wants these ingredients out “before he leaves office” and has “made clear his intention to take action unless the industry is willing to be proactive with solutions.”
The threat to “take action” is a chilling statement from any bureaucrat. While some consumer watchdogs have raised alarms on the link between dyes and behavioral disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, the best studies and meta-analyses to date have not found any reliable link. Even in animal studies in which animals are given food color additives in doses far greater than what humans consume, results have been “small, inconsistent, and not dose-dependent in nature.”
RFK Jr. is using his influence to push for new restrictions on SNAP benefits, which are administered outside of HHS in the Department of Agriculture. Banning the use of SNAP to buy unhealthy foods may seem like a good idea — until one realizes the government has a terrible track record in dictating healthy diets.
“Starting in the 1980s, the federal government urged people to shun fats and cholesterol and load up on carbs,” A. Barton Hinkle wrote in Reason in 2016. “A 1990s food pyramid from the USDA placed bread, rice and pasta at the base, suggesting a person eat six to 11 servings a day — but only two or three servings of meat or eggs and even less of fats.” It’s not surprising that the proliferation of carb recommendations coincided with an explosion of obesity.
Similarly, proposed SNAP strictures can have plenty of unintended consequences. For example, consumers ditching diet soda (which has zero calories and sugar) with a “healthy” fruit drink brimming with sugar is almost certainly not a healthy choice. Yet, that’s precisely what the result would be from Nanny State SNAP rules.
The MAHA Commission should go back to the drawing board and work toward a smarter approach to food policy that achieves food safety through innovation — not red tape.
Ross Marchand is a nonresident senior fellow for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance./InsideSources
