Today, the FDA banned several artificial dyes in our food supply that have been linked to several bad health effects, especially with kids, including behavioral issues like hyperactivity and potential allergic reactions. There are also some studies that offer up a possible link between certain food dyes and increased risk of certain types of cancer.
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I am def not down with MAGA, but I can warm up quickly to MAHA (Make America Healthy Again).

And quite frankly the only reason many of these dyes were used was for marketing purposes.  

 
People are often wildly unaware of what things are harmful and what isn’t. You get people freaking out about fluoride in our water supply completely unaware that fluoride is a natural mineral, and the amount allowed in the water supply is lower than what’s found in nature.  

 
Then you have people who eat processed carbs, food dyes and sugar not knowing the risks they pose.

I'm not sure it balances out all the BAD this HHS is doing with the Anti-vaxx delusional moronic stupidity.  

I agree with RR regarding additives used primarily for marketing. I'm fine with plain tan Cheerios and Alpha-Bits and I don't need or eat colorful Froot Loops; "natural" Froot Loops would be fine with me if they existed. Chocolate lovers were faced with the M&M Red Dye Scare in the 1970s. The sugar coating will promote tooth decay regardless of the color!  
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BUT a lot of this stuff goes through historic changes. The early (1800s) introduction of processed foods greatly IMPROVED US public health by lowering the cost of food, reducing waste due to spoilage (stories about Twinkies and McD's hamburgers remaining unspoiled and edible for DECADES), reducing illness due to the addition of essential or beneficial nutrients and so on. Once "things" (society, commerce, food packaging, health care, etc.) changed, many of those new-fangled additives were no longer necessary.  
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At one time, vitamin fortified beer was proposed as a way to improve the health of indigent alcoholics. Since they will use their meager resources to buy booze over food, at least provide some vitamins or other nutrients along with their alcohol fix. There have been several such beers over the years but they were controversial. (Note to self: develop chicken and steak flavored protein fortified beers.)  
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Another problematical additive is high fructose corn syrup which has probably contributed to the increase in obesity and metabolic syndrome in the US since the 1960s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup#Obesity_and_metabolic_syndrome HFCS (made from corn) was originally developed to deal with (cane and beet) sugar shortages and their high cost. I.e., it was intended to "help" to lower the cost of foods (which it did) but had other unintended consequences. Even if you accept that there is no proof of the metabolic differences between sucrose and HFCS, it did lower the cost of such sweeteners and increased their use and consumption = more empty calories (Big Gulp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Gulp#Controversy ) than a pre-HFCS diet.
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Another controversial area is GMO (Genetically Modified Organism / Foods): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies . The intention was to improve foods, lower their cost, etc. but some people are afraid of anything GMO "Franken-foods." There is a lot of Vitamin A deficiency in East Asia. There is a GMO rice, Golden Rice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice , that provides a natural source of Vitamin A and could reduce blindness in East Asia. It has been a tough sell and faces a lot of opposition. There are several strains of GMO soybeans. Every now and then, you might read an article about "food X made from "ORGANIC" soybeans found to contain GMO soy." Some people believe that the GMO strains have spread their genes to EVERY crop of soybeans all over the globe and that EVERY soybean product contains some amount of GMO soy.  
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But don't forget cosmetics! There are lots of FDA approved dyes used in cosmetics! Imagine a world w/o luscious red lips, sultry eye-shadowed eyes, rosie cheeks, brightly colored manicured nails, etc., etc., etc.. Who wants plain tan "Cheerios" BCD?

Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle about the meatpacking industry in 1906. It helped lead to reforms and gov regulations to protect the public. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle#Federal_response "After reading The Jungle, [Theodore] Roosevelt agreed with some of Sinclair's conclusions. The president wrote "radical action must be taken to do away with the efforts of arrogant and selfish greed on the part of the capitalist." MANY additional efforts have been made since then and there is always industry resistance to regulations.  Some things never change.

Very thorough analysis and I think spot on.  HFCS has been linked to the obesity epidemic - specifically in the USA - since it's most prevalent here vs. other countries.  I also understand that it was invented to help farmers who had substantial excessive corn crops to sell and someone had to figure out what to do with all that extra corn that the government was subsidizing and helping to grow and pay for.  

 
Re: cosmetics - my LTR girlfriend is a 'natural beauty' and doesn't need the cosmetics to be attractive to me.  I tell her this on many occasions - but she insists on her beauty programs and regimen - that I find a waste of money, but I digress....  

 
Eating healthy is a core tenant of a healthy lifestyle - along with a good exercise routine.  In fact, healthy or 'clean' eating is linked to longevity even more-so than exercise.  An analysis of obesity in the USA points towards the southern red, filthy maga traitor states as being some of the most unhealthy there are -- while studies indicate blue states like CA have much more healthy lifestyles and far less obesity that the filthy maga traitor confederate degenerate states.  

 
Why Red States Suffer Greater Obesity
Why might there be a correlation between obesity and voting patterns?

 
The pattern is unmistakable. The states having the highest obesity rates also voted Republican in the 2012 presidential election. Close to the top are Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana, etc. What might this mean for obesity prevention?

 
While political leaning is predictive of weight problems at the state level, this connection could well be due to other factors, such as education level, poverty, or ethnic group. When such factors were excluded in a study of US counties, political orientation still emerged as a strong predictor of obesity rates.

 
Assuming that this correlation is meaningful, it suggests two categories of explanation — emotional and behavioral.

 
Anger and Anxiety

 
A substantial body of research now finds that political conservatives believe we live in a dangerous world. This greater sense of threat is associated with a larger limbic system of the brain that processes fear.

 
Because they perceive the world as threatening, conservatives are more interested in having a strong military and are more likely to buy weapons for personal defense.

 
Psychologists recognize that eating serves emotional functions in addition to providing needed nutrients for survival and health. Many people binge on high-calorie foods when they are experiencing stressful circumstances.

 
Body fat is also predicted by the personality trait of hostility. Hostile individuals are more vulnerable to heart disease and this vulnerability is associated with greater fat deposition around the abdomen.

 
Another connection between politics and corpulence is provided by lifestyle differences.

 
Sedentary Lifestyle and TV Habit

 
A sedentary lifestyle is probably the single most important cause of obesity in modern societies considering that when most people lived as subsistence farmers, there was almost no obesity even though they evidently consumed more food per person.

 
Most Americans spend a lot of time watching screens whether streaming content, cable news, or network TV. This means that they spend a lot of time sitting down, a habit that contributes to overweight and multiple related health problems.

 
The kind of television conservatives watch could also matter. Fox Television offers a glimpse of the sort of content that attracts conservatives. Although the audience is a relatively small segment of the US population, their programming offers a distorted worldview that feeds on partisan conflict and spreads multiple baseless conspiracy theories that seem designed to evoke fear and anger.

 
It would be interesting to know whether Fox News promotes obesity along with political hatred. Political divergence in diet may also matter.

 
Meat Eating and Diet

 
While a lot of people believe that vegetarianism would be a good idea, there are very few actual vegetarians. These are more likely to be progressives, given the salience of the environmental rationale for avoiding meat.

 
Republicans eat more meat than Democrats. They consume more high-calorie foods and eat fewer fruits and vegetables. Moreover, they exercise less. All of these behaviors contribute to general health problems and encourage the storage of excess body fat.

 
Among liberals, meat consumption declined in recent years as they responded to concerns about the impact of animal agriculture on the environment. Interestingly, meat consumption by conservatives increased during the same period as though eating more meat was some sort of political statement related to climate change denial.

 
There is a price to be paid by future generations for climate denial but conservatives face a more immediate personal cost for unwise health behavior.

Here's a more recent article on this:  

 
Mississippi has been crowned the unhealthiest state in the U.S., according to data collected on national rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

 
Sometimes referred to under the umbrella term "metabolic disease," these four conditions are known to be linked.

 
A research team at LookMeds—a patient management company specializing in weight-loss medication—used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in order to rank each state and the District of Columbia to find America's health crisis hotspots.

 
Mississippi was top of their leaderboard because it consistently performed poorly, with the second highest rates of all four conditions in the U.S.

 
Overall Rankings of Obesity-Related Diseases
A map showing the overall rankings given to U.S. states and the District of Columbia by LookMeds. Redder states have higher levels of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

A map A map showing the overall rankings given to U.S. states by LookMeds, with red states having the highest prevalence of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. The states range from very red (Mississippi) to very blue (Colorado).

 
In numbers, Mississippi had obesity rates of 40.1 percent and diabetes rates of 15.3 percent, as well as 248 heart disease deaths per 100,000 people per year and 54.2 stroke deaths per 100,000 people per year.

 
According to the CDC, 41.9 percent of adults and 19.7 percent of children have obesity in the U.S.—based on data from 2017 to 2020—and severe obesity affects 9.2 percent of adults.

 
Meanwhile, the ADA says that 11.6 percent of Americans have diabetes nationally, according to data from 2023, the vast majority of whom have type 2 diabetes, which is related to lifestyle and diet.

 
LookMeds gave their second place to Alabama—with 39.2 percent obesity, 14.9 percent diabetes, and the third highest rates of heart disease mortality (234.2 per 100,000) and stroke mortality (51.1 per 100,000) in the country—and in third came Louisiana.

 
West Virginia had the highest rates of both obesity and diabetes in the U.S.—at 41.2 percent and 15.9 percent, respectively—but did slightly better on heart disease and stroke, so was only fourth place overall.

 
In fifth place was Arkansas, and other states in the unhealthiest top 10 were Tennessee, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Ohio and South Carolina, in that order.

 
Prevalence of Obesity in the United States
A map showing the percentage of people with obesity in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia, according to data gathered by LookMeds at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Diabetes Association.

 
A map showing the percentage of people with obesity in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia, according to data gathered by LookMeds at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Diabetes Association. West Virginia is the reddest, as 41.2 percent of its citizens have obesity, and Colorado is the bluest, at 24.9 percent.

 

At the other end of the spectrum was Colorado, which was the best all-rounder and had the lowest national rates of diabetes at 6.9 percent. Only 24.9 percent of Colorado residents had obesity, and its heart disease and stroke mortality rates were comparatively low too, at 131.4 and 33.8 people per 100,000, respectively.

 
Also in the top five were Massachusetts, Vermont, Hawaii and Minnesota. The latter had the lowest rates of heart disease mortality, at 124.1 per 100,000 people.

 
The District of Columbia had the lowest prevalence of obesity in the country, and New York State had the lowest stroke mortality rates.

 
From sixth to 10th place, in terms of the healthiest states, came Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Utah and Connecticut—in that order.

 
Similar maps featured by Newsweek include a map showing the states Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might target with health policies first, a map showing obesity data from the CDC in September 2024, and a map that indicates the states where a healthy lifestyle is easiest to follow.

…at any time Clinton, Obama or Biden could have banned these things, but didn’t. For decades it was not the right, but the left that was warning of dangers of such additives in our food supply, but none of them did a thing about it. But President Trump did.  

 
Now imagine how healthy we’d all be once the left realizes how dangerous things like vaccines, anti-depressants and hormonal birth control is. GMOs and fluoride is perfectly safe, but that bottle of aspirin in your medicine cabinet isn’t. Being vegan is far more dangerous than eating bacon and butter. And a chemical isn’t necessary dangerous just because you can’t pronounce it or know what it does.

But I’d wager he just called both high fructose corn syrup and RFK jr a filthy nazi cunt.

Sure you can't read my posts - you stupid filthy maga traitor cunt. Sure.... BAHHAHAHAA - the ULTIMATE BITCH SLAP is humiliating you every day like the stupid little fucking treasonous cunt that you are. Dumb bitch.

-- Modified on 4/23/2025 1:28:19 PM

If this is correct it means Wanker doesn't have SK on "Ignore" and is lying. Again.

When I do I can also read them. But not until I hit reply and scroll up to see what it says. In this case I didn’t because I didn’t need to. He just said the same thing he always says. Everyone he disagrees with is a filthy something something. What was it that Chinchilla always said? A filthy megatron? A gummy hamburger bun? Something. I can’t remember.

even though he claims he doesn't 'see' it happening.  

 
Dumb filthy maga traitor cunt.

-- Modified on 4/23/2025 5:33:32 PM

Neener, neener.

"... Clinton, Obama or Biden could have banned these things, but didn’t. For decades it was not the right, but the left that was warning of dangers of such additives in our food supply, but none of them did a thing about it. ..."  

The somewhat weak FDA was modernized and given more power and responsibility to protect the public under FDR (Dem) in 1938. Another major protection was the Kefauver (D) - Harris (D) amendments (signed by JFK (D) in 1962) after the thalidomide scandal. The FDA attempted to tighten regulations on drug company DTC advertising in the 1990s but the House (R) and Senate (R) blocked those attempts. In general, Rs are against regulating the sale or use of anything and fight the FDA via lobbying Congress or via the Courts.  
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In general, Ds or "lefties" are trying to limit the influence of drug companies on the prescribers. Several major med schools try to teach their students about the ethics and influence of drug "detail men" and "detail women" who offer numerous bonuses for reaching prescription goals. (Drug companies have access to the databases of WHO is writing HOW MANY Rxs for every drug.)  

In 2018, Trump bragged about allowing "right-to-try" :  
http://sciencebasedmedicine.org/whatever-happened-to-right-to-try/
Donald Trump bragged that “right-to-try” has saved thousands of lives. It hasn’t.  
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" ... Various pushes to pass a federal right-to-try law were made in 2014 and in 2016. None of these efforts went anywhere until after Donald Trump became President in 2017. Even after Trump became President, it took nearly a year and a half for the Goldwater Institute and other right-wing “free market” think tanks to finally push a federal right-to-try bill over the finish line, spearheaded by Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), who has been a not-infrequent topic of this blog going back years due to his desire to “deregulate” medicine and, more recently during the pandemic, his having become a raging antivax and anti-public health loon who likes to host “roundtables” featuring the worst COVID-19 cranks and antivaxxers. Ultimately, Congress passed a federal “right-to-try” bill, President Donald Trump signed the bill into law in 2018. ..."
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I don't know how RFK is going to ban certain FDA approved food dyes but the ban will almost certainly be challenged in court by financially interested parties and by mostly-R anti-regulatory groups.