inside the MAHA manifesto

the White House's plan for our health

Yesterday afternoon, the White House released a dense 72-page manifesto titled The MAHA Report—a bold roadmap for restoring the health of America’s children.

Honestly, I was skeptical.

Lately I’ve been feeling the MAHA fatigue. Slightly irritated by some of the movement’s louder grifters. I’m not naming names today (don’t worry, I’m saving that for another time).

I’m here to give you the rundown on what the executive branch has in store for America’s health.

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Think of The MAHA Report as a government-issued Running On Butter post: same concerns, more footnotes, zero personality.

But seriously. The report is fire. It cites over 500 meaningful studies that raise the kinds of reasonable questions that usually get you censored. It exposes the inner workings of Big Food’s lobbying machine on Capitol Hill and calls for the return of real food. They even gave a nod to butter’s nutrient density. (My influence in D.C. runs deep.)

I’ve read a lot of government-issued health proposals over the years, and they all have the substance of a Katy Perry song—meaningless and empty. You finish reading and somehow care less about health and wellness than when you started.

But The MAHA Report is, well, a genuine pleasure—and shock—to read. I couldn’t take a smile off my face as I read things like:

“Over the course of the 20th century, U.S. dietary fats shifted from minimally processed animal-based sources like butter and lard—rich in fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and E, supporting brain and immune health—to industrial fats from refined seed oils, such as soybean, corn, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, and canola. Industrial refining reduces micronutrients, such as vitamin E and phytosterols. Moreover, these oils contribute to an imbalanced omega-6/omega-3 ratio, a topic of ongoing research for its potential role in inflammation.”

I cannot overstate how wild it is that the government actually said this. When I first got into health journalism, the idea of the federal government acknowledging—let alone addressing—our chronic health crisis felt like pure fantasy.

No one in the holistic health world ever expected the feds to own up to their role in it, especially not their decades of bad advice.

I mean, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines—the epitome of industry capture. For years, they've pushed refined grains and seed oils over real food, while 95% of the committee members held conflicts of interest with Big Food. The idea that those institutions would ever admit fault? Unthinkable. And yet, here we are.

It’s so awesome. I’m so happy. I’m celebrating by listening to Katy Perry.

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The report dials in on four issues contributing to chronic diseases:

• The Shift to Ultra-Processed Foods

• The Cumulative Load of Chemicals in our Environment

• The Crisis of Childhood Behavior in the Digital Age

• The Overmedicalization of Our Kids

If you’re a nerd like me, I highly recommend reading the full report. But if you’ve got things to do, I summarized its key moments.

1. American kids are unwell. And the more money we pour into the “healthcare system” the sicker they’re becoming. What does this tell us? Affluence ≠ heath.

2. The kids’ diabetes epidemic is a national disgrace. There should be exactly 0% of Americans who are pre-diabetic—especially not children. This isn’t normal. And why is it only getting worse?

3. The sharp increase in autism among our children. It’s more than just earlier screening. There’s more to the story here. What is it?

4. Pediatric cancer rates are rising. Despite the billions poured into research and the relentless pursuit of a “cure,” we haven’t stopped the trend. What if the answer isn’t a cure, but prevention, given its rarity just decades ago?

5. Since when did 1 and 3 kids have major depressive disorders? We live in the safest, freest, richest country to ever exist. Why are the kids having breakdowns?

The System:

• “The American healthcare system thrives when disease is prevented and reversed, not just ‘managed’ in a sick-care system.”

• “American children are highly medicated—and it’s not working”

• “Today, 90% of medical costs in the United States are tied to chronic conditions, many of which are tied to diet.”

Food:

• “Approximately 80% of obese teens will become obese adults obese into adulthood.”

• “The food industry funds the bulk of research in the field. A BMJ analysis found that industry spent over $60 billion on drug, biotechnology, and device research in nutrition science; by comparison, the government spends an estimated $1.5 billion on nutrition research.

• “Roughly 70% of the over 300,000 branded food products available in grocery stores today are ultra-processed.”

• “Over 50% of the calories consumed by Americans come from UPFs [ultra-processed foods], while peer countries like Portugal, Italy, and France average UPF consumption rates of just 10–31%.”

• “Protein is the most effective macronutrient for providing a satiating effect.”

• “The infamous 1992 Food Pyramid, which was influenced by research from the sugar industry, recommended carbohydrates at the base of the pyramid and made no differentiation between refined grains and whole grains”

• “Historically, federal crop insurance programs have primarily covered traditional field crops like wheat, corn, and soybeans, while providing much less support for specialty crops such as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, and nursery plants. While specialty crop coverage has been expanding, it still only accounted for 17% of the entire federal crop insurance portfolio by liability during crop year 2017, and subsidies for fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, and support for organic foods account for a mere 0.1% of the 2018 Farm Bill.”

Toxins:

• “Pesticides, microplastics, and dioxins are commonly found in the blood and urine of American children and pregnant women—some at alarming levels…Children are particularly vulnerable to chemicals during critical stages of development”

• “Children are exposed to numerous chemicals, such as heavy metals, PFAS, pesticides, and, phthalates, via their diet, textiles, indoor air pollutants, and consumer products. Children’s unique behaviors and developmental physiology make them particularly vulnerable to potential adverse health effects from these cumulative exposures, many of which have no historical precedent in our environment or biology.”

• “More than eight billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in food systems around the world, with the U.S accounting for roughly 11%, or more than one billion pounds.”

Mental Health:

• “Persistent sadness and hopelessness among U.S. high school students surged between 2011 to 2021 from 28% to 42%, with female students’ suicidal ideation rising 58% from 19% to 30%”

• “Antidepressant prescription rates in teens increased by 1,400% between 1987 and 2014, even though a systematic overview shows that psychotherapy is just as effective as drugs in the short term, and potentially more effective in the long term.”

• “Used to treat depression and anxiety, SSRIs carry a black box warning due to established incidents of suicidal thinking and behavior caused by the drugs in adolescents.”

• “Stimulant prescriptions, drugs used to treat ADHD in the US, doubled from 2006-2016; by 2022 11% of children had an ADHD diagnosis, with boys having a rate of nearly 1 in 4 by age 17.”

• “Antidepressant prescriptions were written for greater than 2 million adolescents in 2022, a 1400% increase from 1987-2014.”

• “The near-ubiquitous presence of social media in the lives of American adolescents, with up to 95% of teens regularly using at least one or more of these platforms—is increasingly correlated with a concerning rise in mental health challenges, particularly among younger users.”

Lobbying:

• “The chemical-manufacturing industry spent roughly $77 million on federal lobbying activities in 2024, while 60% of their lobbyists previously held federal posts.”

• “The pharmaceutical industry, from 1999 to 2018, spent $4.7 billion on lobbying expenditures at the federal level, more than any other industry. In addition, 9 out of the last 10 FDA commissioners—and approximately 70% of the agency’s medical reviewers—have gone on to work for the pharmaceutical industry.”

• “The corporate capture of media, primarily through lavish advertising campaigns that are uniquely targeted to American consumers (no other developed country allows direct advertising of drugs to consumers, other than New Zealand where such advertising is heavily regulated and federally controlled) confers a notable level of reliance on the industry by those that benefit financially.”

Farmers:

• “American farmers are put at the center of how we think about health.”

• “The greatest step the United States can take to reverse childhood chronic disease is to put whole foods produced by American farmers and ranchers at the center of healthcare.”

• “A small number of corporations control a large share of food production, processing, distribution, and retail. Many of the core products of “Big Food” companies are UPFs and nutrient-poor foods and beverages. This trend of consolidation began in earnest in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the two largest U.S. tobacco companies transformed into major players in the packaged food industry through aggressive acquisitions. Four companies control 80% of the meat market in the U.S.”

• “The regulation of the food industry also presents challenges to smaller farmers and smaller food producers. Key regulations, such as the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) enacted in 2011, implemented rigorous compliance requirements for food safety that smaller farms often lack the resources to meet. This has inadvertently led to increased costs and burdensome paperwork that disproportionately impact family-run operations.”

Vaccines:

• “Since 1986, for the average child, by one year of age, the number of recommended vaccines on the CDC childhood schedule has increased from 3 injections to 29 injections...Despite the growth of the childhood vaccine schedule, there has been limited scientific inquiry into the links between vaccines and chronic disease, the impacts of vaccine injury, and conflicts of interest in the development of the vaccine schedule.”

• “Unlike other pharmaceutical products, vaccines are unique in that all 50 states enforce some form of vaccine mandate for public school enrollment although almost all states allow exemptions for religious and/or personal reasons. In contrast, over half of European countries—including the UK—do not require childhood vaccination.”

• “The number of vaccinations on the American vaccine schedule exceeds the number of vaccinations on many European schedules, including Denmark, which has nearly half as many as the U.S. Yet, no trials have compared the advisability and safety of the U.S. vaccine schedule as compared to other nations.”

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Feeling overwhelmed? Yeah, I get it. I see you. It is a lot.

But my whole goal with Running On Butter is to be a steady, encouraging voice reminding you of one simple truth: you can do this.

You can be healthy. You can raise healthy kids.

Start with what you already know. Trade the Cheetos for apples. Choose water over Diet Coke. Sit down to a family dinner instead of hitting the drive-thru. Bake cookies at home instead of grabbing Oreos. Take a walk after work instead of zoning out in front of a show. Pull out a board game instead of everyone retreating to their own screen. Heck, eat some butter.

You got this.