By Kathy Athearn

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced that they are going to phase out all eight petroleum-based food dyes from America’s food supply. This is welcome news to families across the country who see increasingly alarming rates of chronic illnesses in children.

According to FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, 40% of kids in the United States have a chronic medical condition, and one in seven kids is on medication. Studies have shown that petroleum-based food dyes may cause tumors, affect nerve cells, increase hyperactivity, cause allergic reactions, inflammation, and neurobehavioral issues in children.

In January, the FDA under the Biden administration announced that it was banning Red Dye No. 3 from all foods and drinks by January 2027 and from all medications by January 2028. But the new FDA under Dr. Makary wants to remove it sooner. They’re now also planning to revoke authorization for two food colorings — Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B — in the coming months. The other six dyes will be removed by the end of 2026.

Not only are petroleum-based food dyes added to candy, cereal, soda, and sports drinks, but are also added to fruits, vegetables, sausage, and ultra-processed foods. According to researchers with the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University, about 70% of the United States’ food supply is ultra-processed, and another study found that ultra-processed foods make up over 50% of American diets, even meals cooked at home. Ultra-processed foods are associated with several chronic health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, “Food dye is just a no-brainer. Nobody wants to eat petroleum. Everybody knows there’s enough science out there that we know it’s terrible for you. It causes health problems but also behavioral problems.” He added, “I was talking with my staff about these petroleum-based dyes and I said, ‘If they want to add petroleum, they want to eat petroleum, they ought to add it themselves at home. But they shouldn’t be feeding it to the rest of us.’”

Makary explained, “Cancer and diabetes in young people [are] going up at an alarming rate, and nobody seems to know why. We have to turn our attention to underlying causes such as chemicals and toxins that children are exposed to — not just more insulin and chemotherapy.” He went on to explain that removing petroleum-based food dyes is not a “silver bullet” that’s going to all-of-a-sudden make America’s children healthy, but it is one important step towards the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) goal.

In addition, the FDA announced that they are working with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to research how food additives impact children’s health and development. Kennedy pointed out, “When my uncle was president, 3% of American kids had chronic disease. Today it’s around 60%.” Among the chronic illnesses that he mentioned were ADHD, neurological disorders, speech delay, ticks, Tourette’s syndrome, narcolepsy, ASD, and autism. He went on to say that these are all illnesses that he never heard of when he was a kid:

“There was zero spent in this country, treating chronic disease when my uncle [John F. Kennedy] was president. Today it’s about $1.8 trillion annually. It is bankrupting our nation. Seventy-four percent of American kids cannot qualify for military service. How are we going to maintain our global leadership with such a sick population? We have all these … exotic diseases: juvenile diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Crohn’s disease, and a hundred others that were just unknown when I was a kid. I never knew anybody with a peanut allergy. I never knew anybody with a food allergy. Why do five of my seven kids have allergies? I never knew of anybody who had eczema. I knew of a very small number of children with asthma. But that has exploded as well today. And our fertility is dropping dramatically. Teenagers in this country today have the same testosterone levels as 68-year-old men.”

HHS leaders met with food company executives recently, and Kennedy and Makary commended them for agreeing to the new food dye policy. They noted that these executives have kids, too, and they want them to be healthy. In addition, several states have passed their own food regulations in recent months, and the food companies don’t want to have 30 different state laws and regulations to work with. They want national standards.

The FDA is also going to help families make wise decisions when they’re buying groceries by clearly labeling foods and drinks. Kennedy said, “We’re going to start informing Americans about what they’re eating, and we’re going to try to work with Congress and the White House to make sure that we have adequate labeling so mothers who go into the grocery stores know what is good for their children and what is not.”

On May 9, the FDA approved three food colors from natural sources: Galdieria extract blue, derived from a red algae; butterfly pea flower extract, a blue color that can be used “to achieve a range of shades including bright blues, intense purple, and natural greens”; and calcium phosphate, a white color “approved for use in ready-to-eat chicken products, white candy melts, doughnut sugar, and sugar for coated candies.”

As we have seen on the education front, moms and politicians from the political Left, Right, and middle are coming together to support policies that will make children — and all Americans — healthy again. Leslie Manookian, president of Health Freedom Defense Fund, told The Washington Stand, “Tackling the epidemic of ill health in this country is a giant task, and I am grateful Secretary Kennedy has taken on that fight. I think it is important to understand that while healthy, nutrient-dense food is a prerequisite for good health, so is eliminating a spectrum of toxins from our diets, our water and air, and the medicines we use. So, I absolutely support the removal of food dyes from our foods in order to improve the health and well-being of Americans.”

Dr. Lainey Greer, founder of Your Body Matters, is also encouraged by the FDA’s policy.

“Christians should celebrate the FDA’s new policy to remove non-food items from the foods and drinks we regularly consume,” she told TWS. “These and other changes motivated by the MAHA movement will positively impact the trajectory of health in America, making them important to consider from a biblical worldview. After all, a cursory glance at the rates of obesity and chronic disease reveals that our physical health is worse than ever despite access to ‘healthier’ experts/tools/apps/plans/gadgets than ever before. Because worsening health rates impact adults and children alike, Christian moms can heartedly support the removal of petroleum-based dyes from our food.”

Greer continued, “Ultimately, our bodies matter. They matter to God, who intricately designs the body. It belongs to him, and he calls us to glorify him in our bodies, promising to gloriously transform them in resurrection. Our bodies fuel our ability to live out the Christian faith, and we should consider the food we put in them as fuel, too. While we want to avoid obsession, being mindful to limit the non-foods we consume is wise. When God calls us to honor him even in what we eat and drink, it means he values our bodies and what we put in them. Consuming less non-food items is one way we can reflect the biblical truth that our bodies matter.”