[Originally published in TheDerrick.com under the headline, “Free Expression Warriors Fight for an All American Right.” Republished with permission of the author, whose book, Free Expression Under Fire: Defending Free Speech and Free Press Across the Political Spectrum, was published earlier this year by Skyhorse.]

As America 250 unfolds this year, it’s a sure bet that the term “patriot” will be used more frequently to describe the brave fighters of the American Revolution and those who have followed in modern times.

In the past few years, that description has taken on multiple meanings, often viewed through ideological lenses. Historically, a term of national unity, “patriot,” is now frequently used as a wedge to separate “true” Americans from those with differing political views.

While patriotism once meant deference to national leadership (e.g., during the early War on Terror), it has evolved to mean “opposition to the government” for some conservative movements. Conversely, some traditional conservatives argue for a return to a definition of patriotism based on the Constitution and democratic institutions.

Maybe a bit more precision would help us restore meaning to patriotism, reducing ambiguity and increasing appreciation for the principles of our nation’s founding. Let’s start with the cherished values of free speech and free press in the First Amendment.

Last year, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr suggested ABC cancel Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show after a controversial joke that he made after the murder of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson. “These companies can find ways to change conduct to take action on Kimmel or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

A group of patriots — worthy of the new title of “Free Expression Warriors” — stepped forward to object to crossing the constitutional line that prohibits government action in response to expressed viewpoints. The Kimmel case fit squarely within the guardrails that the revolutionary patriots began to develop after they were freed of British control.

Surprisingly to some, these voices came from across the political spectrum, suggesting a new way of thinking about patriotism in a truer, more nonpartisan context.

Here are some prominent and diverse perspectives that emerged quickly and clearly:

• “I think it is unbelievably dangerous for the government to put itself in the position of saying we’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off air if we don’t like what you’re saying.” — Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas

• “I do not want the FCC in the business of telling local affiliates that their licenses will be removed if they broadcast material that the FCC deems to be informationally false.” — Ben Shapiro, host, “The Ben Shapiro Show”

• “The duty to defend the First Amendment does not rest with government, but with all of us. Free speech is the foundation of our democracy, and we must push back against any attempt to erode it.” — FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez

• “I definitely don’t think that the government should be involved, ever, in dictating what a comedian can or cannot say in a monologue.” — Joe Rogan, host, “The Joe Rogan Experience”

• “We the people must never accept government threats to our freedom of speech. Efforts by leaders to pressure artists, journalists and companies with retaliation for their speech strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country.”— Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, in an open letter organized by the American Civil Liberties Union

“Can we still speak and report openly?” This critical question isn’t rhetorical; it demands an honest answer. And increasingly, that answer isn’t as clear as it used to be.

From newsrooms to classrooms, from corporate boardrooms to kitchen table conversations, Americans are grappling with unprecedented challenges to free expression. The twin pillars of democracy — free speech and free press — face pressure from all directions: government officials seeking to control narratives, tech platforms making content decisions, activists demanding accountability, and citizens caught in the crossfire.

Seemingly strange political bedfellows also can be good civic bedfellows. Those who pride themselves as among the Free Expression Warriors should continue their patriotic work to recruit the many to support their vital cause, and ours.

STUART N. BROTMAN is the digital media laureate at The Media Institute and the author of Free Expression Under Fire: Defending Free Speech and Free Press Across the Political Spectrum.

On Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in a major rebuke to the Biden administration’s ruthless censorship of content posted on social media that contradicted the government’s official narrative about Covid-19, a Louisiana court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in Murthy v. Missouri.

This decision represents an unprecedented victory for free speech — in Louisiana, in Missouri, and across the nation.

Photo of Liz Murrill, Attorney General of Louisiana

The lawsuit was originally filed by the Attorneys General of Missouri (Eric Schmitt) and Louisiana (Liz Murrill) against the Biden administration and several federal health agencies that conspired with social media companies to censor posts.

The new decree specifically bars the U.S. Surgeon General, the CDC, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) from pressuring platforms to censor, suppress, or otherwise curate content.

Federal officials from these agencies are now also prohibited from threatening social media companies with legal, regulatory, or economic sanctions in order to remove, suppress, or algorithmic reduce protected speech.

The decree further states that the government cannot use labels such as “misinformation,” “disinformation,” or “mal-information” as a justification to bypass First Amendment protections.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a non-profit civil rights organization which represented plaintiffs Jill Hines and Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, celebrated the consent decree as “unprecedented.”

In January of 2025, the Trump administration formally condemned the government censorship detailed in the Murthy case via an executive order — “Restoring Free Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.”

Prior to this, the Biden administration did not attempt to deny the censorship but instead claimed that it was acting in the “best interests of the public.”

While the enforceability of the consent decree is limited to plaintiffs in the Murthy case, the spirit of the decree makes an unambiguous case against government censorship. The decree also stops short of forcing private companies from offering free speech protections to users as a matter of their civil rights.

The Murthy decision vindicates everyone who questioned pandemic policy in the U.S. but, in particular, the twelve men and women who the government had labeled the “Disinformation Dozen” for allegedly spreading false health information during the pandemic.

Who were the Disinformation Dozen? Their names are Dr. Joseph Mercola, Kevin Jenkins, Ty and Charlene Bollinger, Dr. Sheri Tenpenny, Rizza Islam, the late Dr. Rashid Buttar, Erin Elizabeth, Sayer Ji, Dr. Kelly Brogan, Christiane Northrup, Ben Tapper, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [Several of these brave souls will appear live on the March 25 episode of the MAHA Action Media Hub.]

Photo of Eric Schmitt, Attorney General of Missouri

Following the Murthy decision, an elated former Missouri Attorney General, Eric Schmitt, wrote on X that Missouri had “won big” and that the “unrelenting” litigation had paid off, granting Missouri citizens a historic 10-year, court-enforceable Consent Decree.

Schmitt added, “This is the first real, operational restraint on the federal censorship machine. It locks in the First Amendment principle we fought for: modern technology doesn’t erase your rights, and government labels don’t strip speech of protection. The deep state just got checked. For every working Missouri family tired of being silenced by their own government: this victory is yours. The heartland fought back, and the heartland delivered.”

Outside of the courts, a broader revolution has been brewing as Americans come to realize that they have been used as guinea pigs by their government. Harmful chemicals in food, pills, Covid-injections containing who knows what.

None of these things, perpetrated on citizens by dark corporate hacks, is a good thing. As faceless Iago’s pulled the strings, they sucked the health and vitality out of the American people — along with the right to informed consent, bodily integrity, and to simply say ‘no.’

Enter government censorship, which has been crushing to so many Medical Freedom activists.

Nothing is as violent as silencing someone’s words. Censorship is a cowardly act of violence against people and society because silencing a person’s words is like lobotomizing that person while robbing society of the benefit of their ideas.

Civilizations rise and fall for many reasons. Despite their achievements, the Romans, the Hittites, the Aztecs, and the Incas all faded to dust.

But no civilization has ever gone extinct because it failed to silence its people. In fact, censorship hastens a civilization’s collapse because it shows that its leaders fear its people.

If anything has allowed America to grow and evolve for nearly two hundred and fifty years, it’s been our investment in the First Amendment. Thomas Jefferson famously said, “We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

During the pandemic, unfortunately ‘reason’ went on holiday, giving full reign to a motley cast of neurotic followers of the cult of Anthony Fauci and former president Joe Biden. Remember the Yeats-ian “passionate intensity” in their eyes when your neighbors yelled at you for not wearing a mask? What made them so sure the virus could be transmitted from person-to-person, in the open air?

In March 2021, an organization named the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which describes itself as a “UK/US non-profit that disrupts the spread of digital hate and misinformation,” teamed up with Anti-Vaxx Watch – “an alliance of concerned individuals who are seeking to educate the American public about the dangers of the anti-vax industry.”

The Disinformation Dozen was the love child of the CCDH and other groups. The men and women identified as the worst spreaders of disinformation were turned into modern-day lepers.

They should have been treated like saints.

Like the CCDH and others, the majority of our esteemed “fourth estate” quietly joined the censorship chorus. They routinely celebrated the CCDH and its leader, Imran Ahmed, on NPR, CBS, CNN. Just as quietly, they became part of the censorship industrial complex.

Former Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy

The Biden administration fell in line, too. Led by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, the administration adopted what Psaki’s “covid misinformation” and called on social media companies to deplatform all members of the Disinformation Dozen.

Former White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki

President Biden, in a rare moment of rational thinking, called out Facebook and other social media entities for not censoring those who questioned vaccines by saying, “They are “killing people.”

Who was behind the CCDH?

It was and is funded in part by the UK Government and a group of private foundations, some connected to George Soros. During the rollout of the Covid vaccines, the UK and the U.S. governments worked together with CCDH to deplatform and censor anyone who questioned vaccine safety or the vast array of public health policies that were imposed on the American public.

All of the individuals tagged the “Disinformation Dozen” had the courage to question Covid vaccine mandates, mask requirements, social distancing, and other government Covid pandemic responses – and to post their concerns on social media platforms. For years, they were shut down. Now they can reclaim their voices.

And now we know these heavily censored people, who questioned Covid policies and vaccines, were right. There was no science behind masking, as Fauci grudgingly conceded. He also admitted that social distancing guidelines “just sort of appeared.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately threw out Biden’s employee vaccine mandates.

We now also know that Covid vaccines caused serious adverse events in young Americans – the population at the lowest risk from serious Covid.

The Disinformation Dozen warned about these issues but they were censored and deplatformed anyway.

HHS Secretary Kennedy pointed out that a new term was invented for legitimate concerns that he raised – “mal-information.” He noted that he was targeted by the Biden administration within the first forty-eight hours of the former president’s first and only term.

Enter MAHA.

MAHA emerged as a movement against establishment media, government censorship, and the draconian public policies of the medical-pharmacological-complex that galvanized during the pandemic.

As they resisted pervasive censorship, MAHA followers came to understand that most censorship fails. Instead of teaching the public about acceptable morals, it inspires people to search for ways to circumvent the rules, to want more free speech.

And that’s exactly what Secretary Kennedy and MAHA have achieved, outside the oppressive yoke of government censorship.

On Tuesday, March 24, 2026, the Commonwealth of Kentucky passed Senate Bill 5 into law to expand access to fresh, locally-sourced food while supporting Kentucky farmers by making it easier for schools to purchase Kentucky-grown products.

This half-page bill becomes immediately effective and strengthens farm-to-school efforts to improve student health and wellness through nutrition and local agriculture, as a part of the “Food is Medicine” initiative championed by Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell.

This is good news for Kentuckians, for MAHA enthusiasts, and for the nation.

I’ve worked in rural healthcare for nearly a decade across the Central Appalachian region, serving communities with a 41% obesity prevalence, 20% diabetes rate, and a nation-leading incidence of heart disease. It has become a personal mission to force the system to do better. Under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s administration, we are attacking these co-morbidities simultaneously, exposing the stark truths and root causes, and inspiring purpose.

In Kentucky and other states, I have assisted healthcare systems, state agriculture departments, and community organizations to tirelessly collaborate and address the reasons for food deserts, severe socioeconomic stress, and other health-related problems. This coordinated, regional approach aims to shift generational, lifelong chronic disease trajectories, beginning with the next generation.

Sitting in Secretary Kennedy’s conference room in mid-December, I recalled the October 2025 Tufts Food Is Medicine Institute’s Annual Summit, during which a California farmer stated, “Food Is Medicine is the single largest opportunity for farmers in this lifetime.” It is also the single largest opportunity for public school children, medical patients, military personnel, including veterans, and SNAP beneficiaries.

That has resonated with my policy thesis, which uses local food as a primary health intervention. With 30-60% of all children’s calories consumed at school, we are remiss if we do not capitalize on this time-sensitive opportunity.

Enter a new strategy: Kentucky’s Local First School Nutrition Policy. In practice, it creates convenience and ease for locally-sourced, state-grown produce and protein before selecting an option from Big Food’s portfolio.

Only aspirational? Hardly.

“I’ve been following Kentucky for some time now and they are doing a lot of things right, including leading on the intersection of ag policy and the nutrition agenda,” said John Klar, a contributor to The MAHA Report and a grass-fed beef farmer from Vermont. “Kentucky understands the importance of supporting its farmers in order to provide nutrient-dense foods to its citizens!”

In Kentucky, 81% of schools qualify as Title I, meaning students at qualifying schools are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. That accounts for 98+ million school-year meals, totaling 130+ million meals annually, including both school meals and summer feeding.

But what are they eating? Ultra-processed food. And the health status impacts? Abysmal.

In Appalachia, Kindergarten children who are hypertensive trend toward diabetic or pre-diabetic diagnoses by eighth grade and are then poised to have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease before they graduate from high school. This cycle cannot be sustained, nor can the system afford its costs.

The front-end solution to drive investment, prevention, and nutrition is to serve real, local, nutrient-dense food at school with a curated “easy button” to eat real food. Implementation requires leaders to painstakingly uncover and address every nuance, form, and inch of red tape.

The funding exists—the policy, until recently, did not.

From an HHS perspective, a premier school food model connects basic elements, such as menus and kitchen equipment, with the new Dietary Guidelines. In Texas, for example, the Department of Agriculture administers more than $2.5 billion annually for nutrition programs and serves 1.5 billion school meals to more than three million children, with a strong interest in cooking process improvements.

Kentucky’s GOP-elected Agriculture Commissioner, Jonathan Shell, has been bullish on a Nutrition Agenda following statewide momentum from his Food Is Medicine (FIM) Initiative. That initiative, focused on community health activities through acute patient care support, is driving agricultural economic development. The resulting public-private partnership connects the Department of Agriculture and the Kentucky Hospital Association. To date, 50+ of the state’s 129 hospitals have self-identified as actively engaged.

Shell’s Local First School Food Nutrition policy now takes center stage in the 2026 Kentucky General Assembly in collaboration with the Kentucky Department of Education. Simply put, Commissioner Shell wants to fund farmers–not pharma, and thereby fuel the next generation.

The groundbreaking Senate Bill 5 will be the most consequential school food legislation for children and farmers in the country. Its unanimous passage in the Senate chamber signals an overwhelming commitment to cut red tape, improve nutrition, and encourage agricultural engagement with school districts.

Students immediately recognize improvement when changes are made. In Fleming County, the Food Service Director quietly shifted the entire district’s beef to a local Mennonite farmer with a micropurchasing approach. Students immediately reported higher quality, better taste, and genuine enjoyment! This should be the standard, not the anomaly.

Commissioner Shell’s steadfast commitment to farmers and school nutrition connects his goals with legislation to eliminate barriers in procurement rules, driving agricultural economic development and better health outcomes for children. Such innovative legislation makes Kentucky’s school procurement small purchase threshold maximum equal to federal levels, encouraging immediate and long-term economic opportunity, incentivizing contracting directly with farmers.

Students across the Commonwealth continue to ask for food that tastes better and comes from their communities and school gardens. Superintendents and food service directors alike at Jackson Independent and Casey County are making magic happen by any means necessary through outside-the-box solutions to buy local food for children’s school day consumption. Now, they have a breath of fresh air.

The legislation creates a new section in Kentucky’s statutes to provide the following:

• Procurement policies authorize districts to use the full federal micropurchase limits of $15,000 for Kentucky-grown agricultural products for food service applications

• Use the small purchase threshold as defined by federal law for Kentucky-grown agricultural products, with a maximum threshold of $350,000, a substantial increase from $40,000.

This sleek political strategy aligns federal, state, and private-sector agricultural priorities in a single breath, also serving as a model for the rest of the country.

From the MAHA perspective, matrixed across USDA and HHS priorities, children’s nutrition tactics can begin a sustainable course correction. Healthy children live in healthy, economically viable communities where small-and medium-sized agricultural businesses serve as the rural backbone, representing 95% of Kentucky’s agricultural operations.

In the state legislature, Senate Agriculture Committee Chair, Jason Howell, leads the new, common-sense legislation as an answer and opportunity for Kentucky agricultural producers. Given rates of obesity and diabetes in the Commonwealth, tenuous agricultural economics, and laser focus of the MAHA agenda through Kentucky’s MAHA Taskforce, this program is vital. Putting policy into practice, the legislation has catalyzed a pilot cohort partnership of public and private sector players, including the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, a procurement partner, a multi-state farmer coop, and a regional educational coop.

This multi-sector collaboration provides hands-on technical assistance to 15 school districts, superintendents, and food service directors as a pilot group. Together, the partners’ network will work to update defined school menus with local choices, move Kentucky options into the primary bidding position and guide new district-level procurement policies to make a ‘local first’ option the easiest solution.

Scale and duplication of the Local First policy come next. Schools will need technical assistance and best practice guidance to simplify procurement and shift to source more local food to improve student nutrition. Supported by the new Dietary Guidelines and prioritization of Kentucky-grown agricultural products, the end-to-end strategy will provide learning, improve integration processes, and define future policy needs.

Most importantly, improving nutrition quality and building a national model can inspire other states to follow suit, with model procurement solutions and state-based legislation.

The only question we ask today: “Why didn’t we do this sooner?”

Brie Cox is a social impact management consultant based in Kentucky, working across the Central Appalachian and Southeast regions. She specializes in policy, strategy, and innovation for agriculture and healthcare institutions.

On Tuesday, March 24, vaccine safety activists will gather in Albany, the State Capitol of New York, to oppose Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed law to allow her to override federal vaccine standards.

Activists have planned a full day of engagement with elected officials, beginning at 10:00 AM on the North Concourse of the Empire State Plaza.

Two bills, S8853 and S8496b, that would give Governor Kathy Hochul control over New York’s vaccine schedule, have passed in the state Senate. The bills are designed to grant the governor absolute authority to impose vaccine mandates and to block the vaccine reforms initiated under President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

These bills allow New York’s Governor and the Commissioner of Health to ignore the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and other federal health agencies, which have questioned mandates.

Governor Hochul is attempting to seize the power to make vaccine decisions for her circle of supporters – especially Big Pharma – while ignoring federal oversight. Hochul is turning New York into a vaccine secessionist state.

The bills do not have language or financial commitments for New York to compensate victims of vaccine injuries. Ultimately, New York taxpayers will have to foot the bill because Hochul intends to indemnify her Big Pharma allies from cases filed in New York State Courts. [For more on vaccine injuries, please see, Vaccine Injuries: Documented Adverse Reactions to Vaccines.]

Hochul’s power grab dumps the cost onto New Yorkers, who already pay the highest taxes in the nation.

Hochul’s power grab will not free vaccine manufacturers, or the medical professionals who administer vaccines, from civil liability in federal courts if an injury stems from a vaccine that is no longer recommended by federal policy.

Follow The Money reported that the pharmaceutical industry spent over $294,000 lobbying in New York State in 2024. OpenSecrets reported that Hochul received $42,000 from the pharmaceutical industry in 2023. And Open Secrets also reported that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has quietly given Hochul $5,000 donations in the past.

Pfizer’s headquarters is based in Pearl River, New York and is their primary site for vaccine development. Is Hochul’s effort to seize power on vaccine mandates in New York linked to Pfizer and other vaccine manufacturers?

Speakers at Tuesday’s include:

• Mary Holland, Children’s Health Defense,

  

• Naomi Wolf, DailyClout

  

• Debra Sheldon, MAHA Institute·

• Jimmy Wagner, Donald J. Trump Kings County Republican Club

• Sujata Gibson, Children’s Health Defense

• Rita Palma, Education for All

• Michael Kane, Teachers for Choice

• John Gilmore, Autism Action Network

• And many men and women who have suffered a vaccine injury

The rally hopes to make sure New York State leadership understands that vaccine injuries are real. People must be able to make vaccine decisions for themselves, without coercion; and parents must be free to make such decisions for their minor-age children.

We must also restore Religious Exemptions to vaccine mandates, doctors’ right to give medical exemptions, and our right to sue for vaccine injuries.

America is drowning in chronic disease. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic chaos are not accidents—they’re the predictable result of a healthcare system engineered to keep patients sick and dependent. The solution is sitting in front of the Senate: Dr. Casey Means, President Trump’s pick for Surgeon General.

But her confirmation is being held up, blocked in committee. The process now hinges on two Republican senators: Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

As upsetting as that is, it’s not too late for every American to do something about it.

Dr. Means is a Stanford-trained physician whohas spent years exposing the rotten core of American medicine. She has articulated, with surgical precision, how the incentives of our healthcare system produce sick patients. Doctors are rewarded for writing prescriptions and ordering tests, not for preventing illness. Pharma giants rake in billions from lifelong treatments. Food conglomerates flood the market with
ultra-processed junk that inflames bodies and destroys health. The system
doesn’t fail by accident—it succeeds exactly as designed.

For daring to say this out loud, Dr. Means has been savaged by the forces behind the status quo. The medical establishment, lobbyists, and their media allies have smeared her credentials, distorted her record, and painted her as dangerous.

Why the fury? Because she threatens their trillion-dollar empire. When someone shines a light on the grift—on how “healthcare” profits from sickness rather than wellness—the defenders of the broken system panic.

That panic proves she’s exactly the right person for the job.

The MAHA movement deserves a Surgeon General who will tell the truth. Not another bureaucrat mouthing empty platitudes. Not a mouthpiece for the same failed policies that have left Americans fatter, sicker, and more medicated than ever.

We need a leader who will name the real drivers of our health crisis: perverse financial incentives, corporate capture, and a culture that treats symptoms while ignoring root causes.

Dr. Means is that leader.

She brings fresh eyes, real-world experience as a clinician and entrepreneur, and the courage to challenge sacred cows. Her message is simple and revolutionary: Americans don’t need more pills and procedures. We need honest information, real prevention, and policies that put metabolic health first. She represents the future the MAHA movement has been fighting for—a nation strong, vibrant, and free from the chronic disease epidemic that’s draining our vitality and our wallets.

The Senate HELP Committee is the battlefield.

With Democrats lined up in opposition, Collins and Murkowski are the swing
votes. One “no” from either could kill the nomination before it ever reaches
the full Senate.

These two senators have a choice: side with the status quo
that has failed America, or stand with the millions demanding real change.

That’s where you come in.

The public can break the logjam. Senators listen when phones ring off the hook. They read the emails. They feel the heatfrom constituents who refuse to accept another four years of system.

Pick up the phone today. Call Senator Susan Collins at (202) 224-2523. Tell her: “Confirm Dr. Casey Means as Surgeon General. We need a truth-teller who will fix our broken healthcare incentives,not defend them.”

Be clear, be respectful, and be vigilant.

Then call Senator Lisa Murkowski at (202) 224-6665 with the exact same message, the same tone, the same determination.

Do it now.

Share this article with your friends, your family, your networks. Post it. Text it. Make sure every American who wants health—not just healthcare—makes their voice heard.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about survival.

It’s about whether our kids grow up metabolically healthy or chained to chronic
illness. It’s about whether America leads the world in vitality or continues
its slide into weakness.

Dr. Casey Means has the vision. The MAHA movement has the momentum.

Now the public must deliver the votes. Call Collins. Call Murkowski. Get Dr. Casey Means confirmed.

The health of the nation depends on it.

West Virginia tops the list as the most obese state in America. One 2024 study concluded that the state’s residents were also the nation’s most stressed and depressed.

But now money that could radically transform a state so in need of help is trapped in a bureaucratic mess.

The nonprofit MAHA Action, of which The MAHA Report is a part, has worked for at least six months to help states across the nation apply for a portion of a $50 billion federal program designed to improve health services and outcomes for the nation’s rural populations.

MAHA Action’s Strategic Health Initiatives team worked with many state governors, including West Virginia’s Governor Patrick Morrisey, to support federal approval. All 50 states eventually applied for and received funding from the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), with West Virginia awarded 199.5 million dollars under the program. This is a vital boost to the 49th poorest state in the country (Mississippi ranks last).

However, in a striking development, the money that Governor Morrisey and MAHA Action’s Strategic Health Initiatives team worked so hard to procure as relief has been locked in state-level wrangling that threatens the entire effort.

West Virginia law requires that the state legislature approve the allocation of federal funds. Senate Bill 570, authorizing the use of the funds by the state’s Department of Health, was quickly passed. A companion bill, HB 4717, was introduced in the West Virginia House of Representatives on January 22, 2026, and referred to the House Committee on Finance, where it still sits.

RHTP funds are time-sensitive and must be spent within the allotted time by recipient states or be forfeited. Moreover, failure to properly implement and apply funds in 2026 threatens future-year qualification. The RHTP initiative is a five-year, $50 billion investment in rural America. West Virginia is currently eligible to receive additional awards totaling approximately $200 million annually for four more years.

Governor Morrisey and West Virginia merit praise for the rapid implementation of opportunities to improve its citizens’ health. Governor Morrisey was a national leader in seeking USDA SNAP waivers not only to remove sugary drinks from eligible SNAP purchases, but also to expand healthy purchase options, such as roast whole chickens. Governor Morrisey was similarly proactive in securing the benefits of RHTP.

In his letter supporting the state’s RHTP application, Governor Morrisey touted the program as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity for rural America.” It is unclear why this vital monetary support is being held up by West Virginia’s House Finance Committee.

Dr. Arvin Singh, the state’s Secretary of Health, recently launched a powerful appeal to authorize the spending before the window of opportunity closes.

Secretary Singh appealed directly to the West Virginia legislature for support, stating: “West Virginia worked extremely hard to secure this nearly $200 million federal award. Timely execution is now essential to protect it. The federal government approved a specific plan with defined milestones, timelines, and guardrails. We are obligated to execute that plan as approved. Delays may jeopardize meeting federal performance requirements, and unnecessary procedural hurdles increase the risk of lost time, lost momentum, and, potentially, lost opportunity for our rural communities.”

Time is of the essence for approving these expenditures so Dr. Singh and West Virginians can implement them.

West Virginia’s First Lady, Denise Morrisey, recently joined the appeal, blaming state representative Vernon Criss for a needless delay.

Mrs. Morrisey appealed to constituents to contact their representatives to demand legislative action before West Virginia’s entire RHTP effort is scuttled or undermined: “Chairman [of the House Finance Committee] Vernon Criss is holding this money HOSTAGE in the House Finance Committee – it is astounding that he would play politics with this critical money for our state. He could have passed this bill 43 days ago – enough is enough. Please call your delegates and demand that he move the bill out of his committee. If Americans are to be healthy again, they must demand leadership that responds to their urgent need for rescue from a chronic disease epidemic and a failing healthcare system.”

MAHA Action’s Strategic Health Initiatives resources have been invested to ensure West Virginia’s RHTP application and program implementation build on Governor Morrisey’s outstanding national leadership. It is a tragedy for all Americans that West Virginia’s plans have been stalled by bureaucracy, whatever the cause.

If you are a citizen of the Mountain State, please contact your representatives and inquire about the status of H 4717. West Virginia’s House Finance Committee can be reached at (304) 340-3230.

Key Takeaways:

– West Virginia’s legislature has stalled implementation of an otherwise federally-approved initiative to provide nearly $200 million in funding to improve rural health.

– Failure to promptly approve these expenditures threatens current and future awards under the Rural Health Transformation Program.

On Thursday, February 26, the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s simple message reverberated throughout Brazos Hall in downtown Austin, as he rolled into the Lone Star State to persuade Americans to start eating real food.

Over 600 people gathered to hear Kennedy champion the health benefits of switching to a ‘real food’ diet and jettison what he called ‘food-like substances’ – i.e. anything borderline edible that’s processed, packaged and squirted out the back of a factory.

The Austin event follows Secretary Kennedy’s ‘Take Back Your Health Tour’ stops in Philadelphia, PA and Nashville, TN.

Kennedy joined forces with American health policy leaders, farmers, health influencers, and citizens from all over the nation in declaring that most of what we’ve been eating for years… is not real food.

[For a livestream of the event, watch here]

A HHS and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) joint initiative that Kennedy unveiled in January, the ‘Eat Real Food’ campaign simplifies the improvements HHS made to the Dietary Guidelines for America 2025-2030, also known as the food pyramid.

It was the first significant change to federal food policy in decades.

‘Eat Real Food’ received unprecedented exposure during the Super Bowl, when MAHA Center Inc. ran a 30-second, national advertisement featuring Mike Tyson sharing that he’d lost a sister to obesity — a heart attack killed her at age 25 — and that he was once addicted to junk food himself.

Culture of the Insatiable

Attendees Thursday shared stories of never having eaten much real food when they were kids and young adults.

They’d grown addicted to the processed ‘food-like substances.’ Slaves to their insatiable cravings, they hated themselves for lacking self control, hated how their bodies looked and felt and, fed up, finally switched to eating real food.

And their bodies rebounded.

Kennedy has often explained that our food conglomerates have known for years the non-food ingredients they were adding to their products were not healthy for humans but made their products more addictive. The industry-captured government looked the other way. The net result was higher profits for the shareholders and corporations and sicker Americans.

Because our regulatory bodies allowed the companies to ‘self regulate,’ as long as the companies promised the FDA they’d tested all their ingredients, and the tests had concluded the additives were ‘generally recognized as safe’ (GRAS), the FDA never made a fuss.

The European Union uses a ‘precautionary principle,’ allowing product regulators to see what was tested and proven safe. In the U.S., Kennedy says, additives are allowed until something happens and we realize they’re actually harmful.

Tales of the Infirm

Most speakers at Thursday’s Eat Real Food event offered stories similar to Mike Tyson’s. They served as a collective reflection of government misguidance, corporate capture and malfeasance.

Boomers, Gen X and Millennials recounted high school coaches talking to them about the importance of ’carb loading’ and sending the team out for pizza and pasta the night before every game, match and meet.

Dave Asprey, founder of Bulletproof Coffee who, years ago, began promoting ‘biohacking’ as a way to increase longevity, recalled being three hundred pounds. That was before he decided to start eating real food.

A young woman, Vanessa Bighinatti, talked about being in her early twenties with pain all over her body from an antibiotic-resistant type of Lyme infection that damaged her nervous system. At 24, she had to use a cane to get around. Realizing her doctors weren’t helping, she decided to clean up her diet. She gave up processed food, began eating real food and saw her pain and mobility problems vanish.

A Concerned Farmer

Zach Lahn flew from Iowa to Austin to attend ‘Eat Real Food’ because of concerns about what’s been happening in American agriculture.

Generations of Lahn’s family farmed corn, soybeans, cattle, and just about anything that would grow in Iowa. He said Big Ag’s growing dominance, everywhere crops can be grown, threatens all family and organic farms that produce without chemical fertilizers, pesticides, desiccants like glyphosate and genetically modified, patented seeds.

“Family farms are dying off,” Lahn said. “We have three big agriculture companies that are really exploiting our farmers. And Iowa has the fastest rate of new cancer anywhere in the history of civilization.”

Despite never having run for office, what was happening to Iowa’s food producers inspired Lahn to run for governor.

The Unwell

Some at ‘Eat Real Food’ balked at all the prior administrations’ failure to acknowledge how sick and heavy many Americans are growing.

A quick scan of any 1950s or 1960s picture taken near a body of water, or Tod Papageorge’s photographs of American beach bodies in the Seventies and Eighties prove, in those days, there was nary a muffin top, beer belly, double chin or baby elephant-sized human to see.

Contrast those with today’s barely-clad Americans, frolicking at pools and water parks.

It took approximately two generations of incorrect guidance and the allowance of potentially harmful ingredients for the American physique to morph from svelte and chiseled to having a body reminiscent of the AXIOM people of WALL-E. (Talk about Andrew Stanton’s prescience…)

Innovations in canning, freezing, food preservation, transportation and refrigeration turned companies’ food products into products that might not spoil as quickly as real food, making it a more lucrative investment.

By the 1950s, psychology had become better understood as a sharp sales tool. Marketing had emerged as an industry of its own, and if Pharma’s taught us anything, it’s that marketing works. It worked for Big Tobacco. It works for Big Pharma. It works for Big Food.

No-fault divorces, women’s liberation and the rise of organized activities for children after school meant fewer hours spent at home, less time for cooking and more people buying and eating processed products instead of real food.

In the Eighties, the government declared eating fat was bad, so we stopped eating it. We cooked with Crisco and put Nutrasweet in our tea. We drank Tab, Diet Coke and Crystal Light, and ate refined flour pasta, bagels, cereal, crackers, SnackWells, Fat Free Fig Newtons and anything else marketed as fat free. Our blood sugar spiked and tanked along with our insulin. The yo-yo-ing left us ravenous. We did what they’d said. We went fat free and ended up getting fatter. Plus our rates of heart disease, stroke and cancer began to skyrocket.

The Upside Down Food Pyramid

Secretary Kennedy told his Austin audience how he and his team turned the food pyramid upside down: “We got the best nutritionists in the country from the best universities, and we said, ‘We gotta come up with science-based guidelines,’ and I thought it would take a month. It ended up taking eleven months, because there were knowledge gaps. It’s just regulatory malpractice. Nobody’d studied a lot of this stuff. So we came up with the food pyramid, which we can summarize in three words: eat real food.”

The crowd grew still when Kennedy revealed the downstream effects that not eating real food has had on American children.

“When I was ten years old, when my uncle was president, the average pediatrician at that time would see one case of juvenile diabetes over a forty or fifty-year career,” he said. “Now 38 percent of teens are diabetic or pre-diabetic.”

As the initiative’s government website details, today 50% of Americans have either diabetes or pre-diabetes, 75% of adults have at least one chronic condition, and 90% of all healthcare spending in the U.S. is used to pay for treatments for chronic conditions. Some, like type II diabetes, can be reversed with lifestyle changes like intermittent fasting, exercise, limiting carbs, cutting sugar and all processed foods in favor of… eating real food.

Do doctors really not know?

If they do, why don’t their patients?

Kennedy said doctors tell him they don’t feel comfortable counseling their patients about their diets because their medical training offered so little about nutrition.

Kennedy added that what’s happened to Americans’ health has not happened because we suddenly got lazy. It’s happened because our government has not been forthcoming and because, basically, it allowed companies to self regulate, putting whatever they wanted in their products including hundreds of things other countries have banned.

The Remedy Revolution

Kennedy detailed the censorship he endured for about 24 years due to the things he said publicly about our biggest industries, specifically what their products were doing to our children.

“I prayed every day for 19 years that God would put me in a place where I could end this chronic disease epidemic,” he said, pausing when the crowd cheered.

“And then, in August of 2024, God sent me… Donald Trump,” he said, pausing for effect before adding. “It was really unexpected…”

The crowd laughed, and Kennedy smiled.

“But the president has been amazing to me,” he added. “He did everything he promised and more. He put me on his transition team. He allowed me to pick all of my agency heads, and that has never been done in history. The HHS Secretary does not get to pick who’s head of CDC, FDA, NIH, et cetera, and he let me choose all those people, and for the last year he’s let me go against Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Insurance, Big Hospitals and all of these other ‘untouchables.’”

Three Cheers for Local Activism

Kennedy praised Texas for leading the nation in getting 25 Make America Healthy Again-backed bills passed at the state level. He asked Carrie Isaac to stand up and praised her for her efforts as the head of Texas’ MAHA caucus.

“It’s the state legislations,” Kennedy said. “it’s what you do on the ground here that really empowers me to go and convene these corporations. We’ve done it with so many other industries now, and they’ve been extraordinarily cooperative, because they don’t want to deal with you guys here, the grassroots. So, thank you.”

Kennedy added that seeing MAHA’s success in state legislatures terrified food companies and forced them to show up at HHS, eager to accept the changes Kennedy and MAHA wanted regarding food dyes and additives.

“They didn’t want fifty sets of rules in fifty different markets,” Kennedy said, “so they said, ‘We want to do what you tell us to do, so the states don’t impose this jigsaw puzzle of regulatory frameworks around the country that we simply can’t deal with.”

Kennedy ended his remarks with details of his push for mandates, requiring doctors to take nutrition courses, both in medical schools and as part of the Continuing Medical Education courses they have to take to maintain professional licensure and good standing with their respective boards.

The Next Right Move

There are two commonly recited quotes from Hippocrates: one, for the doctors - ’First do no harm’; and one, for the patients – ’Let food be thy medicine.’

Decades of failing to let food be our medicine have hurt us, individually and as a nation.

With a larger percentage of our population suffering from chronic disease, fewer people are healthy enough to work; more are supported by federal disability benefits; and fewer workers are creating wealth, buying and selling assets and paying taxes.

At the same time, having a country full of people who regularly go to doctors, take tests, receive treatments, pay copays, premiums and deductibles, buy prescription drugs and have surgeries, has made healthcare one of this nation’s most profitable industries. By 2018, healthcare had overtaken manufacturing as North America’s number one provider of jobs.

Revenue wise, healthcare still stands second only to governments and school systems.

The sickening part is… if we take Kennedy’s advice, eat real food and get healthier, there will be less demand for healthcare and thus, fewer jobs.

However, if we never get well, the snowball-effect of chronic illness, enriching an already wealthy industry that then prescribes more treatments that cause more side effects for which it prescribes more treatments that cause more side effects… well, you can see where this is headed.

The only way off the healthcare nightmare merry-go-round, as Kennedy keeps telling us, is to eat real food. That way, when the changes come, as they always do, the majority of us will be healthy enough to adapt.

Donald Trump’s executive order (EO) promoting and protecting domestic glyphosate production spurred widespread backlash, but HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s support of the measure created far more. As an organic beef farmer and MAHA supporter, here’s why I support Secretary Kennedy’s position.

I’ve never used a drop of glyphosate (aka Roundup) in my twenty-five years of farming, nor have I ever used it for residential uses. I’m sure I’ve eaten it, though – it saturates much of our commercial food supplies.

I don’t want to eat glyphosate, which likely kills my gut microbes and clearly causes Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But glyphosate is ubiquitous, and it won’t be eliminated overnight. Secretary Kennedy understands these economic and political realities and is laying the ground to reduce glyphosate over the long term.

If glyphosate were removed from America’s agricultural infrastructure overnight, the consequences would be profound. Many, if not most, commodity crop farmers would face logistical and economic challenges that would be fiscally devastating. They have invested enormous sums in the equipment and systems that depend on glyphosate to operate, and have few tools to combat weeds in its absence, unless they apply even more toxic herbicides. Yields would plummet; grocery prices would rise; exports would suffer; the political backlash by consumers and commodity croppers would be profound.

Roundup is not likely to disappear quickly, though. As Angela Huffman from Farm Action has correctly observed, Roundup manufacturer, Bayer, has hinted it might yank the product from the U.S. if it does not secure immunity from legal liability for the tens of thousands of farmers and residential users who have been severely debilitated or killed by its vaunted product. If that sounds like blackmail, it is. But Bayer wouldn’t profit by such a move and the problem is bigger than just Bayer.

America has become dependent on glyphosate for much of its crop production. This has unfolded over decades and cannot be reversed overnight. But it can be reversed, and Secretary Kennedy is planting seeds that ensure its demise.

True, the lion’s share of the nasty herbicide is used in crops devoted to export and livestock, as well as a boondoggle ethanol industry that does far more harm than good to the environment. Yet the federal government has paid farmers and ethanol manufacturers to create industries dependent on the chemical – those groups are extremely powerful political and economic forces. The current battle proves just how influential they are: they are being dragged into the light instead of hiding in their habitual lobbying shadows.

America imports more food than it exports, much of it highly processed, tainted with chemicals, and shipped over long distances. Only 1% of the nation’s current food production is organic, largely because of government subsidies rewarding farms that rely on chemicals at the expense of organic producers. Pummelling commodity farmers with economic ruin (even if they are producing for export markets or ethanol folly) is unfair, and it is political suicide for either a Republican or Democratic administration. Secretary Kennedy is aware of this reality, just as he is fully aware of the health threats posed by glyphosate to soil, animals, and humans.

The silver lining of the glyphosate wars is that more Americans than ever are becoming educated about what glyphosate is and how it ends up in their children’s Cheerios. The more that people learn about it, the more they seek to avoid it and scrutinize their food labels. The more they avoid it, the more they purchase trustworthy organic alternatives, thereby increasing demand for those safer offerings. No one is eating glyphosate in the name of defending national security.

The United States resembles a massive Titanic, run aground on the glyphosate iceberg. Turning that ship around and avoiding a plummet to the bottom of the ocean requires a very able captain. We have one, and he is a Kennedy.

In essence, modern U.S. agriculture has secretly indentured most large farms to servitude to chemical companies. Currently, soy and corn prices remain so low, and input costs are so high, that without crop insurance and other subsidies, most of these large farms would sink into bankruptcy – many already have. They serve as flow-through entities for federal subsidies that ultimately pour into the coffers of chemical manufacturers.

Instead of villainizing farmers, they must be recruited as allies. The more that Americans buy organic or glyphosate-free foods, the more the market will shift to meet that demand – that Titanic will slide off the iceberg. The higher the profit margins that farmers can earn by shifting operations over time to meet that demand, the wider berth our national ship can provide to go around the chemical-tainted floe.

Imagine if an improved food pyramid led to a dietary shift in which parents began buying grass-fed U.S. beef for their children, organic milk and cheese, and fewer ultra-processed concoctions made from glyphosate-tainted corn, wheat, and soy. Imagine if the president signed an executive order directing that all food procurement for public schools, SNAP beneficiaries, and military personnel were sourced, where possible, from organic domestic farms. This is the pathway to permanently melting the glyphosate glacier.

HHS Secretary Kennedy envisions this future, I’m certain. Some Americans will always want cheap, unhealthy food that tastes good, much like some keep puffing on cigarettes long after their lung cancer confines them to an oxygen tank in hospice. Food is addictive (even without the factory-created additives to make it so). But more “consumers” (itself a debasing term) are choosing to end their addiction to poisonous foods. Kennedy has done more to make that possible than any person in world history, and that genie is not going back into the glyphosate bottle.

Consider how much more influence people like Zen Honeycutt (Moms Across America), Vani Hari (the “Food Babe”), and Kelly Ryerson (“Glyphosate Girl”) now enjoy thanks to the MAHA movement. Members of Congress may be listening to corporate donors like Bayer; their constituents are tuning in to these health voices instead. Over time, the worm is turning: MAHA is an unstoppable zeitgeist.

Those with Trump Derangement Syndrome declaim the president for his glyphosate EO, and howl that not all food dyes have been banned. But how many petroleum-based food dyes did Barack Obama and Joe Biden eliminate? How much did those administrations awaken Americans to the devilish chemicals in their children’s lunches and baby foods? How much did they stymie or curtail glyphosate production? Did either of them even talk about a chronic disease epidemic driven by poor diets?

Many will remember Barack Obama’s USDA appointee Tom Vilsack, aka “Mr. Monsanto.” Donald Trump ejected Vilsack in his first term – Joe Biden then reappointed him throughout his. Secretary Brooke Rollins, whose background in agriculture and business management converges perfectly to serve both large and small farm operations, is a dramatic improvement.

President Obama’s White House also infamously supported Monsanto in a seminal battle against farmers for the right to grow their own seed from its “Roundup Ready” products. (Seeds genetically engineered to withstand Roundup, which then kills everything else around them, including vital soil microbes).

There was nowhere near the furor over those actions as has spread across the nation in recent days. Let us thank Secretary Kennedy for enduring a vicious, hateful, slander-ridden campaign across three parties without quitting, always preaching the same message about the need to end the chronic disease inflicted by untrustworthy food production.

This battle is hardly over; it has only just begun. Candidate Kennedy was the shot across the bow of our unwieldy, unhealthy Titanic food supply. As HHS Secretary, he now co-captains the ship – Donald Trump put him there, fully knowing he would target industrial food. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and the Democratic establishment fought tooth-and-nail (and onesies) to prevent Kennedy from being confirmed, but President Trump stood loyally behind our clean food champion.

Let us not be so fickle in abandoning our leader, like Christ’s followers who demanded a worldly deliverer and promptly turned on Him when He failed to raise a mighty army of swords to conquer Rome. Christ won in the end, slowly but permanently transforming a corrupt society.

For those who choose to read between the lines, Kennedy has signaled that he is changing course to a healthier America. He posted on X: “President Trump did not build our current system — he inherited it. For decades, Washington designed modern agriculture. Policymakers wrote farm policy, directed research dollars, structured subsidies and crop insurance, and shaped commodity markets to reward monocultures and maximum yield. Those deliberate choices locked farmers into chemical dependence and prioritized short-term output over long-term soil vitality and human health. We are now changing course — without destabilizing the food supply.”

Continued Kennedy, “The Make America Healthy Again agenda forces us to challenge long-standing assumptions about how we grow food, structure markets, and measure success in this country. Reform at this scale will test entrenched interests, and it will not move in a straight line.”

And, finally, Kennedy gives credit where credit is due: “President Trump has opened the door to this debate and backed meaningful change — not only in policy, but in the national conversation about health and agriculture. American farmers stand at the center of this movement.”

I encourage readers to carefully read Secretary Kennedy’s full missive. As grassroots demand for healthier foods increases, conventional farmers who are already experimenting with regenerative practices will flock to supply those markets. The nation must be weaned off cheap foreign markets for its foods, and reclaim the American heritage of agri-culture that was systematically dismantled by captured regulatory agencies and corporate consolidation before Kennedy was even born.

We in the MAHA movement have work to do to support our farmers as they transition away from the industrial iceberg upon which our nation has run aground. We must trust Kennedy, who for years has battled Goliaths like Bayer and demonstrated that he is as wise as a serpent (Matthew 10:16). We must also remember that we have many more chemicals than glyphosate yet to slay, using free markets and an informed population.

Big Chem, Big Ag, and Big Pharma want to splinter the MAHA movement. They are now enlisting the same media and political forces behind the all-out assault against Kennedy during his Senate confirmation hearings last year. That didn’t work. And today, again and for always, MAHA will not be easily derailed. We’re just warming up.

Key Takeaways:

– Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has taken a savvy approach to President Trump’s executive order promoting Roundup.

– The path forward is to nurture regenerative farming and grow grassroots MAHA support for healthier food supplies that overpower Bayer-Monsanto and other multinational food and chemical companies seeking to preserve their market share and regulatory influence.

– The MAHA movement is here to stay and will only grow stronger as it increases consumers’ rebellious awareness of glyphosate’s manufacture and ubiquitous contamination of our food supply.

We are witnessing remarkable changes in national vaccine policy.

In just over a year, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership has plowed the road for a series of changes that have shifted the focus of American public health policy.

To the chagrin of his critics, Kennedy has moved federal policy away from a myopic focus on contagious disease and vaccines to the real threats to American health: the alarming rise of chronic health conditions such as obesity, childhood diabetes, Autism, and cancers in young people.

By taking on the real health challenges impacting America’s youth, Kennedy has brought relief to children who have had to endure the most severe vaccine mandates on the planet. Despite angst and rage produced by legacy media and their fleet of Big Pharma-aligned ‘public health experts,’ Secretary Kennedy and President Trump have moved the United States into alignment with other industrialized countries.

Many changes in vaccine policy are the result of a re-populated Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). There scientists are finally asking tough questions, demanding full data from the CDC and openly debating vaccine safety. Now they’re making decisions based on what’s best for the American people, not Big Pharma. The days of ACIP serving as a lap dog for the Mercks and Pfizers of the world are over.

In other words, the ACIP is back to doing what it was meant to do – decision-making based on gold standard science.

Currently, the ACIP is preparing to review the safety data of aluminum in vaccines as well as the cumulative burden of the childhood vaccine schedule. One dose of a vaccine may be a good thing; seventy-two doses is not.

Also new: the CDC has determined that Covid boosters are no longer recommended for children. While the usual talking head apparatchiks on legacy media went apoplectic over the perfectly sane decision to stop recommending booster shots for children, it’s clearer with each passing day that Covid vaccine boosters, for anyone, were unnecessary and dangerous.

A recent study of health outcomes of young people in Israel, based on data withheld from the public for five years, revealed evidence of heart injuries in children following the mRNA vaccine rollout. As more gold standard science is conducted, that may turn out to be the tip of the iceberg.

The ACIP also looked at thimerosal, which contains mercury, and decided to remove it from vaccines. “Injecting any amount of mercury into children when safe, mercury-free alternatives exist defies common sense and public health responsibility,” Kennedy said last July, when the decision to remove vaccines containing thimerosal-was made. “Today, we put safety first.” [Kennedy is the author of Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak.]

The old guard public health elites weren’t pleased. Nor, likely, were their contacts within the halls of Big Pharma.

In November, Kennedy went further. He called upon Minamata Convention signatory nations to remove mercury from vaccines, worldwide.

In December, the ACIP voted to recommend individual-based decision-making on whether newborns should take the Hepatitis B Immunization, vaccines for infants born to mothers who test negative for the virus.

The Hepatitis B vaccine is no longer mandatory for children on the first day of life.

All of these changes are in line with Secretary Kennedy‘s belief that parents should have both a voice and a choice in vaccination decisions.

Choice is a concept that pediatricians will now have to deal with. That’s a far cry from the vaccine schedule that just a few months ago required children in most states to be injected with seventy-two doses of 17 different vaccines.

In January, the CDC sliced six vaccines from its recommended list. As we reported, the pared-down vaccine schedule, from 17 to 11 vaccines, was long overdue.

Taken together, all the above changes, achieved in just one year, are revolutionary. They emphasize the importance of shared decision making – not ham-fisted government directives that one would expect in a dictatorship.

Under Kennedy, doctors can no longer perch on the pedestal as unquestioned vaccine mandators. They must once again become professionals, worthy of respect, who engage in conversations with parents, also worthy of respect.

In other words, in the brave new world of today’s HHS and its sub-agencies, doctors and parents must evaluate, together, what vaccines a child should or should not receive. That alone is monumental.

On Sunday, February 15, CBS News’ 60 Minutes, one of most esteemed mainstream media news shows, did something few in the legacy media have done during the last two decades: Allowed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to speak plainly and uncensored, one of three interviewees during a nearly 14-minute segment about ultra-processed food.

Bill Whitaker, the news anchor, begins the segment, “Today, an increasing number of Americans across the political spectrum, from Make America Healthy Again activists to everyday shoppers, are voicing concern about the health impact of ultra-processed foods – those boxed and wrapped-in-plastic, ready-to-eat items lining grocery store shelves.”

After interviewing former FDA Commissioner, David Kessler, whose ideas on and passion for the dangers of ultra-processed food match Kennedy’s, Whitaker turns to the HHS Secretary. “Seventy-percent of Americans are either obese or overweight,” Kennedy tells him. “And it’s not because they got indolent or because we became lazy or because we suddenly developed giant appetites. It’s because we’re being given food that is low in nutrition and high in calories and it’s destroying our health. I see that when I go across the country.”

Food author Michael Pollan, the third interviewee, tells Whitaker that he agrees with Kennedy about the dangers of ultra-processed food.

Whitaker asks Kennedy the ‘obligatory’: “Are you concerned at all that your stance on vaccines might make people reluctant to support you on ultra-processed foods,” to which the Secretary responds, “My stance on vaccines is the same. People should have good science and they should have choice.”

The segment ends with agreement and hope that Secretary Kennedy can hold Big Food to account.

Allowing Secretary Kennedy to have his say – uninterrupted by anchor commentary spliced into the raw interview, as was the unsavory practice when Kennedy ran for president – shouldn’t be something we need to celebrate.

But this is where we are – and we’ll celebrate wins as they come, even as the Democratic alligators are swarming.

And swarm they did in the days immediately after Kennedy’s 60 Minutes interview.

What followed is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention: the Democrats let loose their hacks, who took to The New York Times, Politico and CNN, for example, in what can only be viewed as a counter offensive – a well-coordinated media mini-blitz, with a Big Pharma ‘playbook’ hellbent on pushing Kennedy down. The overarching message: America should not normalize Kennedy; he’s a dangerous ‘nut job’ who wants to take away your kid’s vaccines!

In an article titled “The MAHA coalition is falling apart,” Times Opinion writer, David Wallace-Wells, sees fraying when in fact the MAHA movement is cohering and growing. “A year ago, food would have probably been a more popular initial crusade for Kennedy, given that many more Americans broadly share MAHA’s concerns about what we eat,” Wallace-Wells writes. “Coming a year in, though, the pivot to food looks more like a possible acknowledgement of political defeat.”

The Times has been actively promoting Kennedy’s demise for years. The paper has failed to cover his numerous ‘wins’ – instead falling back on dull, stale, tired tropes against the man selected to lead the HHS. Wallace-Wells is wrong. Kennedy and MAHA are winning.

Reforming Big Food has always been part of the MAHA agenda, but because that objective draws in more Americans from both sides of the aisle, it’s convenient for Wallace-Wells to see the movement’s success around food with the new Dietary Guidelines his ‘proof’ that it’s pivoting away from concerns over the safety of vaccines. The movement and Kennedy are doing no such thing.

Similarly, Politico goes with the sensational title, “RFK Jr.’s battle with the public health establishment has turned to trench warfare.” The resultant article wants Americans to see the secretary gutting departments, and public programs sinking in a quicksand from which they need rescuing. Actually, Kennedy and team are rescuing HHS and its sub-agencies from lazy science and backward thinking.

Over at CNN, host Abby Phillip, as reported in The Daily Beast, “calls out RFK Jr. for copying Michelle Obama.” The call for people to be active and eat real food “sounds familiar,” the paper writes. But no one has a monopoly on pushing against ultra processed food — or Big Pharma or Big Ag for that matter.

Such narratives are a prelude to what’s to come as we draw closer to the November midterms. Because the Democrats have unwisely dissociated themselves from Kennedy, they are sitting out a movement that comes with energy, stamina and issues every American should care about, especially Democrats. Food reform, as Michael Pollan recently pointed out, has always been an issue Democrats have championed.

True, but the party has abandoned it, and our children’s health, because of partisan politics. Think about that: Dems are willing to sacrifice their own children to support myopic and intransigent political dogma.

With compassion and gold standard science, MAHA is fighting for a new, healthier and happier America — one with today’s chronic disease epidemic in the rearview mirror.

In December, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) quietly launched a new initiative, MAHA Elevate, which stands for ‘Make America Healthy Again: Enhancing Lifestyle and Evaluating Value-based Approaches Through Evidence.’ The initiative is part of the administration’s bold plan to reform America’s health systems en route to addressing the chronic disease epidemic.

As described on CMS’s government website, “The model will provide approximately $100 million to fund 3-year cooperative agreements for up to 30 proposals that promote health and prevention for Original Medicare beneficiaries. The proposals will utilize evidence-based, whole-person care approaches — including functional or lifestyle medicine interventions — currently not covered by Original Medicare.”

CMS plans to release a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) in the coming weeks, with a launch of the model program set for September 1.

In making the announcement, CMS Innovation Center’s Abe Sutton said, “​​For decades, health policy has focused too much on flashy, expensive surgeries and too little on the unglamorous work of prevention. At the CMS Innovation Center, we’re changing that. I’m excited to announce MAHA Elevate. MAHA Elevate is the first of its kind initiative to test evidence-based approaches that treat the root causes of health problems before they turn into emergencies…These programs will support innovative care that works alongside conventional medicine to prevent disease and improve quality of life without any added cost to people. We’re thinking outside the box, because we believe a healthy society is one that makes it easier to stay healthy.”

As the CMS sees it, functional or lifestyle interventions can “slow or prevent chronic disease,” but in order to help older populations the government needs more evidence “to understand which interventions work best for older populations and can be applied across Original Medicare to promote healthy lifestyles.”

And then there’s prevention.

Few people realize that the federal government’s CMS system does not pay for preventative healthcare. If you’re chronically ill with diabetes, hypertension, cancer, or another chronic disease – as six in ten Americans are – the government helps pay for your treatment. But preventative care – everything from changing one’s diet from empty carbohydrates to organic vegetables and protein, to regular physical activity – is rarely studied, and not covered.

In other words, statins and GLP-1 receptor agonists are covered, while organic broccoli, wild caught salmon, and gym memberships are not.

As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recently told a gathering in Nashville, Tennessee, “We now know that the things you eat are driving mental illness as well as physical health. And we’re asking people now, eat real food. Eat protein. Eat fruit, eat vegetables, eat high-fiber grains. And, like Governor Lee said, this is just common sense.”

It is common sense. But to ensure that the best health advice reaches millions of Americans, we need to study the benefits of positive preventative healthcare.

This is not to say information from MAHA experts on living healthy, that you read here on The MAHA Report or hear every week on our MAHA Media Hub, is not valid. It is, but gold standard research on what makes us healthy needs to be done and the public needs to be made aware of it.

Case in point: look at the research into Vitamin D3, long suppressed, as Dr. Eric Berg, a frequent speaker on the MAHA Media Hub, explains here.

It’s time to reach more people with information based on gold standard science.

By testing whole-person approaches to healthcare, MAHA Elevate aims to help transform the U.S. healthcare system to one that proactively addresses the root causes of chronic disease rather than merely responds to symptoms.

This outside the box initiative deserves bipartisan support.

Many people have a moment that jolts them into action to make a positive change. I’m no different. Mine happened last May. I stepped on the scale at the local gym and it flashed back a staggering number: 278 pounds – the heaviest in my life.

At 6-foot-4, with my build, it’s easy to carry more weight and not fully realize how much more. For so long, I had promised myself to get back into shape – tomorrow. That moment in May was eye-opening. It propelled me to start tomorrow today.

Since that moment, a MAHA-inspired, anti-inflammatory wellness plan has become central to my life, with a focus on whole foods and herbs.

I eliminated processed and fast food. I minimized sugar. I began to regularly walk and hike. Now I’m back to High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts.

Six months after “278” stared back at me on that digital scale, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my weight had trimmed to 213 – 65 pounds, gone.

Today, more than nine months after I started my journey, the number consistently hovers between 210 and 215. My body fat is lower and my energy levels are higher. I’m healthier and feel fueled with momentum.

But it wasn’t easy.

The MAHA movement inspired my own movement and instilled a need to change.

Usually, a reporter avoids becoming the story. But the stories we cover can inspire us personally. In this case, it was covering Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign from start to finish, writing about the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, and telling the stories of regenerative farmers in my role as a national reporter for The Epoch Times.

I had always lived in cities and suburbs until September 2023, when I decided to simplify life and move to the Appalachian foothills of southern Ohio, where self-sufficiency is as common as Amish horse-and-buggies on winding country roads.

Homesteading and sustainable living became topics of interest after attending the Food Independence Summit in Ohio’s Amish Country in 2023. Yet clean eating and a healthy lifestyle were not consistent priorities.

From April 2023 through August 2024, my Epoch Times beat took me around the country chronicling Kennedy’s run for president at town halls, events, and places such as general stores and organic farms.

There were frequent one-on-one interviews with the candidate. I heard his message of the need to address America’s chronic disease epidemic enough times that I could have delivered his speech for him.

Clean eating and a healthy lifestyle, however, were still not consistent priorities for me, just yet. I knew what I had to do to lose weight but I kept slipping backward.

Sitting on the couch, watching football, and devouring large pizzas became commonplace. Sure, there were short bursts of momentum over the last five years, but they didn’t last.

So, what was different this time?

My faith.

Raised in a non-denominational church, I’ve long been a believer in Christ, but there is a difference between being a believer and a follower. Much of my adult life has been defined by being lukewarm and not wholeheartedly honoring God.

Over the last few years, my faith has gradually grown. That commitment soared last spring, and it keeps growing.

Earlier this year, around the same time “278” appeared on my scale, I prayed that God would restore the lost years when I hadn’t been the man He intended. That means praying to make the most of each day from this point forward, and being the disciple Jesus calls us to be. That includes taking care of the body He has given, and the blessings of having health, mobility, and five senses.

Even when you know you need to shed a lot of weight and body fat, it is still daunting.

We live in a society that sells quick fixes, yet there is no magic pill to improve your health. Wellness is an odyssey, its destination not reached overnight. It takes time. It takes discipline and willpower. It takes commitment—and that requires a first step.

To use a sports analogy, when your team is in the midst of a losing streak, it has to first win a game to stop the skid. To start a winning streak, it must win a second and third game in a row—and then some positive momentum is built.

I started by giving myself a season—three months.

Know Herbs, Know Your Food

Addressing inflammation in the body, which is the culprit behind many chronic diseases, was essential. Research told me this can be accomplished by consuming whole foods and herbs.

Covering Kennedy, the MAHA movement, and regenerative farming taught me that our food supply is laced with chemicals. There is little on the grocery store shelves that is truly healthy.

Ultra-processed foods have a long list of ingredients that even a writer has trouble pronouncing and spelling. Much produce is doused with pesticides, and meats are loaded with additives.

It’s essential to know where our food comes from.

Inspired by people such as regenerative farmers Joel Salatin and John Klar, and Food Independence Summit co-founder John Miller, I decided to source all my food locally. Beef, chicken, and produce that was raised by regenerative farmers—free of chemicals and pesticides—replaced unhealthy food from the grocery store.

In January, Kennedy and HHS debuted the new food pyramid and dietary guidelines. I adopted this lifestyle months before, and it works.

Organic ground beef and eggs cooked with butter or beef tallow, instead of seed oils, are now everyday staples. Those late-night pizzas and packages of Oreos and Doritos? They’ve been replaced with selections from Pete Evans’ The MAHA Cookbook: Taking Charge of Your Health with Vibrant, Whole Foods.

I’m determined to make every meal in the book. Among my favorites so far are the Classic Scrambled Eggs, Meattza, Ground Beef Curry, Chili Con Carne, and steamed wild salmon.

Plants and herbs are among God’s gifts to us. I personally don’t take vaccines because of the long list of side effects readily presented on the inserts. It’s been years since my last vaccine. I now also avoid over-the-counter medicine for the same reasons. Holistic health practitioners and naturopathic physicians are my go-to resources about medicinal herbs and remedies.

This same guy who had never planted a vegetable until two years ago is now making oregano oil and colloidal silver, which are natural antibiotics.

I also bought a capsule maker and now prepare my own supplements, including turmeric, ginger, cloves, cayenne pepper, and magnesium. I’m learning to make oregano oil and colloidal silver, and this spring, I’ll plant my first Victory Garden.

Intermittent Fasting

Regular intermittent fasting and occasional 72-hour water fasts are now part of my ongoing wellness journey.

Intermittent fasting is not solely about what you eat, but when you eat. In prehistoric times, people were hunters and gatherers who went long periods without eating.

In an era when we can order groceries online and have it delivered in hours, or drive down the street and have our pick of fast-food restaurants, the hunter-gatherer days are long gone. Yet giving the digestive system a break has multiple benefits.

Dr. Eric Berg, a frequent guest on the MAHA Action Media Hub, notes that extended periods of fasting flip a metabolic switch that pushes your metabolism to convert body fat into energy.

“As your liver breaks down stored fats, it generates large amounts of ketones, a by-product of fat-burning and a very efficient energy source,” he writes.

Adds Dr. Berg, “When your cells begin to utilize ketones as a primary fuel source, your metabolism enters a state known as ketosis. Ketosis doesn’t just help you lose weight but has profound benefits for cellular and metabolic health.”

Since early May, I’ve adopted the 16:8 intermittent fasting method, eating within an eight-hour window—usually between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Intermittent fasting does contribute to weight loss and lowering blood pressure, but that is not the ultimate purpose.

My first 72-hour water fast took place in June, with the intention of strengthening my spiritual discipline. Since then, I’ve completed four more sustained fasts.

A University of Southern California study showed that a 72-hour fast can reset your entire immune system.

Dr. Berg said a 72-hour water fast can trigger deep ketosis, maximize autophagy (cellular cleaning), and regenerate immune stem cells. Additional benefits include significant reduction of inflammation, enhanced mental clarity, and improved longevity.

There are different versions of this fast. Some people consume only water. I drink filtered water with mineral sea salt to stay hydrated, and also have coffee and peppermint tea.

Fasting affects the body at every 24-hour stage over the three days.

Simply put, during a 72-hour fast, the body shifts from burning glucose to using fat for energy, leading to ketosis. This is believed to reduce inflammation, enhance insulin sensitivity, generate increased cellular cleanup, and help the immune system.

On the first day, between the 12 and 24-hour stage, the body depletes its glycogen and starts burning fat, creating ketones as an alternative energy source.

The first 24 hours of a 72-hour fast are not difficult. Entering the fast with a mindset of strengthening discipline and understanding the health benefits provides a boost when hunger pangs arise.

Autophagy escalates between 24 and 48 hours. The body clears damaged and old cells. Studies show that three days of fasting contribute to immune system regeneration as the body breaks down aging immune cells and stimulates the production of new ones.

Fasts can also lower blood pressure.

Weight loss is another benefit. Fasts have been shown to reduce levels of the hormone leptin, which plays a role in feeling full and preventing overeating.

The more weight you lose, the more fat you lose. Leptin levels continue to drop.

Fasting might also reduce the chance of developing chronic diseases because the practice is believed to reduce inflammation in the body and boost the immune system.

Another habit I implemented over the last year is daily grounding, or earthing, which may help shed weight and also reduce inflammation, improve sleep, and eliminate chronic pain. Grounding is a practice where the body makes direct contact with the Earth’s surface, tapping into its natural electromagnetic energy.

I live in a house along a rural road where the front yard looks out across the street at farm fields, hills, and forests. Sunsets are majestic. The silence is golden. There is little manmade light here, so the stars seem to shine brighter. Every morning and evening, I walk barefoot in the front yard with my dogs, Boston and Zeke, practicing earthing, even when there is snow on the ground.

The rural region where I live is teeming with beautiful nature preserves. Hiking has become a passion. That was my main physical activity from May through November.

The Next Chapter

Many nutritionists will tell you to lose weight and keep it off is more about what you eat and don’t eat than how long you spend in the gym. My results prove they are right. You can’t out train a bad diet. Daily Big Macs, fries, and milkshakes will erase hard work in the gym. Yet solely consuming whole foods and herbs, and walking and hiking, will lead to favorable results.

Now that I’ve reached my goal weight and have maintained it for a few months, a new chapter has begun: continuing to reduce body fat, building more muscle mass and tone, and enhancing cardiovascular conditioning and flexibility.

In my mind, I’m 37, but in reality, I’m 57. It gets more challenging to add muscle mass and keep toned the older we get, hence the sense of urgency.

As I dive deeper into covering the MAHA movement and telling the stories of regenerative farmers, I incorporate what I learn into my lifestyle.

I’m a founding board member of a 501c3 nonprofit in southern Ohio that conducts community projects for people in need. Down here, food insecurity is a problem that must be addressed. In the spring, we will partner with the Victory Garden Alliance and grow regeneratively raised produce to donate.

My 2026 plans include transforming the front of my property into a large Victory Garden, growing more microgreens, making more capsules, and learning how to grow medicinal herbs.

My MAHA-inspired wellness mindset will remain and evolve because it is fueled by faith and fitness.

Simply put, it feels good to feel good. I’ve become part of the topic I cover, and it has inspired an escape from apathy and inaction. There are more goals to accomplish and more stories to write.

Living life with these principles is the ultimate path. It’s helped me shed 65 pounds and made me healthier, and more motivated and focused. I’m thankful for God’s grace and direction, and for Him bringing MAHA into my life. It’s brought back vitality and fortified me with a greater sense of purpose for what lies ahead.

Recent laboratory tests of military meals, and Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), revealed high levels of pesticides, heavy metals, and livestock drug residues within the food. America’s troops deserve better. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making sure that happens.

The tests examined 40 types of food at sixteen military base cafeterias and twenty-four MREs. Moms Across America, Children’s Health Defense Military Chapter, and Centner Academy commissioned the tests via an independent lab. The results should concern all Americans.

Zen Honeycutt, founder of Moms Across America, explained that previous studies of school lunches and fast food had discovered alarming levels of contaminants in some samples. These results, coupled with reports that China and Russia do not use GMO products in their military meals, prompted the independent tests.

Honeycutt emphasized that the purpose of the inquiry was to improve the quality of food for both schoolchildren and troops, as a national security priority. She stressed that the food samples all came from Biden-era production, but that these problems have developed over many administrations.

Why independent tests?

It does not appear that the military tests its food supplies for chemical adulteration, so the private entities undertook the task. The toxins they found in military meals varied by sample, but all samples contained pesticide residues, with some showing as many as 15-26 different residues in a single item.

All samples also contained toxic heavy metals arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and aluminum, with some contaminated at levels 430%-17,300% above EPA drinking water guidelines. The weedkiller glyphosate was detected in 95% of samples. Five different veterinary drugs were found, which suggested “....likely contamination from imported meat and an urgency for sourcing American, regenerative and organically raised meat for military meals. Four out of five of the veterinary drugs detected are made in China.”

In a press release issued by Moms Across America and posted on its website on February 4, Honeycutt questioned whether widespread contamination of military meals is evidence of “silent chemical warfare” being funded with U.S. taxpayer dollars, leading to trillions of dollars of healthcare costs. The solution Honeycutt proposed is “regenerative, organic agriculture that rebuilds mineral-rich soil, producing naturally nutrient-dense food without toxic contamination or synthetic additives,” she wrote.

Secretary Kennedy is already on the case. He has raised awareness about the food contamination identified in the independent study and is in the process of changing what troops are served at bases.

Along with the MAHA movement he helped spawn, Kennedy is also well-aware that American entrepreneurs can solve these threats to our nation’s health. Nutrient-dense MREs are already produced in the U.S., but domestic farm production of sufficient organic or regenerative commodities, to meet growing demand, is lagging.

On February 11, flanked by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins at a press conference celebrating the implementation of last month’s new dietary guidelines, Secretary Kennedy commented on food served at U.S. military bases and changes he’s making.

“The food was so bad on these bases, the troops weren’t eating it,” Kennedy said. “50% of it was being thrown out – and now there’s lines around the block where people are fighting to get in. The troops were going and buying their meals from fast food joints and spending their hard-earned, meager military paycheck on fast food. Now they’re fighting to get in to eat real food. And it’s all fresh, there’s no freezing.”

In its press release, Moms Across America states that the U.S. military serves 1.5 billion meals and 37 million MREs to active-duty service members each year. To this can be added veterans and VA hospitals. But, as Honeycutt explains, healthy meals free of Chinese-manufactured chemicals should also be provided to the nation’s schoolchildren, hospital patients, prison inmates, SNAP beneficiaries, and grocery store shoppers.

The challenge is great, but the solutions are all around us. One is to use federal lands to regeneratively grow food while rebuilding soils, improving water retention, reducing wildfire risk, and increasing biodiversity. The antidote to industrial farming is regenerative farming, and America’s veterans are embracing a role in this solution.

Many veteran organizations are training retiring soldiers to steward the soil. Hinterland Institute trains veterans in regenerative farming methods and partners with federal agencies to use federal lands for production. Foods grown this way can be procured for VA hospitals in a veteran-to-veteran network. Our country’s warriors can lead by example to be healthy again, reclaim depleted soils, preserve family farms and farmlands, and above all ensure every American enjoys a trustworthy food supply.

America owes a debt of gratitude to its military personnel. Additional thanks are due to those who funded the new study, to Secretary Kennedy and USDA Secretary Rollins putting change in motion, and to the MAHA movement for educating the public about threats to our nation’s food supply. Together, regardless of partisan loyalties or other tribal divisions, Americans can guarantee healthy food for future generations while saving our family farms from extinction.

Key takeaways:

– A recent study of military meals revealed alarming levels of contamination from glyphosate, pesticide residues, and heavy metals.

– America’s veterans and farmers are on the front line toward reclaiming national security through regenerative domestic food production, to replace reliance on Chinese chemical imports and untrustworthy foreign food supplies.

– Moms Across America has created a petition urging President Trump to support regeneratively and organically raised meat and produce for U.S. troops and students.

By Dr. Sina McCullough, Special to The MAHA Report

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently requesting public comment on the “gluten-free” food label. This is a critical opportunity to address a standard that is stuck in the past.

Today, more than 200 medical conditions, ranging from asthma to infertility, are linked to gluten sensitivity. The gold standard for healing a damaged gut is to go “gluten-free.” But for many, this change provides only temporary relief, or worse, no relief at all.

The reason is simple but systemic: the “gluten-free” label, regulated by the FDA, is based on a definition that is nearly a century old. It is not just outdated; for some, it is dangerous.

The 1930s Misconception

To understand why the label is broken, we must look at its history. In the 1930s and 40s, a Dutch pediatrician named Willem-Karel Dicke linked wheat consumption to celiac disease. During the Dutch Famine of 1944, a wheat shortage led to a noticeable improvement in his patients’ symptoms. When the war ended and wheat returned, the symptoms returned as well.

Next, Dicke ran a series of experiments to isolate the exact culprit. He discovered that while pure starch was tolerated, the gluten protein triggered the disease. Because wheat, rye, and barley were the staples of Northern Europe, gluten became synonymous only with those specific grains.

The FDA still relies on this mid-century data, effectively defining “gluten-free” as the absence of wheat, rye, or barley. However, it’s not that simple.

The Science the FDA Is Missing

Gluten is not a single protein; it is a protein complex composed of two primary fractions: prolamins and glutelins.

Prolamin is the gluten fraction most associated with triggering an immune response. While the FDA only regulates the prolamins in wheat (gliadin), rye (secalin), and barley (hordein), science has identified that every grain contains its own version of these proteins, including corn and rice.

And what are many certified “gluten-free” foods made of? Corn and rice.

Despite this, the FDA does not acknowledge that glutens exist in all grains, which allows manufacturers to slap a “Certified Gluten-Free” sticker on a product that is primarily made of corn and rice.

The 1979 Revelation: Corn and the Gut Barrier

The fact that corn and rice contain gluten and can trigger illness is not a new discovery. Researchers have known since at least 1979 that corn gluten can provoke antibody responses in some people.

According to a landmark study published in Clinical & Experimental Immunology, patients with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and celiac disease had significantly elevated antibodies when they ate corn. Interestingly, the researchers used the same type of corn found in Kellogg’s® cornflakes, a product often marketed as a safe “gluten-free” breakfast staple. The researchers concluded that these antibodies were a sign of “increased mucosal permeability,” better known today as leaky gut.

This landmark research showed that the immune system in some patients exhibits a clear recognition of corn proteins, indicating a loss of oral tolerance similar to that seen with wheat.

Subsequent studies published in 2013 and 2015 demonstrated that corn can also elicit a cellular immune response in some people. Specifically, these studies found that corn can stimulate the release of Interferon gamma, a master cytokine responsible for intestinal degradation, at levels equal to those triggered by wheat. This finding is critical because a cellular response indicates actual damage to the intestinal lining rather than just an immune recognition.

The inclusion of rice in “gluten-free” products also provides a potentially dangerous illusion of safety. Research into cross-reactivity has shown that the immune system sometimes cannot differentiate between the prolamin in wheat and rice.

A 2013 study reported that antibodies produced against wheat (anti-gliadin) can mistakenly target rice proteins, launching an identical inflammatory response. The researchers concluded that if this information is “not taken seriously” it may lead to “the development of autoimmunity in the future.”

The Inflammatory Loop and “Gluten-Free Whiplash”

When wheat is replaced with corn or rice in “gluten-free” products, it can lead to the Inflammatory Loop, a self-perpetuating cycle that prevents true healing:

1. Immune Provocation: You consume “gluten-free” staples like corn or rice. The immune system identifies their prolamins (zein or oryzin) as invaders.

2. Inflammatory Response: The body responds by releasing cytokines that damage the tight junctions of the intestinal wall.

3. Barrier Damage: This “leaky gut” allows more undigested proteins into the bloodstream, agitating the immune system further.

This cycle explains “Gluten-Free Whiplash,” where patients follow a traditional gluten-free diet (no wheat, barley and rye) and feel better, only for symptoms to return as the patients increase their intake of corn and rice through “gluten-free” replacements.

Research published in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, in 2009, reported that after 16 months on a traditional (FDA-defined) gluten-free diet, 92% of people failed to fully heal their gut lining. A staggering 65% had persistent inflammation, 26% had no change, and 1% got worse. The researchers concluded that healing the gut is “exceptionally rare” on a traditional gluten-free diet. This suggests that the “certified gluten-free” label may be preventing the gut from healing.

Does Everyone React Negatively to Corn Gluten?

Research indicates that at least 50% of gluten-sensitive individuals develop antibodies to corn. The number is high enough that some scientists have called for a re-evaluation of the use of corn, and rice, in “gluten-free” products:

“…the use of maize [corn] in the formulation or preparation of gluten-free foods must be reevaluated…”

-Plant Foods Hum Nutr, 2012

“The allergens in rice, corn, millet and buckwheat should be better studied before they can be recommended as alternatives for cereal allergic children.”

-Clin Exp. Allergy, 1995

Moving Toward a True Gluten-Free Standard

If we want to see a market that truly supports healing, food labels must reflect biological reality. A “true” gluten-free diet, one that removes all potentially inflammatory prolamins, is a grain-free diet. Until the FDA acknowledges the broader family of gluten proteins, the “gluten-free” label will remain a half-truth that leads many down a path of continued illness.

As the government continues to evaluate the ‘glutton-free’ label, it’s time to tell the FDA that the definition must change. We deserve labels that don’t just exclude wheat but truly exclude the proteins that keep many of us sick.

Dr. Sina McCullough holds a Ph.D. in Nutritional Science and a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior from UC Davis. She is the author of Hands Off My Food! and Beyond Labels, and co-host of the Beyond Labels podcast. A former Director of R&D for a supplement company and instructor at UC Davis, she now focuses on investigative reporting and empowering families to reclaim their health sovereignty. Learn more at drsinamccullough.com.

Americans are paying attention to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new, health-minded food pyramid that recommends nutrient-dense, whole foods, including meat proteins and full-fat dairy.

Now it’s incumbent on every state to make it as easy as possible to buy the real foods that HHS and its sub-agencies recommend, and to enhance ‘food liberty’ – the freedom to choose and access the food one wants.

In this respect, America’s small farmers are crucial. They must be mobilized to grow the necessary food – and our nation’s laws must bend, with bipartisan support, to put the country on the best possible course to fulfill Secretary Kennedy’s mission to reverse the chronic disease epidemic in the United States.

Maine has led the charge to secure food liberties at the state level, enacting a “right to food” amendment to its constitution. Maine Constitution Art. I, § 25 provides:

“All individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to food, including the right to save and exchange seeds and the right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being, as long as an individual does not commit trespassing, theft, poaching or other abuses of private property rights, public lands or natural resources in the harvesting, production or acquisition of food.”

Billy Bob Faulkingham (R - Maine)

Other states are contemplating similar initiatives, but Maine’s experience offers an additional lesson: its constitutional amendment was achieved through bipartisan alliances. Originally introduced by Democratic Maine Senator Craig Hickman, the effort stalled until he was joined by Republican Representative Billy Bob Faulkingham. This is why MAHA’s bipartisan growth is so imperative: Americans lack the luxury of partisan division in the war to reclaim their food supplies and their children’s health.

Representative Faulkingham explained in an interview with The MAHA Report on January 20 that, when he learned of Senator Hickman’s initiative, it seemed monumentally important, not just in Maine but nationwide as a national security issue.

“The founding fathers would have included a right to food in the Bill of Rights if they had foreseen people would be so disconnected from their food,” Billy Bob said, citing examples through history when totalitarian regimes or tribal warlords controlled food supplies for political power. (The World Economic Forum and multinational corporations have been conspiring to control global agriculture for decades.)

In state committee testimony in February 2021, Billy Bob passionately advocated for Maine’s common sense amendment, explaining, “I came here to Augusta to make the State of Maine a better place for my children. We need to have the courage now to do this for our kids and grandchildren and the future generations of Mainers.”

That sounds a lot like Secretary Kennedy’s mission to improve our children’s health, the core of the MAHA movement.

Senator Craig Hickman (D- Maine)

On the other side of the Maine political aisle, Senator Hickman, a small-scale farmer himself, advocated similarly. He believes that “Food is Life,” and has explained why he pushed for Maine’s constitutional amendment:

“I believe locally produced food is national security. I believe that access to wholesome food is a right for every citizen.

I believe the best way to achieve more food self-sufficiency and security in Maine is to allow our neighbors… to advertise, sell, and feed us the food we want to eat… If you control the food, you control the people. We the people need real competition, not corporatist state control… Food sovereignty equals self-determination. Let us act unanimously.

Three attempts were made to implement Maine’s constitutional protection of food rights, but bipartisan cooperation and grassroots organizing got the job done. Now other states are following Maine’s lead.

Maine isn’t the only state advocating for food freedom. West Virginia is contemplating a state constitutional amendment similar to Maine’s. An effort was introduced in Virginia on January 27 to pass an amendment that states simply, “That the right of the people to acquire the food of their choice from the source of their choice, with mutual consent, shall not be infringed.”

Indiana is considering a law that would expand farm and homestead food sales by prohibiting the state government from imposing “any rules, regulations, certifications, or licensing requirements on a small farm or homestead vendor that are not required under federal law.” New Hampshire is weighing a law to expand domestic meat processing rights.

For Americans to improve their health through diets that include fresh, whole foods – as Secretary Kennedy and his colleagues so wisely recommend – they need to support their farmers and enact laws that protect the liberty to grow and consume foods of their own choosing. And they must do so by crossing political aisles to find common ground. That is the MAHA way.

Key takeaways:

– Improving US food supplies requires not just increased domestic production of whole foods but relaxing legal restrictions to enhance food liberties.

– Maine has led the nation with a constitutional amendment creating a “Right to Food” through bipartisan cooperation.

The release of the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) marks a pivotal moment in our nation’s health journey. For the first time in decades, the conversation has officially shifted toward a concept we can all celebrate: ‘real food’– whole or minimally processed foods, according to the new guidelines.

Announced jointly by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and USDA Secretary Brooke L. Rollins on January 7, the guidelines take a bold stance against the industrial ultra-processed foods, added sugars, and industrial seed oils that have dominated our grocery aisles for forty years. This turn to ‘real food’ is a massive victory for anyone who believes that health begins with whole, natural ingredients.

But as with any major paradigm shift, policy change happens incrementally. While the new guidelines have successfully embraced the “Real Food” philosophy, they also allow us an opportunity to better understand saturated fats – specifically the role they have played and continue to play in supporting human health.

The Protein-Fat Balance: A New Opportunity

One of the most positive updates in the new guidelines is the encouragement of higher protein intake (1.2–1.6g per kg of body weight). This recognizes the vital role protein plays in metabolic health and longevity.

However, for those of us who love whole foods, this creates an interesting puzzle. Nature rarely isolates macronutrients. High-quality proteins, like eggs, beef, and whole milk, naturally come paired with saturated fats.

Under the current guidelines, which retain the traditional 10% cap on saturated fat, hitting these optimal protein targets with the recommended whole foods can be mathematically challenging. If you rely solely on the “10% rule,” you might need to lean toward egg whites instead of whole eggs or skinless poultry, missing out on the nutrient-dense matrix that nature provides.

But here is the good news: the health impact of saturated fat depends on what you eat with it. In the context of the Standard American Diet, such as a burger with a sugary soda and refined bun, high insulin levels stimulate the body to store the fat. But in a whole-food diet, stripped of those refined carbohydrates, the narrative changes. That same fat serves as energy and nourishment, delivered in a complex ‘food matrix’ alongside the vitamins and minerals nature intended.

The Root of the Fear: A 50-Year-Old Hypothesis

The 10% saturated fat cap is a relic from the 1950s that has become the bedrock of American nutrition policy.

It started with the “Lipid Hypothesis,” which posited that eating saturated fat (like butter and red meat) raises cholesterol, and that high cholesterol, in turn, causes heart disease. But the foundation of this theory was shockingly weak.

It was largely inspired by studies on rabbits, herbivores that were not designed to metabolize dietary cholesterol, and a single observational study by Dr. Ancel Keys known as the “Seven Countries Study.”

Keys’s study was deeply flawed. While he claimed to find a correlation between fat intake and heart disease, he “cherry-picked” his data. He purportedly had data from 22 countries but selected only the seven that fit his hypothesis, ignoring nations like France and West Germany where high fat intake did not correlate with high heart disease rates. Furthermore, his data from Greece was collected during Lent, when the population was abstaining from animal foods, creating a distorted picture of their true diet.

Even worse, while the study included 12,763 men, diet records were only collected on roughly 5% of participants. That means the 10% cap on saturated fat that continues to restrict our diet today was largely based on data from around 500 people.

The “Core Trials”: The 67,000-Person Test

Keys’s study was observational, meaning it cannot demonstrate cause-and-effect. Yet, the study was enormously influential, including becoming the foundation of our Dietary Guidelines to this day.

In the 1960s and 1970s, governments around the world recognized that observational studies, like the Seven Countries study, were insufficient. Consequently, they funded a series of large randomized controlled trials to settle the debate once and for all.

Collectively, these “core trials” tested the diet-heart hypothesis on roughly 67,000 people. The trials lasted between one and seven years and compared standard saturated fat intake (12–18.3% of calories) against a diet where saturated fat was replaced with polyunsaturated vegetable oils. The endpoints were not just cholesterol levels, but the hard outcomes that matter: heart attacks and death.

The result?

The totality of these trials did not support the hypothesis. Reducing saturated fat did not stop deaths from heart disease.

The Buried Evidence

Even worse, two of the most rigorous studies that showed harm from replacing saturated fat with vegetable oils were effectively buried for decades.

1. The Minnesota Coronary Experiment (1968–1973): This was the largest double-blind randomized control trial of its kind, involving over 9,000 institutionalized patients. For decades, the full results were unpublished.
   
   In 2011, researcher Dr. Christopher Ramsden from the NIH tracked down the son of the lead investigator, Dr. Ivan Frantz. The son searched his childhood home and found the raw data on ancient magnetic computer tapes hidden in an old cardboard box in the basement.
   
   When Ramsden analyzed this recovered data, the results were shocking: while the vegetable oil group did lower their cholesterol, for every 30 mg/dL drop in serum cholesterol, there was a 22% higher risk of death.

2. The Sydney Diet Heart Study (1966–1973): In 2013, Ramsden also resurrected data from the Sydney study, which tested replacing saturated fat with linoleic acid (safflower oil). The results showed that the group consuming the vegetable oil had a significantly higher risk of death from coronary heart disease compared to those eating saturated fat.

These studies were not “outliers”; they were the gold standard. Yet, they were left to gather dust while Americans were told to swap butter for margarine. It might be a coincidence, but the Minnesota Coronary Experiment was co-led by Ancel Keys.

The Voices of Dissent (And the Senator Who Ignored Them)

While Keys provided the diet-heart hypothesis, it was a senate committee that turned it into law.

In 1977, Senator George McGovern released the “Dietary Goals for the United States.” This document was the first to explicitly set the arbitrary cap of 10% saturated fat – a number chosen not because of irrefutable proof, but because the committee felt they needed to give the public a clear, actionable target, even if the science didn’t exist to back it up.

Critics at the time were vocal, warning the government that the science was not ready. During the 1977 Senate Select Committee meeting that birthed these guidelines, the experts spoke clearly:

• Dr. Robert Levy, Director of the NIH, admitted on the record that scientists did not know if cholesterol decreases the risk of heart attack: “That is still presumptive. It is unproven. There is no doubt that cholesterol can be lowered by diet…The problem with all these trials is that none of them have showed a difference in heart attack or death rate in the treated group”. He added, “Where doubt exists, as a scientific question, is whether specific lowering of cholesterol, changing the amount of saturated fat in the diet of the average American will prevent heart attack”.

• Dr. Pete Ahrens, a clinical nutrition researcher, bluntly stated, “The proof is not there yet.”

• Dr. Robert Olson of St. Louis University pleaded with the committee: “I pleaded in my report and will plead again orally here for more research on the problem before we make announcements to the American public”.

But politics did not wait for science. Senator McGovern, the committee chair, famously retorted to Dr. Olson: “Senators don’t have the luxury that the research scientist does of waiting until every last shred of evidence is in.”

The Truth Existed from the Beginning

The evidence to debunk the diet-heart hypothesis existed from the start and has grown stronger over time.

A 2015 study reviewed the randomized controlled trials that were available to the government committee at the exact moment they chose the saturated fat cap. The trials demonstrated that the interventions successfully lowered cholesterol, however, there was no significant difference in heart disease deaths or all-cause mortality between people consuming vegetable oils and those consuming saturated fats.

The study’s conclusion was damning: “The present review concludes that dietary advice not merely needs review; it should not have been introduced.”

Since 1957, over 350,000 people have been observed in epidemiological or observational studies to test the saturated fat hypothesis. Overwhelmingly, these studies concluded that saturated fat does not increase the risk of heart disease.

Likewise, in the last decade, nearly 20 papers reviewed all the data on saturated fat and heart disease and concluded there was insufficient evidence to support continuing to recommend the saturated fat cap.

Understanding Your Numbers: Empowerment in the Doctor’s Office

This evolved understanding is incredibly empowering for patients. For years, we focused myopically on lowering total cholesterol, or LDL, at all costs. Today, we understand biochemistry with far more nuance.

When you switch to a “Real Food” diet rich in natural fats, like the new DGA’s recommend, your lipid panel might change, but often in ways that signal better metabolic health:

• HDL (The “Good” Cholesterol): Saturated fat intake can increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, improving your total-to-HDL ratio, which is a better marker of cardiovascular disease risk than total cholesterol alone.

• Particle Size Matters: While saturated fats can raise LDL, this increase often reflects higher levels of large LDL particles. It is the small, dense LDL particles, often driven by refined carbohydrates and sugar, that are more strongly associated with heart disease risk.

• The Stroke Connection: Saturated fat intake has been associated with a decreased risk of stroke, a protective benefit that the narrow war on cholesterol ignored.

The Path Forward

The new DGA’s have done something monumental: they have validated the move away from ultra-processed factory foods and cleared the path for Americans to return to the kitchen.

The discrepancy regarding saturated fat isn’t a wall; it’s a hurdle we can easily step over with education. We don’t need to wait for policy to catch up to physiology. By understanding that “Real Food” includes healthy natural fats, we can confidently eat the pasture-raised whole egg, drink whole milk, enjoy a 100% grass-fed steak, and nourish our families without fear.

The era of industrial food is waning. The era of metabolic empowerment is just beginning.

Dr. Sina McCullough is the author of the upcoming book Hands Off My Food: How to Defend Your Food, Health, and Freedom, launching in February 2026. She holds a PhD in Nutrition and is a recognized expert in disease reversal and functional medicine. As the creator of the “Go Wild“ disease reversal program and co-host of the Beyond Labels podcast alongside farmer Joel Salatin, she is dedicated to helping people reclaim their health and freedom.

My chronic health issues arose shortly after a round of vaccines prior to a trip to South East Asia in the summer of 1992.

For years, I endured debilitating chronic fatigue, a sleep disorder, digestive issues, food allergies, chronic infections, hypersensitivity to light, sound, chemicals, and much more.

As I considered what happened to me after receiving those vaccines, my natural instinct was to protect my family.

Understanding that vaccines are often mandated in the United States, I also began contemplating the moral and ethical implications of coercive medicine.

Faced with the possibility that I might be forced to subject my own child to a medical intervention, I came to understand the evil of vaccine mandates.

Vaccine mandates are grounded in utilitarianism – the idea that it’s acceptable to sacrifice some individuals in service to the greater good – a notion so immoral, it’s hard to comprehend. I wrongly thought that utilitarianism had been consigned to the dustbin of history after the revelations during the Nuremberg trials, but I was wrong. Utilitarianism is wielded to shame, frighten and intimidate parents and society in general into compliance.

By the time the Covid era arrived, I had been deep into the vaccine safety awareness movement for many years. Covid heralded the arrival of coercive vaccination mandates for all, not just children.

I decided I had to do something to ensure that all Americans have the freedom to exercise their most basic and fundamental of human rights – the right to self-determination regarding health matters.

I founded the Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF).

Our first lawsuit forced the LA Unified School District to rescind its mandate that all employees take the Emergency Use Authorized (EUA) Covid shot.

Our next target was CDC’s July 2021directive that mandated masks for travelers on trains, planes, buses and in terminals.

Armed with the knowledge that health laws are state laws, I reasoned the CDC did not have the authority to dictate the behavior of millions of perfectly healthy Americans. We quietly filed a lawsuit challenging CDC’s directive. On April 18, 2022, a federal judge struck down the mandate as unconstitutional, siding with us on every issue. The court held that CDC had not only failed to comply with the Administrative Procedures Act, it lacked the authority to issue the mandate in the first place.

I will never forget the celebratory videos and photos of passengers and flight attendants jubilantly freeing their faces and airways from the assault of those restrictive and ineffective masks.

HFDF has enjoyed many other legal wins.

In late December, 2025, we filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit Court ruling that state actors have virtually limitless power in the event of a perceived public health emergency.

While I’m proud of all our successes over the last five years, nothing compares to the joy I feel for having written and passed, in 2025, the Idaho Medical Freedom Act. This triumph would not have been possible without the help and support of my dear friends and colleagues at Health Freedom Idaho, Miste Karlfeldt and Sarah Clendenon,

For years, I have been pondering the principle of absolute health freedom. By the summer of 2024, in the aftermath of the unconscionable Covid era impositions into our private, personal medical choices, I felt the time had come to codify this most basic right.

In America, the U.S. Constitution grants states the right to make their own laws, which means that we must protect ourselves at the state level. This unique American structure safeguarded the U.S. from devolving into the virtual police state that happened during Covid in countries such as New Zealand and France.

Based on my belief that medical freedom is the most basic and fundamental of human rights, I drafted a bill to outlaw medical mandates in my state, Idaho.

The bill prohibits public or private entities in the state of Idaho from mandating any type of medical intervention, including tests, injections, masks, devices, chips, etc. Only without these can people live a normal life. .

Signed into law on April 4, 2025, the Idaho Medical Freedom Act also prohibits schools, businesses, and other venues from demanding submission to a public health intervention in order to access services or to enter premises.

Most importantly, it guarantees freedom from medical mandates in the state of Idaho. This ensures that the violations and intrusions of the Covid era can never happen again. It also restores medical decision-making power to the people, where it rightfully belongs.

However, we must not stop at Idaho. All Americans deserve to have their medical freedom rights protected. That’s why, together with Stand for Health Freedom, we’re launching the Medical Freedom Act Coalition, which includes Autism Action Network, Brownstone Institute, Children’s Health Defense, Citizen’s Council for Health Freedom, Feds for Freedom, Global Wellness Forum, Independent Medical Alliance, MAHA Action, MAHA Institute, Children’s Health Defense, We the Patriots USA, Mom’s Across America, and the Westin A Price Foundation and others.

As I explained on the January 14 MAHA Media Hub, ten other states are considering medical freedom legislation. “No one, and no government, has the right, power, or authority to tell us what we should put in our bodies,” I said. “We need to flip the tables and we need to assert our God-given right to make our own medical choices.”

Joined by our many allies, the movement toward true medical freedom is now on the horizon. But we need your help.

I call on all of you to join our cause. .

Leslie Manookian, MBA, MLHom, PHom, is president and founder of Health Freedom Defense Fund, a nonprofit which seeks to rectify health injustice through education, advocacy, and legal challenges to unjust mandates, laws, and policies that undermine our health freedoms and human rights. She is an award-winning filmmaker, homeopath, nutrition junky and all around health freedom fighter.

Across America, some school districts use vaccine mandates as a cudgel to deny special needs students their right to free and worthy public education.

One case in point: the Williamsville Central School District, in Western New York. Attorneys from the Davenport Law firm have brought a case against the district to the New York State Court. They allege that the district removed a sixth grader, who we will call Michael Doe, from the Mill Middle School, under the claim that he is not fully vaccinated.

An ironic aspect of the case is that Michael Doe complied with vaccine mandates but his current health condition, which includes Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, can involve anaphylaxis, placing him at risk if he receives more vaccines.

Michael Doe received six doses of DTaP, a childhood vaccine that protects against three bacterial diseases, but one of the boosters was from a vaccine container past its expiration date. While Michael received the required number of doses, the district claimed that he is not fully vaccinated because one of the previous doses was retroactively deemed “expired.”

The Williamsville Central School District’s medical director, who is a nurse practitioner not a medical doctor, notified school administrators that she regarded Michael Doe not fully vaccinated, insisting he receive another booster.

When the family questioned the medical director’s reasoning, school administrators barred the child from school, effective in early November of 2025.

Two recent federal court decisions – Sarah Doe v. Oceanside Union Free School District and A.A.C. v. Starpoint Central School District – directed New York State to respect medical exemptions from vaccine requirements so long as they were issued by licensed physicians.

Michael Doe obtained such an exemption from his treating physician.

Michael Doe also had what is referred to as a 504 Accommodations plan, which allows students with special needs to receive accommodations to better facilitate their educational needs.

“The medical director rolled her eyes at my clients when they discussed Michael’s health concerns,” according to attorney Chad Davenport, who spoke to The MAHA Report.

Davenport continued, “His treating physician certified that administering another dose of this vaccine may be detrimental to his health due to these specific vulnerabilities.” According to Davenport, a medical exemption is not easily acquired in New York State. “The doctor who issued it could be putting his career on the line,” he said.

The Williamsville Central School District determined that the medical exemption needed to be scrutinized and started making excessive demands on Michael Doe’s family – to acquire private health information.

Last October, Doe’s attorneys filed a Commissioner’s Appeal with the New York State Education Department, in an effort to resolve the case without formal legal action. However, the NYSED denied the request for an immediate stay order.

“They have not yet issued a final decision on the merits,” Davenport said. “Effectively, state education responded to the emergency request by saying ‘no,’ which is why we had to go to court.” Davenport added, “We know, from past experience, that the [NY] State Education Department often releases decisions in March. Even if the ruling went in our favor, my client would be out of school for most of the school year.”

Michael Doe has already missed three months of school.

In December, the student’s attorneys brought an action against the Williamsville school district in the New York State Supreme Court in Erie County. On January 16, the Honorable Joseph C. Lorigo ruled that the medical exemption was valid and the district’s decision to keep Michael out of school “was arbitrary and capricious.”

One would think that this means Michael can return to school next week. However, the attorneys for the school district said they plan to file a notice of appeal in open court immediately after the ruling, signaling a willingness to continue to bar the child from school.

As of this writing, the Williamsville district has agreed to allow Michael back in school next week but has threatened to remove him again as the school district appeal proceeds.

According to Davenport, one of the issues surfacing during the proceedings has been threats made by the New York State Department of Health. District officials claim the NYSDOH annually audits school districts, threatening them with $2,000-a-day fines for every child with a medical exemption from vaccines they deem insufficient.

Under questioning from Judge Lorigo, the Williamsville district’s attorney admitted that his region has never actually been fined by the DOH, nor have they received a specific threat regarding this student or any other. The district was relying on a generalized fear of NYSDOH fines to justify their actions.

The NYS government has a history of attacking students with vaccine exemptions, including those with special needs.

In 2019, New York State passed a law, under Governor Andrew Cuomo, which ended all religious exemptions from vaccine mandates in public schools. This barred thousands of students, many with special needs, from attending the state’s public schools.

Why do this? NYS officials claimed they made the legal change due to a measles “outbreak.”

I was serving as a school board trustee at that time and there were whispers around Albany that there was another reason Governor Cuomo wanted the law passed: to limit ever increasing special education costs.

That attitude remains under the current Governor, Kathy Hochul, who has signaled in her recent State of the State address that New York will insist on imposing the old vaccine schedule which requires seventeen mandatory vaccines.

On January 5, the CDC issued an updated recommended vaccine schedule which recommends eleven vaccines.

It appears that New York State, and some heavy-handed NYS school districts, will continue to impose burdensome vaccine mandates on special needs children, even if doing so violates their rights to an education.

[As the Department of Health and Human Services prepares to release new dietary guidelines, our contributor, Catherine Ebeling, reflects on America’s twisted history with food.]

In October 1941, just six weeks before the United States entered World War II, a quiet revolution was underway with U.S. Army recruits. This was not a revolution of soldiers and weapons, but of diet and nutrition.

According to an article from the Tampa Morning Tribune, dated October 22, 1941, the U.S. Army implemented a sweeping new dietary program aimed at improving the health, strength, and resilience of its 1.6 million recruits.

(Tampa Morning Tribune)

This initiative was a response to large numbers of draftees rejected due to health issues and poor physical fitness, linked to malnutrition during the Great Depression. Gone were the days of lean meat, potatoes, and coffee, or worse—grits, fatback, molasses, and bread. Fresh vegetables, whole milk, fruits, beans, and meat replaced those foods.

This shift, led by the Army Quartermaster Corps, was based on one simple observation: when young men were fed nutrient-dense food, they grew stronger, healthier, and more physically capable. At boot camp, soldiers were wolfing down “meat, carrots, lettuce, beans, peas and milk,” said Col. R.A. Osmun of the Army Quartermaster Corps. in a 1941 address before the annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association (ADA).

Osmun predicted that this “experience in correct eating on such a grand scale” would have a lasting effect, not just on the soldiers, but on their families and the American food culture as a whole. “Trained soldiers back in civilian life will demand milk, fresh vegetables, fruits and other food for a balanced diet,” he told the ADA, predicting a ripple effect that could reshape farm production and national health.

This bold experiment happened before the U.S. Dietary Guidelines existed, and before corporate food interests began influencing national nutrition policy. In 1941, the idea of feeding Americans fresh, whole foods was just plain common sense.

(USDA/Public Domain)

A Forgotten Lesson

While the 1941 Army nutrition program was successful in raising the health and nutrition of its soldiers, those lessons were pushed aside in the decades that followed. By 1980, when the first official U.S. Dietary Guidelines came out, the narrative had shifted. Saturated fat was labeled the enemy. Butter, meat, and eggs were avoided in favor of refined carbohydrates, vegetable oils, and low-fat dairy.

This marked the beginning of a dramatic zigzag in national dietary policy. Between 1980 and 2000, Americans were told to eat 8-10 servings of grains, avoid saturated fat and cholesterol, count fat grams, and embrace ‘low fat’ processed foods. A government-backed food pyramid reinforced this message, placing bread, cereal, rice, and pasta as the foundation of the food pyramid.

(USDA/public domain)

Unfortunately, this era also saw a surge in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic disease. The nutritional wisdom of the 1941 Army mess hall had been replaced by guidelines shaped by corporate food lobbying instead of clear science.

Guidelines That Zig-Zagged

Over the decades, U.S. dietary guidance has followed a confusing and contradictory path:

• 1941: Army promotes real food: meat, fresh vegetables, fruits, whole dairy—fuel for strength and resilience.

• 1950s–1970s: Saturated fat and cholesterol wrongly blamed for heart disease; avoid butter, eggs, and meat.

• 1980s–2000s – Low-fat, high-carb dogma dominates, processed foods promoted; obesity, diabetes and chronic disease rates spike.

• 2015–2020 – Dietary cholesterol officially exonerated while saturated fat is still vilified, and processed seed oils dominate, despite scientific evidence.

• 2026 – New guidelines are expected any day. Will they finally reflect real nutrition science and steer away from corporate food interests?

Big Food’s Grip Tightens

Unlike the Army’s straightforward approach to nutrition, modern dietary policy has become increasingly corporatized and politicized. That trend is finally changing. Under the leadership of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., new regulatory actions have targeted food dyes, industrial additives, and chemical-laced ultra-processed foods. This is a meaningful shift that puts public health and food transparency ahead of corporate profits.

While regulatory cleanup is underway, some people are calling for a complete overhaul of the Dietary Guidelines system. They’re also hoping for policy rooted in nutrient density and health outcomes that real food provides.

The Army soldiers of 1941 would find it strange to see that organic greens and whole milk are now considered ‘health’ foods, while shelf-stable snacks and sugar-laden cereals fill grocery carts, billed as “heart healthy” or “low fat.”

Is a Turning Point Ahead?

The new U.S. Dietary Guidelines represent a fresh chance at real health. Pro-health groups like MAHA Action (of which The MAHA Report is a part); nutrition advocates; independent scientists; and concerned healthcare professionals are calling for guidance rooted in real food quality and nutritional density, not corporate politics.

We’ve zig-zagged long enough.

The path to health is not paved with subsidies, slogans, or synthetic food. It’s built on simple, powerful principles: fresh food, real nutrients, and a clear understanding that what we eat affects everything from our strength and stamina to our overall health as a nation.

Let’s hope the new dietary guidelines get us back on track.