Move Over MAHA Moms. Here Comes a MAHA Kid.

By Jennifer Galardi, Contributor, The Kennedy Beacon

While MAHA Moms have provided most of the fuel for Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ground breaking health agenda, one MAHA kid is raising his voice about food safety labeling.

For years now, Jax Bari has been advocating to include gluten as an allergen on all packaged food. An 11-year-old boy from Penn Valley, PA, Jax is one of an estimated two million Americans, and thousands of children, who suffer from celiac disease, an inflammatory autoimmune condition that affects the small intestine (colon) and prevents absorption of nutrients in the gut. The sometimes life-threatening immune response is triggered by gluten, a prevalent ingredient in packaged foods.

Many Americans who have celiac disease – up to 83% – go undiagnosed, suggesting the number of Americans with the disease is higher than government statistics show.

Another disturbing fact — there is no cure for celiac disease. The only way to avoid its symptoms, which often include bloating, constipation, diarrhea, dehydration, and even vomiting, is to avoid eating gluten.

Jax and his father, Jon, are calling for legislation to mandate all foods containing gluten be labeled. While many food companies voluntarily include gluten free labeling in response to increasing consumer demand for foods without the allergen, the FDA does not require it. Jax and his family would like to change that.

Currently, the FDA requires wheat to be labeled an allergen, along with other common foods such as peanut, fish, eggs, milk, and sesame, but not barley, rye, and oats, which can also contain gluten.

In an interview with The Kennedy Beacon, Jax said that this makes his life “so much harder than it should be.” Even the slightest contact with one of these foods, such as a friend with a sandwich sitting next to him, can cause Jax to get “glutened,” his term for the autoimmune response.

Jax’s father would like to see the current, more inclusive, standard for tree nut labeling applied to gluten. Whether or not someone is allergic to almonds or cashews, they can rest assured their allergen is included within the tree nut label. In addition, much like food dyes, the higher standards are already in place in other countries, like those in Europe.

Jon tells the story about his family’s flight home from France last summer when Jax could eat an ice cream treat free of fear because he knew Europe requires gluten labeling. “The eureka moment hits,” Jon said. “It was a product made in the UK. So we look at the label. It’s not marked gluten free, but in the UK, wheat, barley, oats, and rye are required to be labeled.” There is always a risk, but Jax and his parents felt confident enough that he could enjoy the treat. He was fine.

The risks of other autoimmune conditions as well as nutrient deficiencies are high in someone with celiac disease, particularly younger people like Jax. Because the villi in the gut are damaged, the intestinal walls can’t absorb nutrients. In Jax’s case this led to anemia and delayed developmental growth.

Jax has taken his cause to the highest levels of power. He met with former HHS Secretary under President Biden, Xavier Becerra, as well as Assistant Secretary of Health, Rachel Levine. However, Jax’s father says his son’s pleas for help have, for the most part, fallen on deaf ears. “The adults in the room have failed him,” he said. [Jax later met with former HHS Secretary Alex Azar to ask for advice.]

Despite the fact that the Food Labeling Modernization Act, put forth by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) in 2023, has yet to be taken up by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Jax and his father are hopeful Kennedy and MAHA will accelerate change.

Jon says Kennedy has statutory authority to require new allergens to be labeled under the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA), as long as it's in accordance with existing laws and regulations. “The framework is there,” Jon said. “The multinationals are already doing this in all the other countries that they sell their products in.”

Further, Jon and Jax say that labeling what is in packaged food, as opposed to what is not, aligns with Kennedy’s HHS mission to be fully transparent. In addition, Jon believes gluten labeling has bipartisan support. “There’s significant scientific agreement on this,” he says. “No one from the science community, other than people at the FDA previously, has been saying that gluten shouldn’t be labeled.”

The Bari family filed a citizen’s petition with the FDA to get gluten labeled as a major food allergen on all packaged foods. And they’re pushing for an increase in funding for celiac research – to find a cure or treatment for a disease that continues to impact their lives and the lives of numerous others.