Post Reports

Episode: MAHA’s fight against food dyes, corn syrup and seed oils

Date: September 30, 2025
Host: Elahe Izadi
Guests: Anahad O’Connor (Health Columnist), Rachel Rubine (FDA Reporter)

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement's campaign against food additives such as synthetic food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, and seed oils. Host Elahe Izadi talks with Washington Post reporters Anahad O’Connor and Rachel Rubine to explore the science and policy behind these efforts, evaluating whether targeting such ingredients meaningfully addresses the broader issue of diet-related illness in the United States.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Problem: Ultra-Processed Foods and Health

• Main concern: The MAHA movement and Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are focused on the explosion of chronic disease and obesity, driven by consumption of ultra-processed foods.
  • “We've had an explosion of obesity and chronic diseases in the past few decades... and more and more of the research is focusing on the food that we're eating being a key driver.”
    — Anahad O’Connor (03:25)
• Ultra-processed foods are cheap, shelf-stable, and loaded with additives, sugars, and unstudied ingredients (04:00).

2. MAHA's Policy Push

• Creation of the MAHA Commission: President Trump established a commission chaired by RFK Jr. to tackle chronic disease, with a focus on “fixing the food supply.”
  • “This groundbreaking commission will be charged with investigating what is causing the decades long increase in chronic illness… and delivering an action plan to the American people.”
    — Rachel Rubine (04:49)
• Targeted ingredients: The commission's agenda includes defining ultra-processed food, improving school meals, restricting SNAP (food stamps) purchases, and most prominently, targeting synthetic food dyes, certain oils, and high fructose corn syrup (05:50).

3. Actions Against Food Dyes

• Industry ‘voluntary’ plan: Kennedy announced in April that the industry would voluntarily remove certain synthetic food dyes (e.g., Red 40) by the end of 2026. Food companies and states have begun moving in this direction, driven by both federal and state pressure (06:27–07:50).

  • “We have them on the run now, and we are going to win this battle. And four years from now, we're going to have most of these products off the market, or you will know about them when you go in the grocery store.”
    — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (06:59)

• Industry confusion and patchwork state bans are pushing companies to change nationwide (07:20–11:29).

• Scientific context: Research shows some synthetic dyes may increase hyperactivity in sensitive children, but evidence is observational and not conclusive. Dyes are often not the main concern—sugar content is higher and more problematic (08:08–09:45).

  • “Nutrition experts especially...say, that's just a bowl of candy with, with some milk on it.”
    — Anahad O’Connor (09:25)

4. High Fructose Corn Syrup vs. Cane Sugar

• MAHA stance: Swapping high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) for cane sugar is touted as a win (15:32).

• Presidential announcement: Trump announced that Coca Cola would introduce cane-sugar-sweetened sodas; the company confirmed, sparking debate over health implications (16:00–16:17).

• Scientific consensus: HFCS and cane sugar are chemically almost identical, and have the same effect on the body. The focus should be on total sugar consumption, not the type (17:22–20:03).

  • “No, that's the short answer: no, that's the wrong way to look at it.”
    — Anahad O’Connor on ‘healthier’ cane sugar (17:22)
  • “It's the amount. You know, studies have shown this that we're just consuming so much of it.”
    — Anahad O’Connor (20:03)
  • “Sugar is poison, and Americans need to know that it is poisoning us. It's giving us a diabetes crisis.”
    — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (20:55)

5. Seed Oils and the MAHA Movement

• Public fear and MAHA focus: Social media and MAHA advocates warn about seed oils (canola, soybean, sunflower, etc.), but the evidence doesn’t strongly support these fears (21:12–22:25).

  • “If you're eating a lot of ultra processed foods, you're consuming a lot of seed oils... But that doesn't mean that the seed oils themselves are driving the obesity epidemic.”
    — Anahad O’Connor (23:10, 24:51)

• Nutritional reality: Modern campaigns demonize seed oils for being “pro-inflammatory,” but most experts say risk is overstated.

  • Swapping seed oils for fats like avocado oil in processed foods does not make them meaningfully healthier (24:51–26:01).
  • “To think that eating potato chips is going to be good for you because it has avocado oil instead of canola oil, I think most nutrition experts would argue that it's really a wash.”
    — Anahad O’Connor (25:30)

6. Policy Tensions and What’s Next

• The MAHA movement sees its efforts as raising the profile of these food issues, but internal tensions remain about what reforms to pursue (26:26).
• Upcoming policies:
  • The federal dietary guidelines are due for revision; this is a key area to watch (27:18).
  • The latest MAHA commission report calls for: more research, healthier school/federal nutrition programs, limits on junk food SNAP purchases, and fewer marketing claims on processed foods, but is criticized for lack of specifics and regulatory muscle (27:54–29:27).

7. Nutrition Expert Takeaways

• Nutrition advocates are disappointed by policy focus on isolated additives instead of overall reform.

  • “They're focusing on one of those ingredients… But that's still not, in their eyes, a food that you should be giving to a child for breakfast because it's loaded with sugar and all sorts of other things.”
    — Anahad O’Connor (29:54)
  • Recent cuts to farm-to-school and emergency food aid programs undercut efforts to improve food quality for children and families (29:54–32:25).

• Practical advice: Eat more whole foods; minimize ultra-processed products; don’t focus on single “bad” ingredients, but on overall food pattern.

  • “Foods that your great great grandparents would recognize... if it comes in a package and it's ultra processed and you don't recognize the ingredients or it has a long list, that should make you wonder.”
    — Anahad O’Connor (32:09)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On ingredient lists:
  “You're just kind of moving around chairs on the deck of the Titanic.”
  — Nutrition experts (02:29, paraphrased by Anahad O’Connor)

• On food dyes and hyperactivity:
  “There has been some research showing…food dyes have been linked to increased hyperactivity in kids, increased headaches, other issues in people who are sensitive to them.”
  — Anahad O’Connor (08:08)

• On sugar in breakfast cereal:
  “That's just a bowl of candy with, with some milk on it.”
  — Anahad O’Connor (09:25)

• On the real sugar vs. corn syrup debate:
  “No, that's the short answer: no, that's the wrong way to look at it.”
  — Anahad O’Connor (17:22)

• On policy disappointment:
  “They're focusing on one of those ingredients...But that's still not, in their eyes, a food that you should be giving to a child for breakfast because it's loaded with sugar and all sorts of other things. And so you're sort of missing the forest for the trees.”
  — Anahad O’Connor (29:54)

• On eating whole foods:
  “Foods that your great great grandparents would recognize...try to eat foods that don't have a long list of food ingredients when you can.”
  — Anahad O’Connor (32:09)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro & Ingredient Reading: 00:17–01:06
• Origins of MAHA and Chronic Disease Focus: 03:08–04:20
• First MAHA Report & Criticism: 05:06–06:15
• Policy Action on Food Dyes: 06:15–07:50
• Scientific View on Food Dyes & Sugar: 08:00–13:25
• Corn Syrup vs. Cane Sugar in Soda: 15:12–20:01
• Seed Oils Explained: 21:12–26:01
• Policy Tensions & Next Steps: 26:01–29:27
• Expert Takeaways & What Really Matters: 29:54–32:25

Conclusion

This episode critically examines the MAHA movement’s campaign to remove dyes, certain sugars, and oils from American foods. While these efforts have gained political traction, the science suggests that focusing on individual additives is unlikely to significantly improve national health—a more holistic shift toward whole, minimally-processed foods is needed. Listeners are encouraged to pay less attention to food label buzzwords and more to the overall quality of their diets.