08/14/2026
Monday was an extraordinary day in Washington for nutrition, chronic disease, transparency and medical freedom
I was at HHS as Sec Kennedy announced major steps toward transforming our food system.
For decades, companies have been able to self-determine whether food ingredients are “Generally Recognized as Safe” without full FDA transparency. That’s now changing - HHS is moving to require disclosure of those determinations and bring far more accountability to what ends up in our food supply.
For the first time ever, HHS and USDA have also advanced a proposed federal definition of ultra-processed food for final review. Historic!
This matters more than most people realize.
If we can’t define ultra-processed food, we can’t properly study it, regulate it, or build meaningful nutrition policy around it. And today, over 60% of the American diet falls into that category.
As a nutritionist working in metabolic health, I’ve spent years watching chronic disease rise while our food system became more industrialized and less transparent. Seeing these conversations move from theory to federal action was incredibly powerful.
And sharing this day with my MAHA friends and Vani Hari Vani Hari | Food Babe who ignited my passion for this mission well over a decade ago and has spent years relentlessly pushing for transparency and accountability in our food system, made it even more amazing 🩷
We celebrated at the Occidental, and then watched on Capitol Hill as. President Trump signed an Executive Order establishing new “Gold Standard” childhood vaccine recommendations - reducing the number recommended childhood vaccines, shifting some into shared clinical decision-making, and expanding parental choice. Huge!!
Food. Nutrition. Chronic disease. Medical transparency. Parental choice.
These are not small issues. They shape the health trajectory of an entire generation.
To be in Washington, watching years of advocacy, conversations and persistence begin turning into actual policy, was deeply exciting.
Change doesn’t happen overnight. But Monday felt like a big shift we needed! 💚
And we are just getting started🇺🇸
