Dangers of ultra‐processed food risks to children

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) along with the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative by the White House is blaming ultra‐processed food for what they say are increases in mental illness in children and adolescents. This fall, the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a Request for Information to gather data to develop a definition of ultra‐processed food. Around the same time, the federal government stopped issuing SNAP (food stamp) benefits to force an end to the government shutdown, which was caused by Democrats who protested the elimination of tax credits to help Americans pay for health insurance (the shutdown ended, food stamps were returned, and there was still no extension of health insurance tax credits).