LEILA FADEL, HOST:
For more on the report, we're joined now by Barry Popkin. He's a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina. Good morning, and thanks for being on the program.
BARRY POPKIN: My pleasure.
FADEL: So the report's stated goal is improving children's health. So if we could just start with how bad children's health is in the United States.
POPKIN: Children's health in America is so bad that we're now seeing diabetes among children and adolescents, whereas 40 years ago, we only saw diabetes among older adults. So you can just get a sense of the diet-related diseases that are occurring so much earlier. And the diets themselves and the levels of overweight and obesity among our children are so great that we're sure they're ultimately going to have a very high risk for many non-communicable diseases later in life. In other words, it's horrible, and we're doing nothing about it.
FADEL: Well, this report says it's about tackling those issues that you described - right? - diabetes, obesity, health issues like that. Is it a clear plan to tackle it?
POPKIN: No. It's a very sad day for America. It's all promises but no teeth.
FADEL: And can you say more? I mean, it emphasizes nutrition and lifestyle changes, as we heard.
POPKIN: It's essentially emphasizing things like research, exploration, consideration, but nothing about any regulation or law to mandate change. In a few cases, MAHA has gotten some voluntary changes, which are we know will not last after MAHA has gone, and really don't do very much. But the unhealthy, ultra-processed foods and many harmful chemicals will continue to impact our children, our adolescents, our adults - all ages in America.
FADEL: So what do you want to see put in place to improve childhood nutrition, childhood health?
POPKIN: I'd like to see the FDA put a warning label on unhealthy food. I'd like to see the FTC mandate no advertisements going to children or essentially banning advertisements during a large hunk of the day on unhealthy food that have been identified with these warning labels. And I'd like to see some teeth. All throughout this document, there are nothing. And you can see that, really, that the food and agriculture sectors that really profit highly from the ultra-processed food they're selling to our children and killing them at the same time, really have gotten to the government so that they had nothing in this document that will lead to any meaningful regulation, law or guideline that will improve America's health.
FADEL: The report calls for access to health food - healthy food - through the SNAP nutrition program at a time when government funding for that program has been cut. Does the strategy outlined in this report address access when it comes to healthy food?
POPKIN: No. In no way does anything other than call for X, call for Y, with no indication of a policy that will give money to the school food program, require the school food programs to eliminate ultra-processed foods, which would be the really first step.
FADEL: Barry Popkin is a professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Thank you so much for your time.
POPKIN: Thank you very much.
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