In recent weeks, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that “very, very strong studies” link food dyes to cancer and ADHD. Experts are concerned about the impacts of unhealthy diets and obesity in the U.S., but some say Kennedy overstates the role of food dyes in chronic disease.

The dyes haven’t been shown to cause cancer in humans. Studies show a possible link to symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children.

Republican governors in Arkansas and Indiana moved Tuesday to ban soft drinks and candy from the program that helps low-income people pay for groceries, becoming the first states to ask the Trump administration to let them remove such items from the program long known as food stamps.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said her state’s request is aimed at improving the health of nearly 350,000 residents who participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Indiana will ban food stamps from paying for soda and candy, joining West Virginia and Arkansas as states at the forefront of President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun on Tuesday ordered that sugary drinks and treats be removed from the taxpayer-funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which is commonly called food stamps.

Three GOP-led states are moving to strip unhealthy items from their food stamp programs that help low-income Americans afford groceries. 

Arkansas became the first state Tuesday to submit a waiver to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) asking for permission to change its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to ban soda and candy.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced $51 million in cuts from the U.S. African Development Foundation, which included hundreds of thousands of dollars for marketing shea butter and pineapple juice, as well as mango drying facilities.

DOGE made the announcement on X, highlighting several initiatives the money was put toward.

For instance, $229,296 was used to market 100% organic shea butter in Burkina Faso; $246,217 was spent on mango drying facilities in the Ivory Coast; and $239,738 was spent on marketing pineapple juice in Benin.

The Agriculture Department has halted millions of dollars worth of deliveries to food banks without explanation, according to food bank leaders in six states.

USDA had previously allocated $500 million in deliveries to food banks for fiscal year 2025 through The Emergency Food Assistance Program. Now, the food bank leaders say many of those orders have been canceled.

Beef tallow has become the latest health obsession, with the support of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

Kennedy has been a staunch proponent of fringe health ideas, from using Vitamin A to treat measles to drinking raw milk and using tallow for frying instead of seed oils. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday that its Local Food for Schools (LFS) program is ending. The initiative, started in 2023, financially supported schools buying food from local farms.

The USDA awarded up to $200 million to states for the purchase of domestic local foods for distribution to their schools. Maine's Department of Education estimates that through January 2025, the state spent a little more than $740,000 through the LFS program.