The World Health Organization (WHO) is now advocating for broader global access to weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, citing rising obesity rates as justification for expanding pharmaceutical interventions. But as parents, we have to ask—why aren’t we talking about what’s really making our children sick?
It’s not just about medications.
It’s about the food our children consume daily.
Every day, kids are bombarded with ultra-processed, chemical-laden “foods” that are marketed as convenient, fun, and safe. But behind the colorful packaging and catchy slogans lies a harsh truth: these products are fueling an obesity epidemic, disrupting childhood development, and making it harder for families to raise healthy kids.
Big Food is driving the crisis
The problem isn’t that parents don’t care. It’s that our food system often prioritizes profit over health. Healthy food is harder to find and often more expensive.
A 2023 analysis from the Harvard School of Public Health confirmed that healthier diets cost about $1.50 more per person per day than diets rich in processed and packaged foods. And according to the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, companies spend over $10 billion annually marketing unhealthy foods to kids, often targeting them through cartoons, influencers, and school partnerships.
Parents are left with two impossible choices:
- Meticulously scrutinize every food label, or
- Accept that harmful additives have become “normal.”
But no medication can fix a food system that is broken.
How prevalent are ultra-processed foods, really?
A study in BMJ Global Health found that ultra-processed food consumption is linked to more than 30 health conditions, including increased risks of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and mental health disorders.
In an American Medical Association article, Stephen Devries, MD, a preventive cardiologist and executive director of the educational nonprofit Gaples Institute in Chicago, spoke on the prevalence of ultra-processed foods in our diets.
“The stakes are high because ultraprocessed foods are so widely consumed. Recent data shows that 57% of caloric intake in adults comes from ultraprocessed foods,” he said. “For children it’s sadly even higher, with 67% of children’s daily calories from relatively empty ultraprocessed foods.
“These alarming statistics go a long way to explain the record-breaking prevalence of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and all of the adverse health consequences that follow,” he added. “Ultraprocessed foods are the perfect storm to promote overconsumption and weight gain: They are laboratory engineered to maximize appeal, are calorie-dense, and have little or no fiber or other healthful nutrients.”
We’re not just feeding our kids snacks.
We’re feeding them a mix of artificial dyes, seed oils, sweeteners, and synthetic preservatives—many of which have been banned in other countries.
Under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership, these issues are now being addressed. Just last month, HHS and the FDA announced a series of new measures to phase out all petroleum-based synthetic dyes from our country’s food supply.
It’s time to demand more for our kids
The push for weight-loss drugs like Ozempic is a distraction. It treats the symptom, not the disease. If we truly care about the next generation, we need to stop normalizing junk food and start protecting kids from the very industries profiting off their health.
- We need transparency in our food labels.
- We need accountability from corporations.
- We need public policies that support food freedom and protect parental choice—not more pharmaceutical bandaids.
Our kids deserve better. And parents deserve a food system they can trust.
Join us in demanding clean, safe, nourishing food for every child in America. Because making healthy choices shouldn’t require a medical degree—or a miracle drug.
We’re the first line of defense to ensure our kids can grow up healthy, happy, and free.