Critique of “Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy Report”
The Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy Report:
Empty Promises or Real Commitment to Change
On February 13, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14212, creating the “Make America Healthy Again Commission.” The EO mandated the Commission’s Make Our Children Healthy Again (MOCHA) Assessment, released May 22, followed by the Make Our Children Healthy Again (MOCHA) Report, released September 5, fulfilling the reporting requirement. Ostensibly framed as a bold effort to overhaul the federal response to childhood chronic disease—dismantling ineffective practices and introducing “powerful new solutions”—the EO, in reality, consolidates authority within the Commission while leaving critical questions unanswered. Chief among them: will these solutions serve the health and well-being of children and families, or will they primarily advance political agendas and private-sector interests, putting the very population they claim to protect at risk?
The assessment identified four major drivers of the childhood chronic disease crisis—areas that demand urgent action and accountability, not more rhetoric:
Poor Diet: Over 60% of children’s daily calories now come from ultra-processed foods—engineered for profit, not health. This industry-driven shift has fueled an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and chronic illness. Policymakers must confront the food industry’s role in shaping children’s diets and enforce stronger nutrition standards that put kids’ health ahead of corporate gain.
Chemical Exposure: Children are being used as unwitting test subjects for thousands of synthetic chemicals, many tied to developmental harm and chronic disease. The current regulatory system is fragmented, outdated, and far too deferential to industry. It must be overhauled to prioritize children’s health, enforce stricter safety testing, and hold polluters accountable.
Inactivity and Chronic Stress: Sedentary lifestyles, excessive screen time, sleep deprivation, and chronic stress are eroding the foundations of childhood. These are not “personal choices” but systemic failures—in education, urban planning, and social policy—that demand collective solutions. Schools, communities, and governments must treat physical activity and mental well-being as core public health priorities, not optional add-ons.
Overmedicalization: Children are being overprescribed medications at alarming rates, often driven by profit motives and conflicts of interest within medicine and regulation. Treating symptoms while ignoring root causes is a dangerous and unsustainable model. Accountability means confronting pharmaceutical influence, reforming prescribing practices, and ensuring that care serves children—not corporate bottom lines.
👉 If we are serious about ending the childhood chronic disease crisis, we must move beyond identifying problems to dismantling the systems that perpetuate them—and demand transparency and accountability from the industries and institutions profiting at the expense of children’s health.
In a recent open letter to Secretary Kennedy, I made clear that the implementation of Make America Healthy Again Strategy cannot proceed without first establishing legitimacy through agreement on a set of foundational principles. These principles are not optional talking points—they are the minimum conditions required to ensure that MAHA is rooted in transparency, accountability, truthfulness, and public trust. Without this shared starting point, the MAHA initiative risks becoming a top-down exercise of authority—politically expedient but disconnected from the needs of the children and families it claims to serve. Only by grounding MAHA in these non-negotiable values can it claim the moral authority and public confidence necessary to lead a national effort to end the childhood chronic disease crisis.
It must be emphasized: these foundational principles are the indispensable, non-negotiable foundation upon which MAHA, and now MOCHA, can claim legitimacy.
Respect for Evidence: Recognizing and acting upon the findings of the scientific and medical communities regarding the primary existential threats and direct causes of poor health and well-being among Americans.
Commitment to Truth: Upholding empirically derived, evidence-based scientific inquiry as the non-negotiable gold standard for medical education, practice, research, and policy—essential for countering misinformation and disinformation.
Strengthening Primary Care: Acknowledging that primary health care is the cornerstone of every effective healthcare system worldwide, and committing to significant investment in people, processes, and technology to strengthen this foundation in the United States.
Shared Frameworks: Accepting proven models, such as the WHO Building Blocks, as necessary to achieve a fully integrated, people-centered system of essential and sustainable healthcare services and medicine.
Integration of Functions: Affirming that traditional medical care, public health interventions, and community-based services must operate cohesively across five interconnected functions: health prevention, health protection, health promotion, disease surveillance and population health management, and emergency preparedness, resilience, and rapid response.
Whole Health Vision: Supporting a Whole Health model of person-centered care across the full life course—from pre-conception through death—as a pathway to transform the American healthcare system, extend individual health span, and achieve the Sextuple Aim (the Triple Aim plus provider well-being, health equity, and planetary health).
Equity for All: Committing to the principle that no American’s health and well-being should be determined by their zip code.
Grounding MAHA and MOCHA in these principles are essential. They establish the shared ethical, scientific, and operational framework needed to move beyond rhetoric and ensure that every policy, investment, and intervention prioritizes the health and well-being of all Americans above political or corporate interests. Without this foundation, both MAHA and MOCHA risk becoming another initiative that promises change while leaving systemic drivers of chronic disease unchallenged and unchecked.
More specifically, the Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy Report presents itself as a blueprint for executive action to confront the childhood chronic disease crisis. Its pillars include advancing research, realigning incentives across health and industry, expanding public awareness campaigns, and fostering collaborations with the private sector. On paper, the strategy positions itself as the policy translation of the broader MAHA movement, aiming for a transformational and lasting impact on American children’s health. Yet, skepticism is warranted. Much depends on whether “realigning incentives” actually shifts power away from biomedical-industrial complex that profit from unhealthy food, chemical exposure, and overmedicalization—or simply repackages the status quo in new rhetoric. Similarly, partnerships with the private sector could either accelerate meaningful reform or deepen the influence of corporate actors whose interests often run counter to public health. MOCHA’s success will not be measured by the eloquence of its promises, but by whether it produces enforceable protections, structural reforms, and measurable improvements in the lives of American children.
Additional foundational principles that must form the non-negotiable basis of the implementation of Make Our Children Healthy Again (MOCHA) Strategy include:
Child-Centered Accountability: Every policy and action must prioritize the health and well-being of children above political, corporate, or institutional interests. Success is measured by real improvements in children’s health outcomes, not by industry profits or political optics.
Evidence-Based Policy: All interventions must be grounded in rigorous, transparent science. Research funding, program design, and regulatory decisions must be insulated from conflicts of interest and subject to independent oversight.
Equity and Access: MOCHA must ensure that solutions reach all children, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, geography, or ability. No child should be left behind due to systemic inequities or gaps in implementation.
Transparency and Public Engagement: Decision-making processes, data, and funding allocations must be fully transparent. Families, communities, and stakeholders should have meaningful opportunities to participate in shaping policies that affect their children.
Prevention Over Profit: Policies must confront systemic drivers of chronic disease outlined in the MOCHA Report-- poor nutrition, chemical exposures, sedentary lifestyles, and overmedicalization—rather than defaulting to treatments or interventions that benefit private interests at the expense of children’s long-term health.
Accountability for Implementation: Clear metrics, key performance indicators, regular reporting, and enforceable oversight mechanisms must be established to ensure that MOCHA’s commitments translate into measurable results, with consequences for failures to deliver.
Permit me the courtesy of repeating my recent ask of Secretary Kennedy urging him and his leadership team to show the moral courage to step beyond the Washington, D.C. Beltway and embark on a multi-state listening tour—rather than presenting both MAHA and MOCHA strategy as the only path to a healthier nation. It is no small ask, but it is a necessary one if the voices of the marginalized and vulnerable are truly to be heard.
MOCHA Strategy Report @ https://www.whitehouse.gov/maha/
