Happy Friday, and welcome to Food Fix. In case you missed it, my new podcast American Dish officially launched this week! We kicked off with three episodes featuring Marion Nestle, Vani Hari and Sam Kass. And today, we’ve got a fourth bonus episode up: FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who I interviewed on stage at the National Food Policy Conference on Wednesday.
It was such a busy week in Washington it was hard to settle on a topic for today’s newsletter. We had a flurry of food/ag-related conferences, several cabinet-level events and announcements, and a House farm bill markup. In the end, though, there was only one food story that broke through the noise this week.
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Alright, let’s get to it –
Helena
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New England in revolt over report RFK Jr. has Dunkin’ in his sights
Sometime between recording a two and a half hour Joe Rogan podcast and kicking off a “national BBQ tour” in Austin last week, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also managed to pick a fight with New England.
It all started at a MAHA rally where Kennedy was listing off the ways the Trump administration is trying to make the American food supply healthier, and he got into his effort to close the so-called GRAS loophole, which allows additives to make it to market without FDA oversight. Kennedy told the audience that the government was going to be asking food companies to produce studies showing that their products on the market are safe — and then he took a shot at two coffee chains.
“We’re going to ask Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, ‘Show us the safety data that show that it’s OK for a teenage girl to drink an iced coffee with 115 grams of sugar in it,’” Kennedy said. “I don’t think they’re gonna be able to do it.”
The audience laughed. A few days later, Tal Kopan, a reporter for the Boston Globe who attended the rally, published a story with a straightforward headline: “RFK Jr. wants Dunkin’ to prove drinking its iced coffee is safe.”
It did not take long for the story to go viral. New Englanders picked up their pitchforks and reacted with a mix of rage and comedy. Democratic Gov. Maura Healey shared the story with a mocked up image of a Texas independence flag with a Dunkin’ beverage in the center: “COME AND TAKE IT.”
Someone replied on social media with a painting of the Boston Tea Party: “Maybe this regime needs to remember we take drinks VERY SERIOUSLY in New England.” Several people made variations of “Donut tread on me” memes.
Tea Party 2.0: Many of the comments had a Revolutionary War vibe. “The Boston Tea Party walked so the Boston Iced Coffee Party could run,” quipped one. The New York Post went there, too: “New American revolution brewing in Boston after RFK Jr. sets health safety sights on Dunkin’”
Sam Stein at The Bulwark declared Boston was in crisis because two of its most important cultural institutions — Dunkin’ and the Kennedys — were in a fight. Conservative commentator S.E. Cupp filmed a video suggesting Dunkin’ would need to be pried from her “cold dead hands.”
The politics on all of this has gotten so scrambled that I saw Democrats defending Dunkin’ Donuts like the limited government conservatives of yore. The Washington Post editorial board last night took New England’s side under the headline: In defense of sugar. (Yes, really.) I was having flashbacks to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg trying to ban Big Gulps, which led to him being mercilessly mocked as a nanny (and ultimately blocked in court). Now we’re seeing the left yell about the nanny state using Tea Party and Second Amendment symbols? It’s all a bit upside down.
CC Seattle: Total sidenote here, but Kennedy mentioned both Dunkin’ AND Starbucks. As someone born and raised in the PNW, I find it hilarious that there’s been no such revolt in Seattle, where Starbucks holds nowhere near the cultural relevance that Dunkin’ holds for Boston.
Hands off: Amid the East Coast furor, Kennedy responded to Gov. Healey on X: “No one is taking away your Dunkin’. But isn’t it reasonable to ask whether a drink loaded with 180 grams of sugar is safe?”
It’s true that some drinks at Dunkin’ contain 180 grams of sugar, which is something like 45 teaspoons, or more than ¾ of a cup of refined sugar. For context, the dietary guidelines recommend Americans eat no more than 10 grams of added sugar per meal, no more than 50 grams of added sugar per day and to not give kids any added sugar until age 11.
In a way, it’s interesting that nothing RFK Jr. has said about food to date has sparked quite this level of backlash. Kennedy often says we’re being poisoned by ultra-processed foods — something that no other top U.S. official has ever said publicly — and it doesn’t even make news. This, however, was specific: If the government were to ask Dunkin’ for safety data for a drink with 180 grams of sugar, could the coffee giant provide it? If not, could the company keep selling these drinks? (Dunkin’ has so far not responded to this saga.)
Sugar, sugar: This is not the first time the Trump administration has suggested it will ask for studies to back up high sugar coffee drinks. White House advisor Calley Means said something similar a few weeks ago about Starbucks. I asked FDA Commissioner Marty Makary about this on Wednesday at the National Food Policy Conference (listen to the interview over at American Dish).
Makary didn’t get specific on whether the FDA would ask food companies for these types of safety studies, but he did praise a petition from former FDA Commissioner David Kessler seeking to straight up ban certain highly processed carbohydrates from the food supply.
“I like the principles in the petition,” Makary said. “I’ve spoken to Dr. Kessler. This is the healthy conversation we need to have in the United States.”
“We have momentum now that we’ve never seen in the food space,” he added. “We’re going to go hard on all of this stuff and just go and push it as far as we can.”
He declined to say whether the FDA would approve Kessler’s petition: “Every decision at the agency is a decision that goes through a process. We’re one stakeholder in that broader process, but look, it makes sense.”
Bottom line: We don’t know if or when the FDA is going to start formally asking companies to produce safety data and what that would look like, but in the meantime, you can bet the uproar in New England will give some in the administration a bit of pause. It’s not like Boston is an important Republican stronghold, far from it, but extremely sugar-laden coffee is not a partisan issue, it’s an American one.
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What I’m reading
House Agriculture Committee advances a Farm Bill proposal (Civil Eats). “The House Agriculture Committee has advanced a 2026 Farm Bill, as Democrats failed to scale back Republican SNAP cuts and to remove protections for pesticide companies against individual lawsuits,” Rebekah Alvey reports. “Committee Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pennsylvania) previously told reporters that House leadership would bring the bill to the floor for a full vote, likely by Easter. But it could also face some challenges within the Republican caucus, over provisions related to pesticides that the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement has pressured lawmakers to reject. Through two days of debate this week, Democrats attempted to roll back policies passed in the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) last year that are expected to remove millions of dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. None of these amendments passed. By leaving the OBBB SNAP cuts in place, lawmakers risk future farm bills, Ranking Member Angie Craig (D-Minnesota) warned members. These cuts have ‘destroyed’ the farm bill coalition that has been key to bipartisan farm bills and that benefit both farmers and families, she said.”
Former Department of Agriculture official to run for CNY U.S. House seat (Spectrum News 1). “Former U.S. Department of Agriculture official Kailee Buller will run for the Republican nomination in New York’s 22nd Congressional District, she announced Thursday,” reports Luke Parsnow. “Buller is a native of Auburn and a food and economic policy advocate. She has most recently been serving as chief of staff to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins under the current Trump administration. She has also served as the president and CEO of the National Oilseed Processors Association and the Edible Oil Producers Association. Buller said her campaign will focus on lowering costs, restoring public trust and delivering real results on the issues facing working families.”
Dozens of medical schools back Kennedy plan on nutrition after pressure (New York Times). “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday that more than 50 medical schools would embrace a federal framework for nutrition education, after a monthslong campaign to pressure universities into accepting the government’s curriculum recommendations,” Alan Blinder, Michael C. Bender and Alice Callahan report. “Thursday’s announcement gave Mr. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda a stronger foothold in a medical community that has often criticized the secretary’s ideas, especially on vaccination, as conspiratorial and unscientific. The announcement also reinforced how the Trump administration is seeking to infuse American colleges and universities with its ideology, a departure from the country’s tradition of academic independence. The Health and Human Services Department used a blend of approaches, including the threat of funding cuts and the prospect of public praise, to entice schools. Mr. Kennedy said on Thursday that part of the process had been ‘school-led’ and that Thursday’s announcement did not represent ‘the Trump administration dictating’ curriculum.”
USDA approves SNAP waivers for 4 more states (Food Dive). “Four more states received approval for waivers allowing them to amend the statutory definition of eligible food under SNAP and exclude more products from the program, the USDA announced Wednesday,” reports Catherine Douglas Moran. “The additional states — Kansas, Nevada, Ohio and Wyoming — bring the total number of states with SNAP waivers to 22. The USDA also announced Wednesday that the Stocking Standards final rule, which changes food stocking requirements for retailers that want to accept SNAP benefits, is forthcoming.”
After months of fighting, Gov. Laura Kelly hands over personal data for SNAP recipients to Trump administration (The Beacon). “Kansas will give the federal government personal data for hundreds of thousands of food assistance recipients after spending months fighting the release of the data,” reports Blaise Mesa. “The federal government said the data will help it find waste and fraud and ensure only eligible Kansans are getting the money. Gov. Laura Kelly originally refused to hand over the data, saying the state couldn’t legally hand it over. Now, the state has agreed to give the personal data, saying it got additional privacy protections. At first, Kelly’s administration was worried that data would be used to create one large database of residents and that the information would be used for other reasons not involved with food assistance — like checking people’s immigration status. They have now been told that the SNAP data will only be used for the SNAP program.”
MAHA calls processed food ‘poison’ but dodges regulatory responsibility. That should tell you everything. (Food Dive). “The Make America Healthy Again movement says processed foods are poisoning us. If that is literally true, it would represent an existential threat to the American public. One would think the federal government would move heaven and earth to protect its citizens,” writes Sean McBride in an opinion piece. “But MAHA isn’t doing the work needed to show that action against ultraprocessed foods is needed to protect health. In fact, the movement is doing little of anything to regulate the sector, instead deciding to ‘tar and feather’ food companies and defer its immense regulatory power to elected politicians in a few states. The discord between MAHA’s words and deeds seems odd, but it makes sense if you take a closer look.”
Overcoming impasse in nutrition science (Cell Metabolism). “In his seminal book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn argued that science advances not through the steady accumulation of knowledge but in stages punctuated by shifts that transform an entire scientific discipline,” writes David S. Ludwig. “Most of the time, scientists work within an accepted worldview or paradigm, with shared tenets, conventions, and experimental methods. This stage, termed ‘normal science’ by Kuhn, ‘is predicated on the assumption that the scientific community knows what the world is like.’ Normal science, however, contains the seeds of its own demise. My thesis is that paradigm clash tends to stagnate in nutrition research, with inconclusive debates that may persist for decades. Using the conflict between models of obesity pathogenesis as a case study, I examine the roots of scientific impasse and outline a path forward.”
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