Leaked MAHA Document Outlines Sweeping Federal Strategy on Childhood Chronic Disease
A draft of the Trump Administration’s Make Our Children Healthy Again (MAHA) Strategy, the much-anticipated follow-on to the May 2025 MAHA Assessment, was leaked Friday afternoon, providing an initial view of how the Administration intends to tackle what it calls the “childhood chronic disease crisis.”
While the Administration has not formally released the document, the leak has triggered immediate reaction from public health advocates, industry groups, and lawmakers, some praising its scope while others question its scientific rigor and alignment with existing federal nutrition policy.
Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy
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Key Themes and Initiatives
Four “Root Cause” Drivers Identified
The draft strategy is organized around four major drivers of childhood chronic disease:
Poor diet dominated by “highly-processed foods.”
Chemical exposure from synthetic compounds and pesticides.
Lack of physical activity and chronic stress tied to screen time, sleep deprivation, and sedentary lifestyles.
Overmedicalization and overprescription of psychiatric and other drugs to children.
Expanded Federal Research and Data Integration
The strategy calls for a Whole-Person-Health research approach led by a new NIH Chronic Disease Task Force, with initiatives on sleep, nutrition, supplements, and “fitness as a vital sign.” Notably, it proposes a Real World Data Platform linking claims, EHR, and wearable device data to accelerate chronic disease research, leveraging AI, high-throughput analytics, and new approach methodologies (NAMs) such as organ-on-a-chip systems.
Other research priorities include cumulative chemical exposure, autism etiology, vaccine injury, water and air quality impacts, microplastics, and pediatric mental health tied to prescribing patterns.
Major Food and Nutrition Policy Changes
The draft lays out significant proposed reforms to FDA, USDA, and HHS nutrition policy, including:
Banning or restricting petroleum-based food dyes and encouraging plant-based color sources. This initiative is already being implemented by multiple companies and is likewise advancing through efforts at the state level.
Defining “ultra-processed food” at the federal level to guide research and policy. This effort is underway via an ongoing request for comment from HHS, FDA, and USDA. Comments must be submitted by September 23, 2025.
Reforming the GRAS designation for food additives and enhancing post-market chemical review.
Updating infant formula standards and promoting breastfeeding, including donor milk safety policies.
Aligning school meals, WIC, and SNAP with the forthcoming 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines, prioritizing “whole foods.”
Regulatory and Structural Overhauls
In one of the more sweeping proposals, HHS would create a new Administration for a Healthy America to coordinate chronic disease prevention. Additional deregulatory measures target agriculture (streamlining organic certification, easing rules for small farms), food sales (lifting whole milk restrictions in schools), and FDA processes (reducing certain clinical trial requirements, promoting regenerative medicine innovation).
The draft also emphasizes “conflict-of-interest” reforms, mandating public disclosure of research funding, restricting advisory committee participation by financially interested parties, and reviewing public-private foundation relationships.
Public Awareness and Education Campaigns
The MAHA strategy envisions nationwide campaigns on healthy eating, screen time reduction, physical fitness (including reviving the Presidential Fitness Test), and risks from vaping, THC, and certain synthetic opioids. The Surgeon General would lead multiple initiatives, and agencies would coordinate messaging on environmental health risks to children.
Public-Private Partnerships and Precision Agriculture
Proposals include incentivizing industry to phase out certain food dyes and additives, expanding access to whole foods in institutional settings, promoting soil health, and advancing precision agriculture technologies for targeted pesticide use.
Next Steps
The leaked document is still in draft form; the Administration has not indicated whether it will revise the strategy before the formal public release. Once finalized, the strategy would serve as the executive branch blueprint for MAHA implementation, guiding agency budgets, regulatory agendas, and interagency coordination.
Leaders in the food, agriculture, health care, and consumer products sectors should closely track this document’s process, both for new compliance obligations and for potential opportunities in research, product reformulation, nutrition programs, and public-private initiatives. Stakeholder engagement during the formal rollout could shape final program design, regulatory frameworks, and funding priorities.