Your Cheat Sheet for the MAHA Report

This week, the MAHA Commission Report was released. The report was highly anticipated as a culmination of the Make America Healthy Again agenda and the start of a planning process for possible policy changes. The report begins with a call to arms over the health of America’s children. It points out that by many metrics, the health of children has gotten worse — rates of chronic illness have gone up, and mental health diagnoses have also increased.

Some of these changes, like the increase in mental health treatment, may reflect better access to care and not worse health. Yet there is no question that some health metrics are moving in the wrong direction. What is less clear is whether the causes suggested in the report are, in fact, what is driving these changes. Understanding the causes is essential when it comes to finding solutions. Otherwise, we are creating policies that address the wrong things and possibly cause more harm.

There is a lot in this report, and as a reader of ParentData, I suspect you’ll find yourself frequently asking…what does the data say about that? So here is your cheat sheet — ten articles about some of the report’s main themes that can provide helpful context and hopefully lower the panic.

You can find the data on many other issues named in the report, including forever chemicals in breast milk, sugar consumption, food dyes, family meals, and EMF radiation, by searching ParentData.org. Our approach to data means that everything you read is backed by credible research.