American Dish

Helena Bottemiller Evich

From Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” to Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign, America is in the midst of a food and nutrition policy awakening. Why are diet-related disease rates so high in the U.S.? What are the potential solutions? What does the science say? Award-winning journalist Helena Bottemiller Evich cuts through the noise to help us understand what’s really happening with our food system and our plates.

Episodios

  1. HACE 7 H

    Sam Kass on climate change and the Michelle Obama era

    Sam Kass calls RFK Jr. "the greatest threat to public health this country has ever faced." He’s not joking. Sam led Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign, served as senior policy advisor in the Obama White House, and fought some of the most brutal food policy battles in recent memory. He knows what it takes to enact regulation and how hard industry will fight to protect its interests. Hearing MAHA panic about seed oils and food dyes while the administration weakens the FDA and CDC all while championing beef tallow french fries is downright alarming, he says. And that’s before we even get to the fact that the Trump administration is moving backward on responding to the climate crisis, which is the focus of his latest book, The Last Supper. Sam doesn’t hold back in this interview. Heads up for those with kids: There are some expletives in this conversation. Highlights: – How Big Potato fought the White House over what counts as a vegetable in school lunch and WIC – The reason why Sam's first cookbook didn't include white potatoes – The trans fat ban fight – How climate change has moved from future threat to present crisis – Why seed oils and food dyes are a distraction from what actually matters for public health – Fact-checking the narrative that Michelle Obama "caved to industry" – Democrats lost the food issue to Republicans — can they get it back? Where to find Sam Kass: Follow Sam Kass on Instagram Check out his book, The Last Supper Mentioned in this episode: Bold Fork Books The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 Marion Nestle's Food Politics blog Fed Up documentary COP 21 Paris Climate Agreement How I Built This: Spindrift — Bill Creelman Stay in touch: Sign up for Helena’s must-read weekly newsletter: Food Fix. Follow American Dish on Instagram and YouTube. Send ideas and feedback to info@foodfix.co Check out Forked, the food politics podcast Helena co-hosts with the Food & Environment Reporting Network. Credits: This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz. Original music by David Bottemiller.

    1 h y 10 min
  2. HACE 7 H

    Inside the MAHA movement with Vani Hari

    She says she hates politics. She's also been on the White House lawn with the FDA commissioner, helped pressure food companies to drop artificial dyes, and is now one of the most influential voices within the Make America Healthy Again movement. Vani Hari, better known as the Food Babe, built a massive following pressuring food companies to ditch controversial ingredients long before MAHA was a thing. How did she go from an activist food blogger to one of the most dominant forces in food policy? Note: This interview originally aired on Forked, the food politics podcast Helena co-hosts with Theodore Ross with the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Helena and Ted spoke with Vani in late January — before the glyphosate executive order dropped and before Vani announced a rally at the Supreme Court. Highlights: – The glyphosate fault line - why the Trump administration’s alignment with Bayer in a Supreme Court case has infuriated MAHA advocates, and what Vani thinks should actually happen – The farm lobby is a much harder target than Big Food, and what that means for MAHA's agenda – MAHA's political future may hinge on what happens at the EPA before the midterms – Comparing American food ingredients to their European counterparts has become a potent political argument Where to find Vani Hari: Food Babe website Vani Hari on Instagram Mentioned in this episode: Forked podcast Trump executive order on glyphosate/Defense Production Act New Dietary Guidelines Stay in touch: Sign up for Helena’s must-read weekly newsletter: Food Fix. Follow American Dish on Instagram and YouTube. Send ideas and feedback to info@foodfix.co Check out Forked, the food politics podcast Helena co-hosts with the Food & Environment Reporting Network. Credits: This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz. Original music by David Bottemiller.

    55 min
  3. HACE 7 H

    MAHA promised change. Marion Nestle isn't buying it.

    The Trump administration says we're being poisoned by our food system. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talks about ultra-processed foods, pesticides, and corporate capture of our health agencies. It's rhetoric that in many ways sounds like it came straight from the progressive food movement. Marion Nestle helped build that movement — and so far she's not impressed. An emerita professor at New York University, Nestle is 89, has written 17 books about food policy, founded the field of food politics, and writes the must-read blog foodpolitics.com. She's earned the right to be blunt. And in this conversation, she is. Highlights: – Marion's career journey and how food politics became a field of study – How to identify ultra-processed foods – Why it took so long for UPFs to become part of the conversation – The gap between MAHA rhetoric and policy reality – GLP-1 drugs as an existential threat to the food industry – The dietary guidelines' inherent conflicts (promoting agriculture vs. telling people to eat less) – School food funding and why every school should have a garden – What Marion would actually do if she were in charge of food policy Editorial note: We recorded this conversation before the Trump administration released the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030. Where to find Marion Nestle: Sign up for her must-read daily blog at foodpolitics.com Check out her latest book, What to Eat Now Other books by Marion Nestle Mentioned in this episode: The Lancet series on ultra-processed foods Kevin Hall's NIH research/clinical trials on ultra-processed foods The latest MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) report Marion Nestle's 2013 article about GRAS GRAS reform proposal heads to White House for review Stay in touch: Sign up for Helena’s must-read weekly newsletter: Food Fix. Follow American Dish on Instagram and YouTube. Send ideas and feedback to info@foodfix.co Check out Forked, the food politics podcast Helena co-hosts with the Food & Environment Reporting Network. Credits: This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz. Original music by David Bottemiller.

    45 min

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From Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” to Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign, America is in the midst of a food and nutrition policy awakening. Why are diet-related disease rates so high in the U.S.? What are the potential solutions? What does the science say? Award-winning journalist Helena Bottemiller Evich cuts through the noise to help us understand what’s really happening with our food system and our plates.

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