Snapshot 7:Fri, Jan 16, 2026 6:37:26 PM GMT last edited by KateHennig

Trump Signs the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act

Is whole milk’s return to school lunches a defining win for MAHA’s “real food” agenda, or is it a rollback that will raise kids’ saturated fat and heart-disease risk?

Published 7 days ago

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Above: U.S. President Donald Trump signs the "Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act" at the White House on Jan. 14. Image credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The Spin

Bringing whole milk back to schools marks a massive victory for children's health and common sense. Whole milk delivers essential nutrients, protein and healthy fats critical for brain development that kids desperately need to grow and thrive. The Obama-era ban on whole milk contributed to skyrocketing childhood obesity and diabetes rates over the past 15 years, and ending this war on saturated fat finally puts real food back on lunch trays, just as Secretary Kennedy's new inverted food pyramid intended. This is what MAHA looks like.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on X FOX News

America First Policy Institute on X

Forcing full-fat dairy back into schools prioritizes dairy industry profits over children's health and ignores decades of research linking saturated fats to heart disease and obesity. Early signs of cardiovascular disease are appearing in children with increasing frequency, and adding more saturated fat to lunch trays will only worsen this crisis. Whole milk provides zero nutrients unavailable from healthier sources like beans, nuts and fortified plant-based alternatives. If this is MAHA, it’s just industry marketing dressed up as nutrition.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Center for Science in the Public Interest STAT

Trump’s whole-milk victorymove isn’t boldreal MAHA reform — it’s a timid half-stepmeasure that exposes the fracturesmovement’s insidefault MAHA itselflines. HardcoreWhole supportersmilk aren’tis cheering;still they’repasteurized, furiousstill theindustrial, administrationstill stoppedcontrolled atby pasteurizedBig milkAgribusiness. whileReal leavingfood freedom means raw dairy criminalized.straight Tofrom them,small wholefamily milkfarms, isnot stillgovernment-approved “processed,”milk stillwith Biga Ag–approved,different andfat still government-controlledpercentage. IfUntil MAHAraw milk is about real food freedomlegalized, critics say, this lawis provespolitics, Washingtonnot isn’ta ready to go all the wayrevolution.