America’s next health revolution starts in the Kitchen — and around the dinner table

There’s a quiet crisis at America’s dinner tables. Where once children grew up on home-cooked meals built from real ingredients, today more than 60% of kids’ calories come from ultra-processed foods. Instead of nutrient-rich dinners with parents and siblings, many children graze on chips, sodas and boxed meals eaten alone in front of a glowing screen. It’s a major health problem, exacerbated by our fast-paced, convenience-driven culture.

Food has been stripped of meaning. It’s not treated as fuel, and it’s certainly not treated as family. It’s become an industrial product — calories on a shelf, far removed from the farms and soil that once rooted us to real nourishment. For generations, mealtime anchored households and communities. It was the moment where lessons were passed down, bonds were built, and children learned what it meant to belong. When we outsource food to factories and packaging plants, we’re not only trading nutrients for additives and tradition for convenience. American kids are paying the price with their health.

The surge in childhood obesity, diabetes, anxiety and chronic conditions has many causes, but poor diet sits at the root. The problem isn’t just "too much" food — it’s the wrong food: brightly colored dyes linked to hyperactivity, cheap sugars spiking insulin and preservatives disrupting hormones. The science is catching up to what parents have known instinctively: children thrive on real food. They decline on food-like substances.

FOR THE FIRST TIME, THERE ARE MORE CHILDREN IN THE WORLD WHO ARE OBESE THAN UNDERWEIGHT

This is not a niche concern for wellness influencers. It’s a pro-family, pro-America issue. Strong families depend on strong children. Strong children depend on real nourishment. And restoring that cycle requires more than another public health campaign. It requires cultural renewal.

As a chef, I’ve watched processed food reshape the American palate. Kids come into restaurants and don’t know what a tomato tastes like unless it’s in ketchup. They’ve grown up on hyper-engineered flavors — neon orange powders, corn syrup and powdered cheese — that overwhelm the senses and have an addictive synthetic taste. That’s why so many kids push back when they taste real food: it’s not what they’re accustomed to. But when you strip things back — roast a chicken, grill a piece of fish, serve fresh veggies lightly seasoned with real salt — you see a transformation. I’ve watched teenagers who swore they "hated seafood" change their minds with one bite of fresh, wild-caught tuna, myself included! I was a victim of this fake food movement. Food can change lives when we give kids the chance to experience the real thing.

That means supporting families who want to cook, but feel squeezed by time and budget. It means giving farmers the freedom to bring fresh products to schools without bureaucratic barriers. It means telling the truth about what’s in our food supply and closing the loopholes that allow chemical additives to slip through without real oversight. And it means lifting up the simple, patriotic truth: choosing real food is not elitism, it’s common sense.

And here’s where conservation matters. Healthy food starts with healthy soil. Regions that invest in stewarding their land — rotating crops, protecting pollinators, caring for the microbiome of the soil — produce food that is more nutrient-dense and sustainable for generations. Supporting local farmers, ranchers, and fishermen is good economics AND good health policy. By strengthening regional farming and conservation practices, we give families access to food that heals.

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Cooking doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. In many cases, the underutilized cuts of meat, fish or even veggies taste better and cost less. Families can make small shifts that add up — swap soda for sparkling water with fresh citrus and simple syrup or trade fast food for a weekly "family taco night" where kids help chop vegetables and build their own plates. Sheet-pan meals, soups and stews built from real ingredients can feed a family faster than a drive-thru line. And there’s a cultural piece too; when kids see their parents cook, they learn that food isn’t just about calories, it’s about connection. I have learned as a father of 4 that when my kids cook their own food, they will pridefully eat it (even if it’s not up to my chef standards). Even twenty minutes around the table gives children something processed food never can — belonging.

We can’t regulate or medicate our way out of this crisis. We have to rebuild healthier habits from the ground up. That starts in the kitchen, and it starts by reconnecting families to the land that feeds them.

If conservatives are serious about family values, we must treat food as a family value too. The dinner table is more than a place to eat. It’s where health, culture and character are formed. To defend it is to defend America’s future.

For me, there’s pride in sourcing from American farmers, ranchers and fishermen. Every time I put a plate in front of someone built from ingredients grown here at home, it feels like a vote for our health and our heritage. "Made in America" shouldn’t just apply to cars or steel, it should apply to what we feed our families. Real food is about more than health; it’s about identity, resilience, tradition and passing something down to the next generation. If we want strong families and a strong nation, we must remember that food is a family value. And the revolution to reclaim it starts where it always has —  in the kitchen. 

Danielle Franz is the CEO of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), the largest conservative environmental organization in the country.