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American Dish

American Dish

De : Helena Bottemiller Evich
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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.Copyright 2026 Helena Bottemiller Evich Alimentation et vin Art Cuisine Hygiène et vie saine Politique et gouvernement Sciences politiques
Épisodes
  • Lessons from a 13-year old lobbying for gluten labeling, with Jon and Jax Bari

    Lessons from a 13-year old lobbying for gluten labeling, with Jon and Jax Bari
    Jul 22 2026

    At the 2023 HHS Food Is Medicine Summit, one item on the buffet was considered safe for 10-year-old Jax Bari to eat: an apple.

    Everything else was a gamble because gluten isn't required on food labels in the U.S. the way it is in 87 other countries. For someone with celiac disease, that disclosure means a whole lot — a tiny bit of gluten can mean days of vomiting, diarrhea and severe pain.

    Jax is now 13, and he's still on a mission to convince Washington that gluten labeling should be mandatory. He and his dad, Jon Bari, founded the non-profit Celiac Journey, and have spent the past several years lobbying both the Biden and Trump administrations. They’ve filed a citizen petition with the FDA, met with lawmakers, and even cornered the FDA commissioner in an elevator — all in pursuit of one specific ask: add gluten to the FDA's list of major food allergens.

    Highlights:

    – Jax's advocacy started with a second-grade persuasive-letter assignment addressed to David Muir, which turned into national ABC News coverage and a White House invitation.

    – The FDA's January 2026 request for information on gluten labeling drew more than 6,000 public comments, with about 99.5% in support.

    – Per Jon Bari: The opposition includes the Consumer Brands Association and, more surprisingly, the Celiac Disease Foundation itself, which is funded by General Mills, the largest oat seller in the U.S.

    – Three possible paths forward are now on the table: Secretary Kennedy's existing rulemaking authority, a potential executive order, or new legislation, including the bipartisan Faster Act and the separately introduced Celiac Safety Act.

    Where to find Jon and Jax Bari:

    Celiac Journey

    Instagram: @celiacjourney

    Instagram: @glutenfreefinds_pa

    Mentioned in this episode:

    FDA Request for Information on gluten labeling (Federal Register)

    Celiac Safety Act of 2026, H.R. 9048 (Congress.gov)

    "The great sesame debacle" — Food Fix

    Jax Bari's David Muir/ABC News "World News Tonight" segment

    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.
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    50 min
  • Inside the race to understand America’s growing food allergy epidemic with Ilana Golant

    Inside the race to understand America’s growing food allergy epidemic with Ilana Golant
    Jul 8 2026

    Ten percent of Americans are estimated to have food allergies — and that’s probably an undercount. The government hasn't updated its population data in nearly a decade, so the real figure could be more like 12 or even 15 percent.

    Despite the scale of food allergies, food allergy research gets a small fraction of the funding devoted to comparable chronic diseases — and the gap has stayed remarkably persistent even as public and political attention has increased.

    Ilana Golant, founder and CEO of the non-profit Food Allergy Fund, is on a mission to close this gap. Food allergies are common, so why are they being funded like a rare disease? Food Allergy Fund advocates for more federal research funding and also directly funds microbiome research, drug repurposing trials, and work to develop new AI diagnostic tools for allergy testing, among other research.

    Ilana didn't come to this work through a traditional public health career path — she came to it as a mom and also as a patient with food allergies.

    Highlights:

    – Why 75 percent of food allergy kids under 12 now have multiple food allergies, and what happened to "the peanut-allergic kid"

    – The funding gap between food allergies and comparable chronic diseases, broken down per patient

    – What early allergen introduction did and didn't do to change allergy rates for children

    – Inside the Food Allergy Fund's drug repurposing program and cutting edge microbiome research

    – Why so many food allergy clinical trials are now running in Australia instead of the U.S.

    – The growing problem of unlabeled allergens hiding in medications

    – How the sesame labeling law backfired, and ended up putting sesame in more foods, not fewer

    – Alpha-gal syndrome, ticks creeping into city parks, and the rise of adult-onset food allergies

    Where to find Ilana Golant:

    Food Allergy Fund website

    Food Allergy Fund on Instagram

    Mentioned in this episode:

    The ADINA Act

    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.
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    45 min
  • Why millions of people are dropping from SNAP and what comes next, with Gina Plata-Nino

    Why millions of people are dropping from SNAP and what comes next, with Gina Plata-Nino
    Jun 24 2026
    More than 4 million people have dropped out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the past year — an unprecedented drop that hasn’t gotten much attention in the media.As SNAP Director at the Food Research and Action Center, Gina Plata-Nino is tracking all of this very closely. FRAC fought hard against the $187 billion in SNAP cuts Congress passed through reconciliation last July. That legislation made it much harder (and in some cases impossible) for certain individuals to access SNAP and left states staring down billions in new costs they weren't expecting to carry. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has stopped measuring food insecurity rates. New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicates hunger levels are higher today than at the peak of the pandemic.Gina came to this work from the ground up — through legal aid in Massachusetts, representing clients who couldn't navigate a benefits system so complex it sometimes requires a lawyer to navigate it. She ultimately landed as a senior advisor in the Biden White House where she helped build the national strategy on hunger, nutrition, and health. Now she's at FRAC, fighting to protect access to SNAP, a program that helps feed nearly 37 million people.Highlights:– Who uses SNAP, and what the program's average recipient earns per month– The reconciliation law passed last July (the biggest cuts to SNAP in history) and how states are scrambling to prepare– Why Arizona's SNAP participation has dropped nearly 50%– Why some states may stop running SNAP entirely– What the FNS relocation to regional hubs — now renamed the Food and Nutrition Administration — means for the 16 nutrition programs that serve one in four Americans– SNAP restrictions: how half the states now have waivers to ban certain products, and why FRAC believes the evaluations are inadequate– New York Fed data showing hunger now exceeds pandemic-era levels, and why USDA's decision to stop measuring food insecurity makes this even more alarmingWhere to find Gina Plata-Nino:On LinkedInFRAC.orgGina's work at FRACMentioned in this episode:FRAC statement opposing FNS/FNA relocationNew York Fed: More people are going hungry now than at the height of the pandemic (NPR)FRAC: Shifting the Burden — How Reconciliation Reshapes SNAP and Strains State BudgetsFRAC: Food security supplement and why it is neededFRAC: Backgrounder on quality control and payment error ratesStay 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.coCheck 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.
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    50 min
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