California Moves to Eliminate Ultraprocessed Foods from School Lunches — by 2035

Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health

Briana Mercola

Alternative Health, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

California became the first state in the U.S. to ban ultraprocessed foods from public school lunches under the "Real Food, Healthy Kids Act," but the full phase-out won't take effect until 2035
Ultraprocessed foods — packed with vegetable oils, additives, and refined sugars — are engineered to trigger cravings and disrupt metabolism, contributing to childhood obesity, insulin resistance, and fatty liver disease
A study in JAMA Network Open found that preschoolers who ate the most ultraprocessed foods had higher body fat, larger waistlines, elevated blood sugar, and lower levels of protective HDL cholesterol
The delayed timeline leaves millions of children unprotected for nearly a decade, underscoring the urgent need for parents to remove ultraprocessed foods and vegetable oils from their homes now
You can protect your child's long-term health by replacing processed snacks with real foods, eliminating vegetable oils, cooking at home, reducing exposure to junk food ads, and teaching kids how to spot marketing tricks

Transcript

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0:00.0	Is your child's school lunch, teaching cravings, insulin resistance, and fatty liver, long before high school?
0:06.0	Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy-to-listen summaries of our latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go.
0:15.0	No reading required. Subscribe for free at Mercola.com for the latest health insights.
0:20.0	Hello and welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom.
0:24.4	I'm Ethan Foster.
0:26.3	Today we're examining California's new Real Food Healthy Kids Act,
0:30.6	the first statewide move to remove ultra-processed foods from public school lunches.
0:36.1	It's a major shift, signed Octoberth, 2025, with full implementation by July 1st, 2035. I'm Alara Sky. This law defines ultra-processed foods by their engineered ingredients, non-nutrative sweeteners, emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners, flavor enhancers,
0:57.1	artificial dyes, and concentrated sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats. It acknowledges that these
1:04.1	additives are built for shelf life and hyper-pallitability, not your child's metabolic health.
1:10.7	Parents should also understand the timeline.
1:12.6	While the law is historic, enforcement is slow.
1:15.6	Vendors aren't required to begin reporting ultra-processed ingredients until February 1st,
1:21.6	2008, and the complete phase-out waits until 2035,
1:26.6	that leaves years where children remain exposed to
1:28.9	foods already linked to obesity, insulin resistance, and fatty liver disease.
1:34.8	The pushback was intense.
1:37.7	Industry lobbying fought hard to stop this bill, yet it still passed with overwhelming bipartisan
1:42.6	support.
1:43.9	Only one legislator voted no.
1:46.0	That consensus shows how broad the concern has become
1:49.0	among families who want school meals
	...

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