American moms lead charge to make America healthy again

Women, and especially mothers, want to make America healthy again, says conservative podcaster and self-proclaimed “health and wellness girlie” Alex Clark.

During a Monday American Health and Nutrition roundtable hosted by Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Clark made an emotional plea for mothers concerned about the rising incidence of physical and mental illness in children.

I, like many other women concerned with fertility and life expectancy, am not paranoid. We’re just trying to minimize our exposure to carcinogens for ourselves and our future children’s sake.

“Just to reiterate the war on moms in this country, today virtually everything a child eats or drinks will be served on a plastic plate or in a plastic bottle or will be eaten from a plastic container with plastic utensils,” Clark implored the room.

“Human breast milk now contains thousands of microplastics. If you need formula, you can’t find it without inflammatory seed oils or soy. Parents have to order it and buy it from Europe. Does this seem overwhelming to you? Good! This is what the American mom deals with every day.”

Plastic planet

Are microplastics in the bloodstream really cause for alarm? Well, studies in cell cultures, marine wildlife, and animal models indicate that microplastics can cause oxidative damage, DNA damage, and changes in gene activity, known risks for cancer development, according to Harvard Medical School's Harvard Medicine magazine. And yes, microplastics have been found in human breast milk and meconium, an infant’s first stool.

While the Atlantic has already dismissed the roundtable as a “woo woo caucus,” many women on both sides of the aisle seem to be sensitive to the issue. Popular mainstream podcast "The Skinny Confidential" recently hosted Clark to talk more about her health activism.

The fertility crisis haunts many women. Chemicals in plastics, like bisphenol A, can potentially compromise fertility, according to a July study from Science Direct. And then once they’re moms, women would prefer not to poison their kids unknowingly if they can help it.

Tupperwon't

Ahead of the curve, my mom ran a mainly organic household. Even crunchier than her, I threw out my plastic Tupperware and replaced it with glass and stainless steel. I, like many other women concerned with fertility and life expectancy, am not paranoid. We’re just trying to minimize our exposure to carcinogens for ourselves and our future children’s sake.

After declaring the childhood disease issue a shared policy priority with the Trump campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also invited independent-minded women with whom that issue resonates to join him in advocating for more transparency on chemical additives in products we consume.

Jillian Michaels, nutritionist and fitness guru formerly of the reality TV show "The Biggest Loser," also delivered a passionate speech at Johnson’s event.

“I don't know about you, but I've watched my friends jabbing themselves every day with fertility drugs, praying for a pregnancy,” she said. “My friends getting up at the crack of dawn to get radiated where the lump was found in their breast.”

Diverging a bit from free-market orthodoxy, I lament that the U.S. has not banned, like the European Union has, ingredients that are known endocrine disruptors, or chemical compounds that interfere with the normal functioning of the endocrine system. That includes antibacterial ingredient triclosan, five different parabens, commonly found in lotion and hair care products, and phthalates, commonly found in perfume.

Skin-deep

Without EU-level government interference, however, the U.S. beauty market has adapted to demand for cleaner products. Household name brands such as Procter & Gamble now explicitly advertise when their products are formulated without the aforementioned toxins. Sephora now has an entire suite of “clean” beauty products with a special green label to guide consumer choice. And women seem to be loving them. Clean makeup brand Kosas has generated a lot of buzz on TikTok, with #Kosas gathering over 200 million views.

But scavenging for hours for clean alternatives is a luxury few women can afford. Organic produce, which generally means it’s made with no synthetic growth hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, or biotechnology, is expensive. All of this puts the burden of vigilance on women to find products that don’t jeopardize their or their kids’ health.

Of course, there is a point at which the crunchy craze goes off the rails. There are reasons why we wear sunscreen and pasteurize milk. But at least judging by social media reels, many women have a newfound interest in what they’re consuming.

Who knows, maybe there’s something in the water.