Roughly 40% of U.S. adults were considered obese between August 2021-August 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. That’s up from 15% in 1976, according to the National Institutes of Health.
“I don't think that our government has focused as much as we should on these root causes [of chronic disease],” Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said during the Nov. 13 hearing. “We're not addressing regulation of food additives and other factors that may be strongly connected to this phenomenon. Very little attention has been paid to the increasing reliance on processed diets in the U.S. or what [companies] add into their products.”
In Texas, the percentage of obese adults rose from 30.9% in 2013 to 36.1% in 2021 and fell to 34.4% in 2023, per CDC data. Meanwhile, diseases like colon cancer are becoming more prevalent in younger adults, Community Impact previously reported.
The big picture
Texas senators said Nov. 13 they were interested in tightening regulations on food additives, like chemicals and artificial dyes, to improve food safety and better inform consumers.
“We’re about to start pushing here, because this is about people’s lives,” said Kolkhorst, who chairs the committee. “We’ve got to be impacting these children that have Type 2 diabetes—their life is literally going to be altered forever because of choices. Maybe their parents didn't know they were making bad choices, or maybe the food source is wrong.”
2.7 million Texans have been diagnosed with diabetes, according to the Episcopal Health Foundation, and 7.1 million others have prediabetes, which occurs when an individual has a higher-than-normal blood sugar level and is at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
“Despite exercising more than ever, despite having more pharmaceuticals, more treatments, more medical devices than ever, Americans are facing an existential crisis where physical health, fertility and mental health metrics have never been worse,” said Jason Karp, CEO of health company HumanCo.
Zooming in
Karp, who founded HumanCo after being diagnosed with multiple autoimmune diseases in his 20s, said the “root cause” of Americans’ health issues is “the unchecked and misguided industrialization of agriculture and food.”
Karp pointed to the European Union, where certain food additives are banned or restricted. The EU banned titanium dioxide, which is used to add color to food, in 2022 over concerns that it may cause damage to DNA or chromosomes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows titanium dioxide to be used in food as long as it does not exceed 1% of the food’s weight, but does not require the additive to be listed as an ingredient.
Since 2010, the EU has required products containing synthetic dyes, such as Red Dye 40, to include a warning that the food “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.”
“I believe Texas, as well as our entire great nation, should protect its people just as many other developed countries do,” Karp told state senators Nov. 13. “If Texas adopts a more precautionary regulatory approach with food additives, we can take a significant and absolutely necessary step in both providing safer food and lowering our health care costs.”
Earlier this year, California became the first state to ban six artificial dyes from food and drinks served at public schools. The California Food Safety Act, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 28, will prohibit public schools from serving foods containing Blue Dye 1, Blue Dye 2, Green Dye 3, Red Dye 40, Yellow Dye 5 or Yellow Dye 6 beginning in late 2027.
Senators said they would like to see Texas follow suit.
“These known toxins that other countries and other [states] have already said, ‘No, you're not going to poison our people over here’—it's time for us to step up and join in,” Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, said. “Let’s just stop the bad stuff. We're not going to change people's habits overnight on how they raise their kids and what they eat and how they cook ... but we can at least do the responsible thing.”
Bills to watch
Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, filed a bill Nov. 12 that would ban seven food additives from free and reduced-price meals served in Texas public schools. Senate Bill 314 lists brominated vegetable oil (BVO), potassium bromate, propylparaben, azodicarbonamide, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), Red Dye 3 and titanium dioxide as the proposed substances to be banned. Hughes is a member of the Senate Health and Human Services committee but was absent from the Nov. 13 hearing.
Rep. Caroline Harris Davila, R-Round Rock, filed an identical bill in the Texas House.
The FDA banned BVO on Aug. 2, giving companies one year to reformulate, relabel and stop selling products containing the stabilizer. Few U.S. products still use BVO, according to the FDA.
Put in perspective
While life expectancy has risen in recent years, Americans are getting sick earlier in life, experts said Nov. 13. Colon and rectal cancer are the leading cause of cancer deaths in men under age 50 and the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in women under age 50, according to a 2024 report by the American Cancer Society.
“People are living sick longer,” Karp said. “So, I don't think necessarily lifespan is the only variable to look at. ‘Health span’ is a new term that they're using, which is how you feel when you're 60 or 70 or 80.”
Kolkhorst said solving issues with nutrition and health require changes across the board.
“I think this goes into the pharmaceutical conversation, the training of our medical workforce, what we’re eating, the discoveries we make that give us longevity,” Kolkhorst said. “And not just, ‘Wow, I made it to 80, but I don’t recognize my name and I don’t know my daughter,’—but ‘I made it to 80 and still have a lifestyle that is valued.’ So I do think we have a long way to go, and unfortunately, the most developed country in the world is behind.”
Eric Boerwinkle, dean of the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, said 80% of health outcomes are driven by “nonmedical factors,” such as access to healthy food.
Both agriculture and health care need to be a part of the conversation, Boerwinkle said.
“It’s important, as we think about what we can do to improve the health of Texas, [to consider] how we bridge health care and the social service providers or community organizations that are helping us with food distribution, or industry that's helping us with food quality,” he said.
