This week, the Iowa House passed legislation titled the Iowa Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) bill. House File 2676 passed 61-31, with all Democrats unfortunately voting no for the second time. This comprehensive bill ensures that taxpayer funds are not making Iowa’s children obese and creating poor health outcomes for life, while also focusing on the reality that physical movement helps not just physical health, but mental health.
Iowa currently ranks 11th in the nation for adult obesity. One in six children in Iowa is considered obese. Obesity leads to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and, as many of the members of this legislature are concerned, several types of cancers. These obesity related diseases often disproportionately affect lower-income individuals at a higher rate. The leading cause of death in Iowa is heart disease.
SNAP Healthy Standards – This bill prohibits soda and candy from being purchased under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The legislature would like to emphasize the nutrition aspect of this taxpayer-funded program to assist low-income individuals. According to a 2016 USDA study of foods purchased with SNAP funds, 20 cents of every dollar was spent on sweetened beverages, desserts, salty snacks, candy, and sugar. This bill ensures that taxpayer funds are not going to fund poor health outcomes that do not alleviate hunger.
School Nutrition – This bill prohibits schools and vendors from serving breakfast and lunch that contain blue dye 1 and 2, green dye 3, potassium bromate, propylparaben, red dye 40, yellow dye 5, and 6. This section is the first step to ensuring that taxpayer funds are not harming Iowa’s children and setting them up for a healthy future lifestyle. For example, blue dye 1 has been linked to behavioral difficulties, red dye 40 has been linked to ADHD symptoms, and yellow dye 5 has been linked to sleep disturbances.
Technology in Schools – This bill recognizes the harm constant use of technology has on children’s learning, attention span, and mental health. The bill reasonably limits K-5 digital instruction to 60 minutes per school day while also allowing parents to opt out of all digital instruction. This bill prohibits the use of cell phones during recess, when children should be playing rather than sitting behind another device. This bill also requires school districts to go through their device policy and see if one-to-one devices are really necessary for education, and evaluate if there should be additional limits placed on grades 6-12.
Physical Activity and Presidential Fitness Test – This bill requires 10 additional minutes per day of physical activity for kindergarten through 4th grade. That change will lead the nation in physical activity for children. This bill also requires the presidential fitness test for grades 1-12.
Physician Nutrition Education – This bill requires medical schools in Iowa to require at least 40 hours of coursework on nutrition and metabolic health to graduate. This bill also requires nutrition continuing education for certain doctors and physician assistants. These initiatives aim to ensure that our medical community is focusing on their patients, leading a healthy lifestyle, and becoming more personally responsible for their own health outcomes.
This bill additionally allows pharmacies to offer ivermectin over-the-counter, allows for nasal epinephrine delivery systems in schools, and allows the state to participate in the psychology compact to attract more psychologists to Iowa. This amendment can now be considered by the Senate.
