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By Alan Greenblatt, KFF Health News When one of Adam Burkhammer’s foster children struggled with hyperactivity, the West Virginia legislator and his wife decided to alter their diet and remove any foods that contained synthetic dyes. “We saw a turnaround in his behavior, and our other children,” said Burkhammer, who has adopted or fostered 10 kids with his wife. “There are real impacts on real kids.” The Republican turned his experience into legislation, sponsoring a bill to ban seven dyes from food sold in the state. It became law in March, making West Virginia the first state to institute such a ban from all food products. The bill was among a slew of state efforts to regulate synthetic dyes. In 2025, roughly 75 bills aimed at food dyes were introduced in 37 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Related Articles Vance and Rubio set to attend Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Italy. Trump isn’t on the list US Catholic cardinals urge Trump administration to embrace a moral compass in foreign policy Hawaii’s strict gun law faces Supreme Court scrutiny in landmark case AP Source: Fed Chair Powell to attend Supreme Court argument on Cook case As faith in the US fades a year into Trump 2.0, Europe tries to end a reliance on American security Chemical dyes and nutrition are just part of the broader “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Promoted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., MAHA ideas have made their deepest inroads at the state level, with strong support from Republicans — and in some places, from Democrats. The $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program — created last year as part of the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act to expand health care access in rural areas — offers incentives to states that implement MAHA policies. Federal and state officials are seeking a broad swath of health policy changes, including rolling back routine vaccinations and expanding the use of drugs such as ivermectin for treatments beyond their approved use. State lawmakers have introduced dozens of bills targeting vaccines, fluoridated water, and PFAS, a group of compounds known as “forever chemicals” that have been linked to cancer and other health problems. In addition to West Virginia, six other states have targeted food dyes with new laws or executive orders, requiring warning labels on food with certain dyes or banning the sale of such products in schools. California has had a law regulating food dyes since 2023. Most synthetic dyes used to color food have been around for decades. Some clinical studies have found a link between their use and hyperactivity in children. And in early 2025, in the last days of President Joe Biden’s term, the Food and Drug Administration outlawed the use of a dye known as Red No. 3. Major food companies including Nestle, Hershey, and PepsiCo have gotten on board, pledging to eliminate at least some color additives from food products over the next year or two. “We anticipate that the momentum we saw in 2025 will continue into 2026, with a particular focus on ingredient safety and transparency,” said John Hewitt, the senior vice president of state affairs for the Consumer Brands Association, a trade group for food manufacturers. This past summer, the group called on its members to voluntarily eliminate federally certified artificial dyes from their products by the end of 2027. “The state laws are really what’s motivating companies to get rid of dyes,” said Jensen Jose, regulatory counsel for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit health advocacy group. Andy Baker-White, the senior director of state health policy for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said the bipartisan support for bills targeting food dyes and ultraprocessed food struck him as unusual. Several red states have proposed legislation modeled on California’s 2023 law, which bans four food additives. “It’s not very often you see states like…

By JAMES ELLINGWORTH From being treated like “cattle” as a young girl to sleeping in her car off a Polish highway, Allison Reed has taken a long, hard road to follow her Olympic ice dance dream. Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Reed has traveled the world just for a chance to compete. After representing Georgia and Israel, Reed is back at the Olympics for the first time since 2010, skating for Lithuania with a partner who’s taken her to the next level. With Saulius Ambrulevičius — Saul for short — who’ll be at his first Olympics in Milan Cortina in February, Reed brings dramatic flair to programs themed around pop and electronic hits from the 1990s. That 16-year gap between Olympics is an eternity in the world of figure skating, and Reed often competes against skaters who were toddlers when she made her Olympic debut aged 15 in Vancouver. On the way, she’s experienced personal tragedy, the “out-of-body experience” of a breakthrough medal, and a sport which doesn’t always live up to its glamorous image and reputation for inclusivity. Unequal relationships Ice dancers are meant to move as one, gliding through routines in perfect synchronicity. Off the ice, teams can be far from equal. MONTREAL, CANADA – MARCH 22: Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius of Lithuania compete in the Ice Dance Rhythm Dance during the ISU World Figure Skating Championships at the Bell Centre on March 22, 2024 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) Far more girls aspire to ice dance careers than boys and male dancers are expected to be tall athletes capable of lifting their female partners with ease. Reed recalls attending tryouts as a young skater with four boys taking their pick of 25 girls at a rink. “These four boys would just go about choosing whatever girl that they wanted to skate with and they would go and skate with them, they’d say thank you, then they’d pick another girl,” she told The Associated Press. “I remember standing there feeling like, ‘What is this? Like, this feels like almost like cattle.’” Reed grew up in a skating-mad Japanese-American family with brother Chris and sister Cathy. She woke up at 4 a.m. as her “absolute super mom” ferried them all to practice before school. Her brother and sister skated together for Japan but Reed’s seach for a male partner led her to Otar Japaridze of the ex-Soviet nation of Georgia. The pair placed 22nd at the 2010 Olympics. She didn’t manage to contend for major medals with him or with Vasili Rogov for Israel. The ‘nomads’ on ice After her partnership with Rogov ended in 2015, Reed recalls “floating for about two years, almost aimlessly” as she coached and considered college. Her brother’s recovery from repeated injuries inspired her to return. “It just filled me with this feeling of dread, like ‘I am going to regret it if I don’t at least try one more time and see what happens.’ And it’s the best decision I’ve ever made,” she said. Ambrulevičius trained with Reed for a while after an injury to his then-partner. When that partnership later broke up, he asked Reed to join him over a coffee. She says it’s been a team of equals. “We lived out of a car. We were nomads for a while,” she said, recalling that on trips back from a training rink in the German Alps to Lithuania, a distance of over 800 miles (1,300 kilometers), “we’d sleep at a rest stop in Poland somewhere and continue on our drive back. We road-tripped around Europe and slept in our car more times that I’d like to remember.” STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – MARCH 26: Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius of Lithuania perform in Ice Dance Rhythm Dance during day three of the ISU World Figure Skating Championships at Ericsson Globe on March 26, 2021 in Stockholm, Sweden. Sporting stadiums around Sweden remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Linnea Rheborg/Getty Images)…