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

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