“When unhealthy options dominate and nutrition information is limited, families face steeper barriers to making healthier choices or finding better options at all.”

It’s hard to find political consensus on many issues in the United States in 2026, but there is one area where we still largely agree: junk food is bad for kids. As a millennial pediatrician, I’ve seen the consequences of our broken food system play out in real time. Growing up, the hidden dangers of junk food were already part of the conversation. Over time, that concern has expanded to include the ultraprocessed products now dominating our food supply.

But today, the problem isn’t just what’s in the food—it’s also the aggressive marketing aimed at children, who are especially vulnerable to colorful branding and animated characters. The reality is that kids are growing up in an increasingly unhealthy food environment, with the odds stacked against them.

Every day, I see families doing their best to make healthy choices, often without the information and agency to succeed. With fewer wholesome, affordable options available, junk food remains the cheapest and most accessible option for many families shopping paycheck-to-paycheck. This year, Albany has a chance to protect New York families and children by advancing two public health bills: the Sodium Warning Bill (S428)and Sweet Truth Act (S427), sponsored by Senate Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera and Assemblymember Karines Reyes.

Chronic disease has many causes, but Big Food’s influence—combined with a lack of transparency—continues to play a major role in driving poor health outcomes statewide. Heart disease and stroke remain leading killers nationwide, while Americans consume excessive amounts of sodium and added sugars without clear information about what’s on their plates.

New York faces the same crisis, compounded by the face that residents eat out 130 percent more than other Americans. As a result, more than 10 percent of adults statewide—around 1.7 million people—live with diabetes. Weight-related care costs New York $5.2 billion annually, while hypertension and diabetes cost more than $40 billion. I became a pediatrician to help children and families make healthier decisions early in life—before these statistics become inevitable decades later. Yet current policies fail to provide basic nutrition transparency, leaving families in the dark.

The Sodium Warning Bill and Sweet Truth Act represent an important step forward. These bills would require clear warning labels for high-sodium and high-added sugar menu items at chain restaurants statewide—a straightforward transparency measure that can help families reduce their risk of heart disease, diabetes, and even certain cancers. Over time, better health outcomes would also mean lower healthcare costs, delivering a meaningful affordability benefit for New Yorkers. 

The food environment families are navigating makes these protections especially urgent. At fast casual restaurants, meals routinely exceed the FDA’s daily recommendations of 50 grams of added sugar and 2,300 milligrams of sodium. Even single fountain drinks often contain more than a day’s worth of added sugars. Research shows that diets high in added sugar and sodium are linked to developmental delays, endocrine dysfunction, cancer, obesity, and diabetes in children, setting young people on a path toward chronic disease before they even finish high school. 

Still, these harms are not distributed equally. New York City’s 2,000-plus chain restaurants are disproportionately concentrated in Black and Latino neighborhoods—including where I live in the Bronx. Residents in these neighborhoods are twice as likely to have diabetes as white New Yorkers. When unhealthy options dominate and nutrition information is limited, families face steeper barriers to making healthier choices or finding better options at all. 

In my practice, I remind families that even small changes can lead to big health gains over time. Transparency is a simple but powerful tool in that process. It can look like a child choosing water over a sugary soda, and picking up mango slices instead of spicy tortilla crisps at their bodega; or a family opting for grilled chicken over the breaded cutlet after seeing a sodium warning.

Providing clear information gives families agency and empowers New Yorkers to make safer choices when dining out—choices that add up to fewer chronic illnesses and fewer trips to the doctor’s office. 

The public is ready. Nearly 80 percent of New Yorkers already support warning labels for menu items high in added sugars—a demand that pushed the New York City Council to pass the Sweet Truth Act in 2023. Now it’s time for the state to follow the city’s lead and extend this public health protection to all New Yorkers. 

New York has long been a national leader in public health. For the sake of our children, our communities, and our shared future, the legislature should prioritize these bills and give families the truth about what’s on their plates.

Dr. Charles Moon, MD, FAAP is the chair of the New York State Chapter 3 of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health & Climate Change, as well as co-chair of the NYS AAP’s Public Public and Advocacy Committee. He lives in the Throggs Neck neighborhood of the Bronx. 

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