In the memories of Gen Z and Millennials, back-to-school snacks feature fruit snacks, fruit roll-ups, Dunkaroos, Oreos, and a litany of processed foods. But years later, the science has caught up to these lab-made food-like substances, and the results don’t look good for the food dyes and processed sugar. And as the <a href="https://cdn.realfood.gov/DGA.pdf">new U.S. dietary guidelines</a> emphasize whole fruit, veggies, and protein, the next generation can do far better.
With back-to-school season in full swing, it’s time to load up on easy snacks to send along with the little ones this year — or grab for your own work bag. Here are eight MAHA snacks to add to the rotation. 
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/L%C3%84RABAR/page/5A01DEC3-FD90-4D9B-999A-67933E9D116A?tag=ustxtaddt-20">Larabars</a>. A blend of dates, nuts, and mixed fruits, spices, or chocolate, these bars are perfect to tuck into any lunch box. They come in multitudes of flavors from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/LARABAR-Larabar-Chocolate-Cookie-6Count/dp/B08MRXFP6C?ref_=ast_sto_dp&amp;th=1">chocolate chip cookie dough</a> to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Larabar-Lemon-Gluten-Vegan-Fruit/dp/B08TQ14RBL?ref_=ast_sto_dp&amp;th=1&amp;psc=1">lemon bar,</a> as well as mini sizes, and each flavor features only a handful of pronounceable, good-for-you ingredients.
Trail mix. Nothing beats the customizability of trail mix! For every flavor palette, there’s a dried fruit, nut, and chocolate chip combination that hits the spot, and for nut-free classrooms, sunflower seeds are an easy swap in for almonds or peanuts. The trick is avoiding dried fruits that have added sugars or preservatives as well as nuts that have been roasted in seed oils. Fortunately, bulk food sections and Trader Joe’s both have a vast selection of simple and organic nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. Putting bags of trail mix together is also an easy way to get kids involved in the kitchen, let them choose their favorite combinations, and teach them about the food they eat. 
Simple Mills crackers. Though the Lunchables-style mystery meat and Ritz crackers are a snack choice Gen Alpha should probably leave in the past, there are a host of healthy crackers hitting the market for a salty snack. Simple Mills has come out with a line of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/64BF600B-6B5E-45A5-A2BF-D7BCC6797164?ingress=2&amp;lp_context_asin=B08ZFM4TSM&amp;lp_context_query=simple%20mills%20almond%20flour%20crackers&amp;visitId=e9922b75-1899-4b1c-a55a-7290c2d27495&amp;store_ref=bl_ast_dp_brandlogo_sto&amp;ref_=ast_bln">almond-flour crackers</a>, and for a sweeter treat, they’ve added <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Mills-Cookies-Cinnamon-Chocolate/dp/B0D36GSVSF?ref_=ast_sto_dp&amp;th=1">graham cracker–style snacks</a> made with nut and seed flours and sweetened with coconut sugar — all made with pronounceable ingredients. 
Popcorn. If salty is your child’s favorite flavor — or if they’re a picky eater — then you can’t go wrong with a bag of popcorn. Of course, plenty of brands sell individual servings of pre-popped kernels, but when a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-Organic-Popcorn-24/dp/B004S8CMVK/ref=sr_1_6?crid=LSHSEV7CX9ZK&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bFe9TgWHDI5faD_q4I6VndIbhlXbtnWrhF8lt-pWAZslhayYw6SyfHAqFEOCwBSbwyjCt3J1FsFZ4eut_d0LDbDuclNibY9l65Vlw6ottWb5QiiqLha6CCvK_k1tPC3P59kISg0ISyljnUJOFpR0BXJg45drDDaEH4yiYVsG3NS2g45VfiRsfMVTDyjln-KqB3-cnYqQKVBsVDw1_f4KDOp-UxWEUKc_u1D0r6BoUPJ8-o9Xp73JTdzGuxqk9c25mXwKXvKwXuUEq6sm5ywEL-SHyeDl9FZB1FQcXG0vVxE.n-yHCGJzB5B_iVLVXJnYIu39rnZPQtBiWzmQ7WL65ps&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=organic%2Bpopcorn&amp;qid=1786417016&amp;s=grocery&amp;sprefix=organic%2Bpopcor%2Cgrocery%2C395&amp;sr=1-6&amp;th=1">big bag of unpopped corn</a> costs less than $10, this can also be an easy snack to make at home and bag up for the week. And while there are plenty of gadgets to make popcorn at home, the only necessary equipment is a pot and lid — along with <a href="https://cookieandkate.com/perfect-stovetop-popcorn-recipe/">some technique</a>. Just a little coconut oil, salt, and a stove can make the perfect crunchy snack. 
Fruit leathers. The MAHA (and non-rolled) version of fruit roll-ups, fruit leathers aren’t a new addition to the snack market, but they are getting a new life as “fruit jerky” or “fruit bars.” Brands like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Thatsit/page/F393F13E-E396-4B7A-9F38-826077B88CC1?lp_asin=B0D1VWMVL7&amp;ref_=ast_bln&amp;store_ref=bl_ast_dp_brandlogo_sto&amp;bl_grd_status=override">That’s It</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/SOLELY/page/8F3DF9A9-65C1-4137-B180-9A42DD5BBFBC?lp_asin=B07DR5XK42&amp;ref_=ast_bln&amp;store_ref=bl_ast_dp_brandlogo_sto">Solely</a>, which tout an organic label, have given a facelift to the dried fruit snacks, but the classic versions are still around at supermarkets too. With only whole fruit ingredients, these are also a safe option for nut-free classrooms. 
Fresh fruit. On the note of fruit, there’s nothing more classic than an apple in the classroom. Just because marketing has sold us on pre-packaged snacks and variety packs doesn’t mean that a banana, clementine, or apple need to be off the menu. They’re easy to pair with some nuts on the side or a scoop of nut butter (or sunflower seed butter) in a small container for added healthy fats and protein. 
Beef sticks. If protein is your goal, nothing beats the beef stick craze. From classic full-sized <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chomps-Grass-Fed-Finished-Original-10-Pack/dp/B07D3NS8NW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2D3G2IQD4GH4T&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.HA6g2Pg5iEnNZYrxk5uosejCHaM_FBv4SnE5dEHnYyXmsEs5A4ztbs3aXqPJJO0VNzJK9OREScjly5_juDzJU8Q5MJit4jBm5HrlYLYNmITN8T809eSJjGNeM6LsB0wiBphXoWrlrk6DHZPAf6WfTMRONiBhdVbEhUtqQnt4LUxa-H3S29fbALs4upON3UsRZfW1BKHdQax87DrIxg1fGd74O1n0_q9wUZyVs18Ob6dMyr96ZV2MeirESR6i_4iWOR6wDyzh91UuGNXMv5nMWejGyMMXBxQmfNK7gx11OPI.OK-f-1LCO_5arT60Qir_u1Pc7bXJTERccEy_AasPjzU&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=chomps%2Bbeef%2Bsticks&amp;qid=1786416598&amp;s=grocery&amp;sprefix=chomps%2Cgrocery%2C292&amp;sr=1-1&amp;th=1">Chomps</a> to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Archer-Jerky-Mini-Beef-Sticks/dp/B0BP3PS7SJ/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=2D3G2IQD4GH4T&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.HA6g2Pg5iEnNZYrxk5uosejCHaM_FBv4SnE5dEHnYyXmsEs5A4ztbs3aXqPJJO0VNzJK9OREScjly5_juDzJU8Q5MJit4jBm5HrlYLYNmITN8T809eSJjGNeM6LsB0wiBphXoWrlrk6DHZPAf6WfTMRONiBhdVbEhUtqQnt4LUxa-H3S29fbALs4upON3UsRZfW1BKHdQax87DrIxg1fGd74O1n0_q9wUZyVs18Ob6dMyr96ZV2MeirESR6i_4iWOR6wDyzh91UuGNXMv5nMWejGyMMXBxQmfNK7gx11OPI.OK-f-1LCO_5arT60Qir_u1Pc7bXJTERccEy_AasPjzU&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=chomps%2Bbeef%2Bsticks&amp;qid=1786416598&amp;s=grocery&amp;sprefix=chomps%2Cgrocery%2C292&amp;sr=1-2-spons&amp;sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&amp;th=1">mini Archers</a> to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Paleovalley/page/FC8E7CC0-EC03-43BF-B93A-DF68A93F508B">Paleo Valley’s</a> range of venison, beef, and chicken, there are plenty of brands selling grass-fed options that are a new twist on beef jerky-style snacks. And for nut-free schools, this is a perfect high-protein win. Just be sure to check the flavor or ingredients for anything too spicy for little ones!
Veggies. Add some sliced-up veggies to the snack rotation. Prepping a medley of carrots, cucumbers, and cauliflower at the beginning of the week is an easy way to add in an extra serving of nutrients to each day. And if your child prefers veggies with a side of dip, then hummus can add some protein or a healthier ranch such as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Primal-Kitchen-Avocado-Dressing-Marinade/dp/B07FDP6MF2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2COKEGCF5HK2I&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.QV6UdK-NYEeSyglXL-UyCuphZ-V_KZ-JxpufdPrt9jSi5sHqMT_iE3IiByVYoYDTwlzW7C5yKyUdlhDQfHlX46yOQtuE73aav_5cGadenujFQJb3crSiITCQ1mn0hR8JxoP4LV4-80uGfaz-Pn9Qdr0Ky7ah0csutslYD3ujrEwnSHfoYU6fTuIlabsYFNHQHxFqjLUGvkkp6MSIByqqhQNqTkkLUo58zZsN4qVXSuv6BXVy3abqcD4Z7CzGqOXxSeUKaPcqmNhT26BwFC3vaj2GmKmNczQWgC9fbIvXL1s.64greIE45MCUksOKSsMXaLUqo1hv5OOcsjWv2jX4KTw&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=primal+kitchen+ranch&amp;qid=1786417464&amp;sprefix=primal+kitchen+%2Caps%2C197&amp;sr=8-1">Primal Kitchen’s dressing</a> can add a zip of flavor. Just send along a small side container for the dip.
The truth is that real food and healthy snacks are, by their nature, simple. And when it comes to America’s next generation, whole foods and simple foods are nothing but the best fuel for growing minds.
***
Jordan Jantz is the assistant editor at IW Features as well as a freelance writer, editor, and website designer.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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Eight Easy MAHA Back-To-School Snacks Your Kids Will Love

Children

Food

Health

MAHA

Upstream

The internet is getting a kick out of Secretary of State Marco Rubio&#8217;s take on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.&#8217;s sauerkraut-heavy diet and his admission that diets and MAHA just aren&#8217;t for him &#8212; although Pop-Tarts very much are.
Rubio made the admission during a Tuesday appearance with his wife, Jeanette, on &#8220;The Katie Miller Podcast,&#8221; where host Katie Miller asked whether he had adopted RFK&#8217;s diet of red meat and fermented vegetables.
Rubio immediately said no and called the diet &#8220;crazy.&#8221;
&#8220;This is a diet that consists of eating sauerkraut and meat,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Now, you understand, like this is not a sustainable thing.&#8221;
&#8220;Well he sustains it, because he does it,&#8221; Rubio&#8217;s wife Jeanette, who joined him on the podcast, chimed in.
&#8220;But he has to travel with coolers of sauerkraut!&#8221; Rubio said, cracking up Miller. &#8220;I&#8217;m not gonna travel the world with a cooler full of sauerkraut. It&#8217;s ridiculous. I can&#8217;t do it. It&#8217;s not sustainable.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m in favor of MAHA,&#8221; he continued, referring to the Make America Healthy Again movement. &#8220;Like, I think people should be healthy &#8211;&#8221;
&#8220;He is not. He is completely not,&#8221; Jeanette interjected again. She also revealed that her husband eats Pop-Tarts, a shameful admission to anyone in the MAHA world.
&#8220;No, I don&#8217;t eat Pop-Tarts every day, okay?&#8221; Rubio responded. &#8220;You eat sweets!&#8221; Jeanette said.
&#8220;The Pop-Tart is one of the great American innovations in the history of the world,&#8221; Rubio said, embracing his love of Pop-Tarts. &#8220;If you think about it, it comes in this beautiful foil package.&#8221;
&#8220;He eats all the things you should not be eating, every single thing,&#8221; Jeanette added.
Rubio went on to say that diets just aren&#8217;t for him. He said he once tried the ketogenic diet and called it a &#8220;near-psychotic event&#8221; for him.
&#8220;I tried this thing called keto,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You just eat all this protein, and so you go through this massive withdrawal from sugar and carbohydrates for the first 72 hours. It was a near-psychotic event for me.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s true, like if I did this in this job [at that time], I would be saying, &#8216;Mr. President, we must bomb Paraguay,'&#8221; Rubio joked. &#8220;And it&#8217;s like, why? I don&#8217;t know. I&#8217;m just really mad I haven&#8217;t had any sugar.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m not against this diet, I&#8217;m not asking that we ban it,&#8221; the Secretary of State added. &#8220;I encourage people to try it. I&#8217;m just saying it&#8217;s not for everyone. That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m saying.&#8221;
The internet seems to be laughing along with Miller, too. The post has garnered millions of views and tens of thousands of likes in a matter of hours. Many folks commented on Rubio&#8217;s wife playfully calling him out and how Rubio is actually spitting &#8220;facts&#8221; about Pop-Tarts. And, of course, the obligatory Rubio meme has been given a Pop-Tart makeover:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">
<a href="https://t.co/K8LwIfCNAo">pic.twitter.com/K8LwIfCNAo</a>
— NERV2nd Branch (@NERV2nd) <a href="https://x.com/NERV2nd/status/2087348133957394601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 12, 2026</a></blockquote>

Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio’s Take On RFK’s ‘Crazy’ Diet Goes Viral: ‘It’s Ridiculous’

Rubio Cracks Up Host, Roasts RFK Jr.’s Extreme MAHA Diet

Podcast

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

After the release of the revamped nutritional guidelines earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has launched a cooking show putting these new guidelines into practice. &#8220;The Real Food Show&#8221; premiered last week with its first episode teaching Americans how to make crispy salmon cakes with a side of apple, white bean, and greens salad. 
The show’s premise is simple: Teach Americans how to eat healthy foods at affordable prices. RFK Jr. is joined by a renowned chef each episode with a new recipe for Americans to try at home. 
The premiere episode features celebrity chef and restaurateur <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/author/andrew-gruel">Andrew Gruel</a>, who has made a name for himself in Make America Healthy Again circles with his wealth of knowledge on cooking, sourcing food, the food industry, and focus on healthy eating.  
As RFK Jr. and Chef Gruel walk Americans through the steps and ingredients of the recipe, they aren’t just teaching people how to cook salmon cakes; they’re also focused on the nutritional benefit of each ingredient. Salmon contains high-quality protein, for instance, and beans offer prebiotic fiber. The flipped food pyramid and new dietary guidelines are heavily featured throughout the running commentary the hosts give as they cook. And along the way, sidebars pop up with more facts about the nutritional value of each ingredient, as well as other relevant facts about the ingredients. 
Speaking to the origin of the dietary guidelines, RFK Jr. explains that the previous guidelines were crafted by food lobbyists. The new guidelines flip the old ones on their head by being spearheaded by top nutritionists, he says. And while the public messaging on the new dietary guidelines has highlighted the benefits of high-quality protein and healthy fats, the other aspects of the guidelines — fruit, vegetables, and whole grains — have been far less discussed.
That’s one area &#8220;The Real Food Show&#8221; shines: The recipe includes arugula, apple, onion, nutritional yeast, herbs, and more. Certainly, the visuals of the flipped food pyramid are striking, but beyond the pictures, <a href="https://cdn.realfood.gov/Daily%20Serving%20Sizes.pdf">the actual guidelines</a> recommend nearly as many servings of vegetables as protein and as many servings of whole grain — if not more — than protein. The serving size for each food group is different, but the guidelines make clear the importance of all types of macro and micronutrients.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r5vKilWJNKo?si=Qd4W8wa16AJBY2x2" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Additionally, the new dietary guidelines emphasize the quality of each food consumed, and RFK Jr. and Chef Gruel each reference the value of buying high-quality ingredients and offer their tips on buying seafood. For instance, Chef Gruel explains that flash freezing technology has made frozen fish a better choice than fresh fish in many cases.
Amid ongoing concerns about the cost of groceries, another part of the pitch for &#8220;The Real Food Show&#8221; is showing Americans how to make healthy food for less than $5 per serving. For some households, that’s an already high number, and for others, it’s lower than their current spending levels. But it is, of course, cheaper than dining out, especially at a restaurant offering healthy, quality choices. The first episode has a $4.91 per serving cost, and as the hosts point out, that cost could be lowered with canned salmon, tuna, or another protein of choice. It’s not a magic fix to rising grocery costs, but it’s one way for price-savvy Americans to save a few dollars. 
&#8220;The Real Food Show&#8221; also adds in other corollary tenets of MAHA such as conservation and supporting the American food supply, with mention of sustainable fishing regulations and U.S.-based fisheries. 
But all that information is also the show’s weakness. The tips on ingredient substitutions, flavor swaps, and other recipe modifications may be helpful to an intermediate cook but overwhelming to a novice. And for a first-time cook or a parent accustomed to reheating rather than cooking from scratch, the show doesn’t offer many beginner cooking tips or much advice. How do you know when your salmon is fully cooked? Why is emulsion important for the vinaigrette? Why do prebiotics matter?
There’s no doubt the show can help plenty of cooks by demonstrating the recipe, offering aspiring home cooks new ideas, and teaching Americans about health information that’s been long lacking in public discourse. The show is a perfect conversation starter for American families about real food, and for classrooms, it would be an equally appropriate lesson about nutrition and the American food supply. But there’s also a <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/may/22/wealth-geeks-more-half-americans-struggle-cook-bas/">contingent of Americans</a> who are completely new to home cooking and the world of health and wellness. On one hand, the show simplifies these concepts (and the <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/real-food-show/recipes/index.html">written recipe</a> also lays out some of the details in a format that can be re-referenced), but on the other hand, it may not meet beginner cooks where they are.
Despite this, it’s a light in the wasteland of American nutritional advice. Groceries are far too expensive, the standard American diet is filled with ultra-processed food and devoid of nutrients, and many Americans don’t know where to start. 
There are plenty of beginner-friendly resources to learn how to cook from home. We live in an age of millions of free recipes online, pages of recipes on shelves at local libraries, in-depth online tutorials for advanced and novice cooks alike, and even meal kit boxes that bring ingredients straight to your doorstep. There’s never been a better time to learn how to cook, and maybe &#8220;The Real Food Show&#8221; will be what some Americans need to start rethinking how they approach their grocery plans.
***
Jordan Jantz is the assistant editor at IW Features as well as a freelance writer, editor, and website designer.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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RFK Jr.’s New Cooking Show Proves We Can Fix The American Diet

grocery prices

Medical examiner Kimberley Springer on Thursday, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/D6skXbDJJj8?is=rXN0RqOz_N9i8oBN">August 6</a>, walked a jury through an autopsy photograph of 8-month-old Callan Clancy, explaining his visible injuries. “&#8230;You can also begin to see petechial hemorrhages, which are dot-like hemorrhages underneath the skin, on the face,” she testified, aiming a laser pointer towards the screen. 
Callan’s mother, Lindsay Clancy, could be heard sobbing, her folded hands and dark hair veiling her face from prying cameras. Her attorney, Kevin Reddington, leaned toward her and whispered. A court officer moved toward her in the background. 
“In terms of the marks around Callan’s neck, and the petechiae around his eyes and face, did that give you an indication here of the mechanism of death for Callan?” asked the prosecutor. 
“Yes,” Springer continued, “it is consistent with a ligature strangulation.” 
Moments later, the court broke for recess. As she was wheeled from the courtroom, Lindsay’s body slumped forward in her wheelchair. She appeared unable to hold herself upright.
A mother in any other circumstance would never be forced to sit, stone-faced, through such gruesome testimony about her own child. In this case, however, it was Clancy herself who murdered Callan, along with her two other children, five-year-old Cora and three-year-old Dawson. 
The facts of the case are undisputed by the defense. On January 24, 2023, Clancy sent her husband, Patrick, to pick up takeout and medication for their daughter, Cora, leaving her alone with their three children at their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. In Patrick’s absence, Clancy lured the children to the basement and, using rubber exercise bands, strangled them one by one.
Then, she climbed the stairs to the master bedroom. She locked the door, slit her wrists and neck with a kitchen knife, and threw herself from the second-story window. 
When Patrick returned home a short time later, the house was quiet — an oddity for a family with three young children. &#8220;Guys?&#8221; he called, expecting an enthusiastic answer. He first checked for his family in the children&#8217;s bedrooms, and then the upstairs bathroom for signs of bath time. When he reached the locked door of the master bedroom, he knew something was wrong.
Behind it, he found the room in disarray. Blood speckled nearly every surface, as though it had been sprayed &#8220;with a hose.&#8221; The bed had been pushed diagonally into the middle of the room. The far window was open, the screen pushed up, the pitch-black 40-degree night blowing in against the silver curtains. 
Lindsay left bloodstains on the shingled siding before landing on the frozen ground beneath the window, her head toward the house. The fall shattered her thoracic spine and multiple ribs and caused a Jefferson fracture in her neck, leaving her paralyzed. By the time she was found, her internal temperature had reached 82 degrees Fahrenheit, indicating severe hypothermia. 
The 911 call capturing Patrick&#8217;s discovery of his wife and children was deemed too graphic to release publicly. Lindsay heard the call in court, as did the unusually large panel of 18 jurors.
<div id="attachment_1154293" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1154293" class="size-medium wp-image-1154293" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2288493419-300x169.jpg" alt="Lindsay Clancy" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2288493419-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2288493419-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2288493419-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2288493419.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</div>
The questions before them are more complicated than whether Clancy killed her children. Instead, the case asks the jury to grapple with some of the most difficult issues in criminal law and medical ethics: Did she possess the mens rea (or guilty mind) required for first-degree murder? Did postpartum psychosis absolve her of legal responsibility for her actions?
And another question the verdict cannot answer: did the medical system fail her long before she killed her children? 
The warning signs
By all accounts, Lindsay Clancy was a “wonderful mom.” 
The sentiment was repeated ad nauseam by countless of the prosecution&#8217;s own witnesses over the first nine days of testimony, including her ex-husband, father-in-law, nanny Elaine Rossi, co-workers, pediatrician, and close friends. 
Lindsay “loved our children,” Patrick <a href="https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/07/Clancy-Civil-Lawsuit.pdf">said</a>, and “never took her frustration out on the kids.” She was dedicated to being a mom, he recalled, and “worked twice as hard as most,” rarely taking a break to rest. 
However, after the birth of her third child, she experienced what defense experts assert was a bout of postpartum mania, waking every day at 4 a.m. to run three miles, ride her Peloton for 30 minutes and do another 30 minutes of aerobics. Just five weeks after giving birth, she ran a five-mile race.
The mania was followed by sudden and severe anxiety and depression. Recognizing that something was very wrong, and trusting in the medical system as a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, she reached out for help. Psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Tufts prescribed Zoloft, to which Clancy had a serious adverse reaction: she did not sleep for 48 hours, experienced racing thoughts and intense anxiety, and felt “awful.”
As Clancy asserts in her <a href="https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/07/Clancy-Civil-Lawsuit.pdf">civil suit</a> against the many healthcare professionals who treated her in the months following Callan’s birth, this was a “dramatic departure from her previous sleep patterns and was an obvious warning sign of medication-induced activation consistent with bi-polar disorder.” 
The risk is sufficiently well-recognized that Zoloft’s labeling includes a warning about the potential for these symptoms.
Clancy reported the reactions in October 2022 to Dr. Tufts, who simply discontinued the Zoloft and prescribed a cocktail of Ativan and Benadryl. She would consult with Dr. Tufts at least four times in the fall and winter months. 
The cycle continued with different providers. “Frustrated and scared,” Clancy checked herself into the South Shore Hospital emergency room and was later treated through the hospital’s Perinatal Behavioral Health Program. There, she was prescribed trazodone and Prozac, both of which she later reported had worsened her symptoms. South Shore psychiatric nurse practitioner Julie Paul discontinued those medications and started her on Ambien, Remeron, and Klonopin, after which she experienced dissociation. 
She was “unable to determine what was real,” and “unable to be alone.” 
She then contacted a new practitioner in Weymouth, nurse Rebecca Jollatta, who prescribed Seroquel, after which “Lindsay&#8217;s condition took a dramatic turn for the worse,” according to the civil suit. “She developed suicidal ideation and began experiencing what she described as &#8216;intrusive thoughts&#8217;—which were actually auditory hallucinations. The voice said, &#8216;I will not be the same. I want to die.&#8217;”
<div id="attachment_1154321" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1154321" class="size-medium wp-image-1154321" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1246728332-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1246728332-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1246728332-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1246728332-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1246728332.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Photo by Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images</div>
In December 2022, her suicidal ideation worsened, accompanied by “thoughts of harming the kids,” which she reported to Patrick and to her mother, who drove her to the emergency room. She was admitted to a partial hospitalization program at Women &amp; Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. By then, she had lost 15 pounds in a month.
Over the course of her illness, Clancy repeatedly sought help — at least 40 times — from family and friends, suicide hotlines, emergency departments, inpatient programs and mental health providers. She continued reaching out even as her condition deteriorated, but some support clinicians turned her away because she “did not have a suicide plan.” 
She ultimately self-admitted to additional emergency rooms and inpatient programs, the last of which was at McLean Hospital. She was released after only five days so she could attend her daughter’s birthday party.
All in all, Clancy was prescribed 13 different medications, including benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and sleep aids, in the four months leading up to the deaths of her children. 
The defense’s central claim is encapsulated in Clancy’s civil suit: “The psychotropic medications Lindsay received appear to have paradoxically exacerbated her underlying psychiatric vulnerability, precipitating a state of manic psychosis characterized by compelling command hallucinations.” In other words, Clancy was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis, a condition they contend was worsened by the medications she was prescribed.
The persistence of postpartum psychosis
To outside observers, Clancy’s case appears to fit a rare but tragic pattern: women whose postpartum psychosis was not adequately recognized or treated before it ended in catastrophe.
The most famous is Andrea Yates, the Houston mother who drowned her five children in the family bathtub after experiencing severe postpartum psychosis, including commands “from Satan” she believed were commanding her to harm them. Before the killings, Yates had sought psychiatric help, including multiple hospitalizations, but her condition continued to deteriorate. She was initially convicted of capital murder in 2002, though that verdict was overturned on appeal in 2005. Yates was retried in 2006 and found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Another is Carol Coronado, a California mom who was sentenced to life in prison after stabbing her three daughters to death and attempting suicide by stabbing herself so deeply that she punctured the sac surrounding her heart. In the months before the tragedy, Coronado reportedly sought help multiple times — from her husband, family, and healthcare professionals — but those around her failed to recognize the severity of her condition. She remains incarcerated to this day. 
These women were also attentive mothers, by all accounts, who were overtaken by a psychiatric condition more common than many people realize. Postpartum psychosis affects approximately one in every 500 mothers, though the risk rises dramatically, to 20–30%, among women with bipolar disorder, whether diagnosed or undiagnosed. Yet when a new mother leaves the hospital, her chance of being screened for postpartum depression varies widely. When she is screened, it’s often through a 10-question survey developed in 1987. There is currently no widely used screening tool specifically designed to identify postpartum psychosis. 
&#8220;Throwing drugs at problems&#8221;
Expert psychiatric witnesses set to testify for the defense have also spoken publicly about Clancy’s case and what they describe as significant failures by her medical providers. Dr. Margaret Spinelli, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and founder of the university’s Women’s Program in Psychiatry, conducted a comprehensive forensic psychiatric evaluation of Clancy over multiple hours-long visits. She diagnosed Clancy with severe Bipolar I Disorder with psychosis and postpartum onset.
Spinelli said Clancy’s providers “never seemed to communicate with each other,” adding that Clancy “did all she could to obtain the appropriate treatment.”
The defense is also set to call Dr. Phillip Resnick, a prominent forensic psychiatrist who served as a key witness in the defense of Andrea Yates. 
“I don’t know anyone that could hear this case, and not just feel utterly enraged by what happened to her,” <a href="https://youtu.be/WUSH0D9LjSA?is=0ae2UHb71YGA1hLs">said</a> outside expert <a href="https://www.psychiatryredefined.org/faculty/josef-witt-doerring-md/">Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring</a>, a board-certified psychiatrist and leading expert in psychiatric drug side effects and withdrawal. 
“The senseless loss of life of these three children, for no reason, when it was so clear that she was responding poorly to these medications — I don’t know when the psychiatric establishment will wake up and realize that you can’t just keep on throwing drugs at problems.” 
And then, in a <a href="https://youtu.be/0s7CBT2_fOs?is=IR-to_ITygwTY-Zz">subsequent interview</a> with East Idaho News: “A terrible evil has occurred.” 
The Clancy case
The prosecution is nearing the end of its case, having worked through the vast majority of its 168-person potential witness list. Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham, who wears a large bow in her hair each day in what appears to be a tribute to Cora Clancy, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09qrVVj9yqI">contends</a> that Lindsay acted “intentionally, rationally, and swiftly,” meticulously planning the killings and staging a suicide attempt.
Buckingham and her co-counsel, Jennifer Sprague, have presented the jury with hours of testimony detailing the facts of the case, many of which have already been stipulated to by the defense. They’ve played the graphic 911 call, presented autopsy photographs of the dead children, and held up the Christmas pajamas baby Callan was wearing when he died.
But the prosecution’s tactics are not landing with the increasingly skeptical public in the way prosecuters may have expected. Messages of mourning, and of support, for Lindsay have overwhelmed social media. Think pieces <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-medicine/what-we-still-dont-understand-about-postpartum-psychosis?utm_source=chatgpt.com">have</a> <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/21/opinion/letters-clancy-postpartum-psychosis-mothers/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">been</a> published in major media outlets about the culpability of Big Pharma in this particular tragedy. 
The prosecutors have failed to recognize an important cultural shift: We no longer live in a world where a judge could sentence Carol Coronado, a mentally ill mother, to life in prison with little public examination of the relational and medical failures that preceded the tragedy. And we’re past 2020, when a largely compliant public, driven by fear, surrendered extraordinary liberties in deference to government agencies without scrutiny of the science behind each consequential decision.
We live instead in an age of appropriate skepticism, where institutions are expected to prove their competence, not merely invoke their authority. If the jury reflects that broader public sentiment, it should prove consequential for Lindsay Clancy, whose failure by the system had deadly consequences.
***
Grace Salvatore is a Nebraskan writer based in New York City.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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The Terrible Truth About The Lindsay Clancy Case

Crime

Mental Health

Motherhood

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the federal government to overhaul childhood vaccine recommendations, delivering a major policy victory to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Make America Healthy Again movement.
The order, dubbed “Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations,” calls for reducing the number of diseases for which vaccines are routinely recommended for all children, spacing out childhood immunizations, and eventually administering the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine as three separate shots.
Under the order, vaccines for 11 diseases, including measles, mumps, rubella, polio and whooping cough, would be recommended for all children, down from 18 under the current schedule. Vaccines for several other diseases, including hepatitis A and B and meningococcal disease, would instead be recommended for certain higher-risk groups or through shared decision-making between parents and doctors. Influenza and COVID-19 vaccines would also fall into the shared decision-making category.
The order also directs federal agencies to work toward making separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines available in the United States. “To the maximum extent feasible,” it calls for childhood immunizations to be administered at separate medical visits. 
Trump defended the changes during an Oval Office signing ceremony, saying they would reduce the number of vaccines administered during individual visits and arguing that parents should have greater control over when their children receive shots. 
“It’s inconvenient, it’s five stops, but it’s something that I think will have a huge impact on autism,” Trump said.
Trump has repeatedly suggested that childhood vaccines could be connected to rising autism diagnoses. Numerous large studies have found no association between the MMR vaccines and autism. The president also acknowledged Monday that he did not have scientific evidence for a claim he made that the current MMR vaccine could be “lethal.”
“What I’ve heard is that there are some people that say it is that way, and I say, ‘Well, let’s say there’s a 5 percent chance of it; let’s split it up,’” Trump said. 
Secretary Kennedy, who has promoted vaccine skepticism for years and made reshaping federal vaccine policy a central part of his tenure at the Department of Health and Human Services, stood alongside Trump during the announcement.
The order directs HHS to develop proposed changes to the childhood vaccine schedule within 90 days. It also calls for additional research into vaccine safety, alternative vaccine ingredients and the timing and sequencing of childhood immunizations.
The practical effect of the order remains uncertain. States generally determine which vaccines children must receive to attend public schools, rather than the federal government, and individual measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines are not currently available in the United States. Manufacturers would have to develop and obtain approval for each product separately.
The order acknowledges that similar previous directives have been <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/03/16/nx-s1-5749530/judge-blocks-rfk-jr-vaccine-changes">delayed by litigation</a> and instructs federal agencies to advance the new recommendations “to the fullest extent allowable by law.” It also directs the Justice Department to pursue what it calls “meritorious” legal challenges involving state vaccine requirements and exemptions, including those based on parental authority and religious and medical grounds. 
Medical organizations and some Republicans have criticized the order.
 “I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chairman of the Senate Health Committee, wrote on <a href="https://x.com/SenBillCassidy/status/2086906268669624512">X</a>. “The President does not have the expertise to make these changes.”
“Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism,” Cassidy added, arguing that separating vaccines could require children to receive more shots to obtain the same protection.
The administration has portrayed the changes as part of a broader effort to give parents more control over medical decisions and to reconsider longstanding federal recommendations.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Trump Orders Major Overhaul Of Childhood Vaccine Recommendations

Children's Health

Department of Health and Human Services

Donald Trump

Family policy

Healthcare

Trump Administration

vaccine

Vaccines

Former President Joe Biden&#8217;s prostate cancer has progressed beyond the bone metastases disclosed at his 2025 diagnosis and is causing him significant pain, his son Hunter Biden said in an interview Friday.
“The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further,” Hunter Biden said during an interview with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8ey458pv5o">BBC Newsnight</a>. “It’s very painful and it’s very debilitating in many respects.”
Hunter Biden became emotional while discussing his father’s condition, describing it as “really sad to watch” and saying he wished the former president would complain more about what he is experiencing.
Joe Biden, 83, was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-biden-diagnosed-with-aggressive-form-of-prostate-cancer">diagnosed</a> with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in May 2025, several months after leaving the White House, following a medical examination prompted by urinary symptoms. His office said at the time that the cancer had a Gleason score of 9 and had already metastasized to his bones, while describing it as hormone-sensitive and therefore potentially responsive to treatment.
Hunter Biden said his father remains active despite the progression of his illness. “He’s still out there. He’s still doing his thing,” Hunter Biden said. “He so believes in this country.”
“My dad is, to this day, the center of our family,” he added. “He’s the best father, the best husband, the best grandfather.”
Biden’s health became a major issue during the final year of his presidency, particularly following his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-plummets-in-betting-markets-as-cnn-polling-shows-trump-won-debate-in-blowout?author=Ryan+Saavedra&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Biden+Plummets+In+Betting+Markets+As+CNN+Polling+Shows+Trump+Won+Debate+In+Blowout">June 2024 debate</a> performance against now-President Donald Trump. Hunter Biden said he was “shocked” while watching the debate. “I knew something was wrong,” he added.
Hunter Biden also discussed his father&#8217;s decision to pardon him in the final weeks of his presidency, calling himself &#8220;the most privileged person there is&#8221; and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8ey458pv5o">conceding</a> the pardon was &#8220;not good&#8221; for the American people, the Constitution or his father&#8217;s legacy.
Then-President Biden issued Hunter Biden a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/president-biden-pardons-hunter-claims-son-was-singled-out">full and unconditional pardon</a> in December 2024 covering his federal gun conviction, tax case and federal offenses committed between 2014 and 2024.
Hunter Biden said his father remains focused on his family and public life despite his illness. He concluded, “He’s the toughest man I know.”

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‘Very Painful’: Hunter Biden Says Father’s Cancer Has Spread Beyond His Bones

2024 Election

Biden

Cancer

Hunter Biden

interview

Joe Biden

A Senate panel investigating Dr. Anthony Fauci has reportedly obtained a copy of the cellphone he used during the COVID-19 pandemic ahead of a key committee vote Thursday to hold him in contempt of Congress. 
The <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/anthony-fauci-covid-phone-senate-96ebd8be?st=68LAAW">Wall Street Journal</a> reported Wednesday that the Department of Health and Human Services, which is led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, transferred a copy of the phone&#8217;s records to the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. 
Fauci used the phone during his tenure as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, according to The Journal, which also revealed that Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Rand Paul (R-KY) have obtained &#8220;millions of additional Fauci-related pages&#8221; from government servers.
On Wednesday, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/when-it-comes-to-anthony-fauci-rand-paul-is-just-getting-started?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=Original&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=When+It+Comes+To+Anthony+Fauci%2C+Rand+Paul+Is+Just+Getting+Started">The Daily Wire</a> interviewed Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, whose release of Fauci&#8217;s private diaries helped set the stage for an explosive Capitol Hill hearing where Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times.
“Historically, votes like this have gone to the full Senate, but I think there’s no absolute rule that says we can’t send it directly to the Department of Justice,” Paul said. “So my plan is that if we win the vote on Thursday, to immediately send it to the Department of Justice with a recommendation for prosecution, even if it passes the whole Senate.”
Paul’s office sent two criminal referrals to the Biden Justice Department, the senator said, and two more under President Donald Trump’s administration.
“This will be the first time that our entire committee or the majority of our committee sends it,” he noted. “So we’ll see what happens. We’ll discuss with [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune whether or not he thinks he can get the votes to do it on the floor.”
A floor vote would require 60 votes to pass, meaning Democrats would have to cooperate. Last week, Thune said that Fauci’s answers were “completely inadequate” and that the floor vote was “certainly an option that ought to be available to us.”
Paul told The Daily Wire that he does not expect Democrats to support a contempt vote and that he wants the Justice Department to prosecute Fauci for contempt of Congress. He plans to send the DOJ a legal brief arguing that Fauci could not invoke the Fifth Amendment because President Joe Biden&#8217;s pardon eliminated any risk of self-incrimination, leaving him with only an obligation to answer truthfully.
Statutory penalties for <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/192">contempt of Congress</a>, a federal misdemeanor, carry fines between $100 and $100,000 and a mandatory sentence of one to 12 months in prison.
“This is an important case because I think a lot of people anticipate that President Trump is going to issue similar pardons to many people in his administration who will end up being called before Congress, and the precedent here is important,” Mark Osler, a law professor and pardon power expert, told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fauci-fifth-amendment-congress-justice-department-paul-868a0dfcf016d830571fb6a78afae4f9">Associated Press. </a>
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US-POLITICS-HEALTH-VIRUS-HEARING

Fauci’s COVID Phone Turned Over To Senate Panel Ahead Of Contempt Vote

Anthony Fauci

Coronavirus

COVID-19

fauci diaries

Investigations

News

Pandemic

Politics

Rand Paul

Senate

U.S. Senate

The Make America Healthy Again movement is in and out of headlines every week, and women are reacting to every win. Conservative and liberal women alike have found something to rally behind with the MAHA momentum. It seems like all the ladies, especially moms, have decided to ditch food dyes, embrace natural fibers, and question vaccines. But why? 
The surface statistics tell one story: Women are the primary shoppers in <a href="https://capitaloneshopping.com/research/male-vs-female-shopping-statistics/">78.2%</a> of households, giving them a front-row view of the decisions involving food, personal care, cleaning products, and the many other daily choices the MAHA movement affects. And moms are often the ones attending pediatrician appointments, planning lunches, and managing their children’s health habits. Women are seeing ingredient lists, hearing health claims, listening to vaccine schedule recommendations, and wading through mixed marketing messages.
But these daily decisions only show part of the picture, and the medical stats and stories reveal just how fed up many women are with the health system in America.
Women are <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7980266/">four times</a> as likely to develop an autoimmune disease as men. This results in <a href="https://health.osu.edu/health/general-health/women-higher-risk-autoimmune-disease">70-80%</a> of people with autoimmune diseases being female. Possible reasons for this percentage divide include genetics, female chromosomes, hormones, and the female reproductive system, but the bottom line is that more women suffer from the growing autoimmune disease epidemic than men. In fact, rates of autoimmune disease (not just detection of the conditions) have been <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/autoimmunity-indicators-on-the-rise-among-americans">rising</a> since at least the late ’80s.
And yet, even obtaining an official autoimmune diagnosis can take <a href="https://www.uvahealth.com/healthy-balance/detective-work-autoimmune-disease">years</a> and typically requires seeing <a href="https://autoimmune.org/resource-center/autoimmune-summit/2021-autoimmune-summit/path-to-rare-disease-diagnoses/">multiple doctors</a> over that time period. All the while, a real woman — not just a number in a medical coding system — can be suffering daily with pain, physical impairment, and even cognitive symptoms. Not to mention the mental stress of navigating the diagnosis process. 
There’s even <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10592987/">evidence</a> to suggest that women wait longer for diagnoses more generally — as compared to men. And <a href="https://prenuvo.com/blog/the-most-common-health-misdiagnoses-in-women--and-why-they-keep-happening">some studies</a> suggest that women are also more likely to be misdiagnosed than men. While much of the language surrounding these statistics is often focused on gender bias as a bogeyman, it doesn’t change the reality women face.
Many women in my own life have gone to their doctors about a medical concern or recurring pain, only to be told their symptoms are “normal” or “nothing to worry about.” Certainly, men can also experience the same issues, but many of the women I’ve personally known who have been frustrated with the medical system are facing complex reproductive or hormonal challenges that go ignored, get dismissed, or begin an uphill battle through the years-long diagnosis process.
Indeed, the female reproductive system is so complex that there are entire fields of medicine dedicated to pregnancy and female anatomy, bundled together into the “OB/GYN” moniker. And the female biological clock ticks much faster than the male biological clock, making fertility and any health concerns an urgent issue for any woman facing reproductive struggles or simply in her reproductive years. 
For example, <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/10857-endometriosis">endometriosis</a> — growth of uterine tissue outside the uterus that can cause painful side effects, fertility problems, and a host of whole-body symptoms — takes an <a href="https://www.endofound.org/endometriosis">average of 10 years</a> from first symptom onset to official diagnosis for American women. And yet, this is an inflammatory condition that affects <a href="https://prenuvo.com/blog/the-most-common-health-misdiagnoses-in-women--and-why-they-keep-happening">10% of women</a> in their reproductive years. Beyond infertility and more extreme effects, symptoms can include severe menstrual cramps, heavy bleeding, or bloating — all of which can be dismissed as “normal” period symptoms. Similarly, <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/8316-polycystic-ovary-syndrome-pcos">polycystic ovarian syndrome</a> (PCOS), a condition that affects anywhere from <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7879843/">4–20%</a> of women, can have symptoms as varied as excess hair to skin tags to acne to infertility. And women often go through <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-with-endometriosis-and-pcos-wait-years-for-a-diagnosis-attitudes-to-womens-pain-may-be-to-blame-179500">multiple doctors over the course of years</a> to receive a diagnosis.
My own experience with the American health care system is no different than many women’s stories. I arrived at the emergency room as a teenager with abdominal pain so debilitating that I could barely walk. That morning, I’d gotten out of the shower and had to sit on the bathroom rug before gathering myself enough to stand up again. I then lay in bed for what could have been a few minutes or more than an hour before deciding with my parents that I needed to go to the hospital. I crawled down the hall and lay reclined in the car ride to the ER. There, after an ultrasound and when the pain subsided hours later, I left with a diagnosis of mere cramps. To this day, I haven&#8217;t received an official diagnosis. 
Certainly, I understand that diagnosing conditions that have lengthy and complicated symptom lists is not an easy undertaking. I know that doctors are not miracle workers who can easily cure any condition and that their time has many demands on it. But I also know that this is a system that is clearly broken. 
Whether caused by a lack of research, the complexities of the female hormonal system, dismissed symptoms, or sheer medical incompetence, the reality is that women have ample reason to be frustrated with the medical status quo. And finger-pointing at “gender bias” is little comfort to real people who are suffering without answers. 
As a result, the MAHA women are asking why the system seems so broken. Why are rates of autoimmune disease rising? Why is the solution to so many problems a prescription, especially to hormonal birth control? Why do many medical professionals seem to dismiss patient concerns? Why is there so much pressure to follow the vaccination schedule at pediatrician appointments? 
When none of these questions have easy answers — or solutions — the questions only get louder. Now, there’s a national movement that is addressing these concerns, and though there’s a long way to go, many women finally feel like their voices are heard.
***
Jordan Jantz is the assistant editor at IW Features as well as a freelance writer, editor, and website designer.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-2224220230

Why All The Moms Are Suddenly Going ‘Crunchy’

moms

UFC flyweight Allan Nascimento died after suffering an apparent heart attack in his sleep, the promotion <a href="https://x.com/ufc/status/2084392303226126734?s=20">announced</a> Monday. He was 34.
The Brazilian fighter was found unresponsive. Emergency crews performed CPR, but Nascimento was pronounced dead at the scene.
“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with Allan&#8217;s family, friends, teammates, and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” the UFC said in a statement. 
His most recent fight was a three-round decision loss at a UFC Fight Night event in June, <a href="https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/49524527/ufc-flyweight-allan-nascimento-dies-apparent-heart-attack">according to ESPN. </a>He launched his MMA career in his native country in 2011, compiling a 17-4 record before making his UFC debut on Dana White&#8217;s Contender Series in 2018.
Although he dropped a split decision to Raulian Paiva on the Contender Series, the performance ultimately earned him a UFC contract in 2021, according to the <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25461303-ufc-fighter-allan-nascimento-dies-age-34">Bleacher Report.</a>  He went on to notch victories over Cody Durden, Jafel Filho, Carlos Hernandez, and Jake Hadley, while suffering losses to Tagir Ulanbekov and Mitch Raposo. During his UFC tenure, which began in 2021, he also earned two Performance of the Night bonuses, the sports outlet reported. He represented the Chute Boxe Diego Lima team from São Paulo and trained with former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira.
Nicknamed &#8220;Puro Osso&#8221; — Portuguese for &#8220;All Bones,&#8221; a reference to his lean frame — Nascimento compiled a 22-7 professional record and went 4-2 in six UFC appearances, according to ESPN.
While heart attacks are generally associated with older adults, medical experts have <a href="https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/the-rise-in-heart-attacks-in-people-under-40">noted</a> a rise in cardiovascular events among younger people in recent years. 
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UFC fighter

34-Year Old UFC Star Dies Suddenly

Allan Nascimento

Athletics

Heart Attack

Sports

Singer Ariana Grande plans to step back from the public spotlight after wrapping up her “Eternal Sunshine” tour next month, with her representative citing relentless public scrutiny as the reason. 
“Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour,” a statement from the rep said.
“She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny,” the statement continued. “This tour has been a beautiful experience for her. She loves her fans and has loved every minute of this tour so much.”
Grande will also no longer be appearing in the West End revival of the Broadway show “Sunday in the Park with George,” as People <a href="https://people.com/ariana-grande-taking-step-back-after-tour-amid-public-health-scrutiny-rep-exclusive-12032395">reported</a>.
Fans have been commenting on social media frequently about Grande’s appearance, saying she looks thinner than she has in the past and speculating on whether she has an eating disorder. These conversations really took off following the press tour for the movie “Wicked.” 
The singer has addressed comments about her body in the past, notoriously calling out those who voiced concern in her song “Yes, And?” from her 2024 album “Eternal Sunshine.”
Those lyrics say: “My face is sitting, I don’t need no disguise / Don’t comment on my body, do not reply / Your business is yours, and mine is mine.”
Many fans interpreted lyrics from her recent single &#8220;Petal&#8221; as addressing the ongoing scrutiny. 
“But I don’t need someone to save me / ‘Cause this music and I will never die,” the lyrics of the song say. “This is not a cry for help / A couple million for my thoughts, I’ve got plenty / But I am not the victim / B*tch, I’m practically drowning in my blessings.”
One of the top comments on the video says, “It’s not about wanting the old Ariana back. It’s about wanting her to be healthy.”
As concern over Grande&#8217;s appearance has grown online, some fans have drawn comparisons to singer Karen Carpenter, who died in 1983 from heart failure caused by complications of anorexia nervosa.

Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande Plans To Retreat From Spotlight As Her Appearance Fuels Speculation

Celebrities

Entertainment

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Celebrities tend to balk at the idea that they might be seen as role models. Female pop stars who grew up with their fans, think Miley Cyrus, are particularly offended by the concept that the way they live might meaningfully influence someone else. But not Ariana Grande.
The 33-year-old singer and actress, who made a name for herself as a teenager on the Nickelodeon sitcom “Victorious,” said in an interview several years ago that she sees herself as an “honest” role model. 
“If I’m going to be a role model, the last thing I should be is perfect because that’s not realistic,” she <a href="https://people.com/music/ariana-grande-bbc-interview-everything-we-learned/">told</a> the BBC in 2018. “As long as I’m honest and genuine and I share with my fans my truest self, that’s the best that I can do because that’s allowing them to do the same thing.”
But it’s hard to be honest with your fans when you’re lying to yourself. 
Grande has spent the past few years pursuing a disturbing level of weight loss. The “Into You” singer, who also starred as Glinda in “Wicked,” looks as if she might actually be able to float away in a bubble without any movie magic to assist her. Lately, fans have been comparing her to Karen Carpenter, the lead singer of the Carpenters who died at age 32 after her eating disorder <a href="https://time.com/3685894/karen-carpenter-anorexia-death/">caused</a> her heart to fail. 
Yet somehow, Grande has spent the last few years criticizing fans for commenting on her body, suggesting that such concern amounts to something prurient, impudent, and decidedly anti-feminist. 
In a 2023 TikTok video she made to explain “what it means to be a person with a body,” she sweetly told fans to shove it. 
“I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what,” she said. “If you think you’re saying something good and well-intentioned … we just shouldn’t.&#8221;
She claimed that her former, larger-but-still-super-skinny body was more unhealthy than the current model. Before, she was on antidepressants, drinking, and eating poorly. Yet, even while suggesting that her physical health had improved, she seemed to admit that there was something wrong; she just didn’t think it was anyone’s business. 
“You never know what someone is going through. So even if you are coming from a loving place and a caring place, that person probably is working on it or has a support system that they are working on it with and — you never know.”
What does “working on it” mean for her, when “it” looks a lot like an extreme, possibly life-threatening case of anorexia? 
She clearly wasn’t working on it, and she doubled down the next year while on the Wicked press tour.
“I’ve been kind of doing this in front of the public and kind of been, you know, a specimen in a petri dish, really, since I was 16 or 17,” Grande said. “So, I have heard it all. I’ve heard every version of it, of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it, and then it’s wrong for different reasons.”
Couched in the language of self-care and compassion and feminism, her pleas for privacy made it into the verbiage of various headlines. “Ariana Grande gives &#8216;loving reminder&#8217; about body-shaming,” <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/ariana-grande-gives-reminder-body-shaming-rcna246548">cooed</a> NBC. Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/ariana-grande-fights-back-against-body-shamers-critics-comment-her-weight-during-wicked-press-tour">put</a> her in a more active stance, declaring, “Ariana Grande fights back against body-shamers as critics comment on her weight during &#8216;Wicked&#8217; press tour.”
But now, finally, the body-shamers may have won. Thank God. 
On Friday, Grande released the music video for her new song “Petals.” In it, she attends a casting call, each time reinventing her image to make herself more appealing to the old, grizzled men behind the desk. 
The first time, one of the men writes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it note: “couldn’t hurt to lose a few lbs.” The next time, she’s criticized for wearing too much makeup, and the third time, when she comes back with a boob job, the man scoffs that she’s had “too much work done.”
Then she lops off their heads with a chainsaw. Really.
Like Taylor Swift, she has the commentariat in mind with her video — and her lyrics. “But I don’t need someone to save me / &#8216;Cause this music and I will never die,” she trills. “This is not a cry for help / A couple million for my thoughts, I&#8217;ve got plenty / But I am not the victim / B*tch, I&#8217;m practically drowning in my blessings.”
Sawing off the heads of concerned fans seems like the wrong message to send, but her music video is saying exactly what she’s been proclaiming to fans for years: Talking about my dangerously skinny body is the same as telling me I’m too ugly or wear too much makeup or am too sexy or am not sexy enough. Gosh, we women just can’t win!
But the backlash this time was serious. “It’s not about wanting the old Ariana back. It’s about wanting her to be healthy,” reads a top comment on the video. “At this point, im judging her team, friends, and family. This is insane,” said another. 
Then, on Sunday, Grande’s reps announced she would be stepping out of the spotlight. 
“Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour,” her representative <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/08/ariana-grande-exits-west-end-sunday-in-the-park-with-george-1237015542/">said</a>. (This exit isn’t immediate: The tour for her new album ends September 1.) 
“She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily,” continued her rep in a pointed statement, “and then taking a much-deserved break from public facing work and appearances which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.”
Hopefully Grande can finally get the help she needs, unless this is an elaborate marketing stunt. What’s really remarkable is that she’s still pointing a finger at us, the onlookers. She’s healthy, her rep insists, and she deserves a break from your endless scrutiny, you sick losers. By the way, where’s my chainsaw?
What’s most important is that Grande eat a cheeseburger, preferably with some tallow fries, but she also owes honesty to her fans. She is skeletal, visibly unhealthy by any objective measure, and insisting otherwise could cause vulnerable viewers to spiral in the same way. Criticizing her weight isn’t a matter of taste the way one might comment on her ever-present high ponytail. 
Ariana Grande is wasting away before our eyes, and she’s too afraid to admit it. We shouldn’t be.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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Ariana Grande Is Wasting Away — And Still Blaming You For Noticing

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weight Loss

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday launched an online cooking series aimed at helping Americans prepare healthy, budget-friendly meals as part of the Trump administration&#8217;s &#8220;Make America Healthy Again&#8221; initiative.
The new series, &#8220;The Real Food Show,&#8221; features Kennedy traveling across the country to meet with chefs and culinary experts who demonstrate recipes using minimally processed ingredients.
“Inspired by President Trump&#8217;s Make America Healthy Again agenda, Secretary Kennedy is bringing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans to life and showing that cooking with real food can be practical, approachable, and affordable for every family,” the Department of Health and Human Services <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/real-food-show/index.html">said</a> in a statement.
“Every episode is packed with affordable, budget-friendly recipes and easy cooking techniques designed to save you time and money,” the department added.
In a promotional video announcing the series, Kennedy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWBP4REwZeY">said</a> the goal is to encourage Americans to embrace healthier eating habits through simple home cooking. 
“Thanks to President Trump, we flipped the food pyramid and put real food back to where it belongs — at the center of the American plate,&#8221; Kennedy said. &#8220;America, it&#8217;s time to eat real food. Let’s get cooking.” 
The new series premiered Thursday on the HHS website and YouTube. Celebrity chef Andrew Gruel joined Kennedy for the first episode, where they prepared crispy wild Alaskan salmon cakes served with an apple, white bean and greens salad.
&#8220;I&#8217;m excited to be part of the premiere episode because I believe the message is much bigger than a cooking show,&#8221; Gruel <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/rfk-jr-takes-maha-kitchen-hhs-cooking-series-promoting-healthy-meals-under-5">told</a> Fox News Digital.
&#8220;My hope is that this series helps demystify cooking and shows people that preparing crave-worthy, healthy meals doesn&#8217;t require professional training or expensive ingredients,&#8221; he added.

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Move Over, Food Network: RFK Jr. Has A Cooking Show

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