Fox News personality Laura Ingraham stunned viewers by taking back remarks she made about former First Lady Michelle Obama, who'd claimed that poor neighborhoods are often "food deserts."
Ingraham spoke with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins as the Trump administration on Wednesday released updated dietary guidelines for Americans, emphasizing whole and minimally processed foods, reduced consumption of refined carbohydrates, and what officials described as a “war” on added sugars.
Featured on Ingraham's program was a response Rollins gave a reporter earlier that day about whether it's more "cost-effective" to eat healthy foods:
"Yes, indeed. That eating healthy for the most part, we’ve got a hundred simulations is actually less expensive. The challenge comes is the access to those healthy foods, especially in parts of America where they have food deserts.”
Ingraham then asked Rollins the following:
"Michelle Obama called them food deserts. I kind of used to poke fun at her for that, but maybe — is she right?"
Rollins replied:
"In fact, there’s part of that that’s correct, but here’s how we fix it–"
Ingraham cut her off, saying:
"We take it all back. She’s right."
You can watch what happened in the video below.
It was quite the admission.
Republicans were profoundly critical, even dismissive, toward Obama's Let's Move! campaign, a public health initiative created to reduce childhood obesity and encourage a healthy lifestyle in children. She was even accused of being a "communist" supporting a "nanny state."
Obama also worked largely behind the scenes to support the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, a landmark law aimed at improving school nutrition. The legislation required more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in school meals while reducing sodium, sugar, and fat. It marked the first major update to school lunch standards in decades, representing a significant step toward healthier meals for millions of students.
And yes, she spoke extensively about food deserts, a term that describes neighborhoods and communities that have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods.
In fact, in 2011, she said:
"We can give people all of the information in the world about healthy eating... but if parents can't buy the food they need to prepare those meals... if their only options for groceries are in the corner gas station or the local mini mart, then all of that is just talk... and that's not what Let's Move is about."
The GOP backlash was intense; the first Trump administration rolled back those nutritional standards in 2017 under then-Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. At the time, Perdue framed the move as a way to give students and schools more “choice” and stated that it would help “make school meals great again.”
People couldn't believe their ears—and the mockery was swift.
2026 is already shaping up to be a wild year.
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