The Crunchy Cult: MAHA Moms of Social Media

The inaccessible and dangerous world of the new age “crunchy” mom.

by Isabelle Oss

Hiking, biking, caring for plants like they’re children, making your own oat milk from scratch, and waterproofing your Blundstones — the perfect starter pack for a “crunchy” gal. The best part? Drinking milk straight from the utter and not vaccinating your children! 

Wait, no, that can’t be right—can it? As a Coloradan born and raised, I’ve worn the former part of that description with pride for most of my life. Raised in a liberal family on farmers’ market granola and a love for the outdoors, crunchy was my thing, until recently. Now, “Momfluencers” are taking to social media, eager to promote the baseless health claims of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They’ve managed to coin the term, “MAHA,” or, “Make America Healthy Again,” and redefine what it means to be “crunchy.”

President Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services has been promoting controversial health opinions since 2005, garnering support from libertarians, extreme leftists, and parents of children with autism who believe vaccinations are the culprit. He still has misinformed parents on his side, but after anti-vax rhetoric got a boost from right-winged lobbyists, the bulk of his support now comes from right-leaning voters.

Between likening seed oils to poison and claiming food dyes cause ADHD, the MAHA movement directly opposes science. According to a New York Times Report, seed oils point to lower cardiovascular health risks. MAHA moms often replace these oils for tallow and lard, in a misplaced effort to lower disease risk considering their high saturated fat content. 

The MAHA moms frequently use buzzwords like “chemtrails,” “fluorides,” and “clean foods,” but I haven’t seen anyone associated with the movement successfully define these terms. RFK Jr. says our children’s cells and hormones are under attack. Which cells? Which hormones?

MAHA mom Becca Tanner, is drinking a coffee, smiling at her phone in this Instagram reel. The screen displays several “crunchy” emojis: Ducks, eggs, a loaf of bread, flowers, and a mother with a baby. Also, a cross and a heterosexual couple. She’s a homemaker and supposedly “does not care” which type of mother you are “(within reason).” 

Tanner’s non-explicit sentiments are common among MAHA moms. Like her, they are devoutly religious, young, homeschooling, and homesteading mothers—a lifestyle inaccessible to most. They say health is wealth and the ultra-expensive homesteading world proves it. Eating healthy without an abundant home garden and a flock of chickens is already expensive. The MAHA trend highlights wealth inequalities in communities historically at risk for health issues.

I’m not writing this to say promoting health is bad. Some of these mothers claim their child was cured of chronic illness or they got rid of their stage four lymphoma by following RFK Jr.’s baseless rhetoric. Good for them, but preaching it without proof is dangerous.

Honestly, I agree with them sometimes, like when they say eating whole foods is better than ultra-processed foods. But, I agree because it’s backed by science, not just by RFK Jr. When unvaccinated children in the Southwest start dying of measles in 2025 because their parents are scared of autism, I draw the line.

Health is great and “crunchy” can be anyone’s term. For now, though, I relinquish my Coloradan right to claim to be a “crunchy” girl because I don’t want E. Coli from drinking raw milk.