Can RFK Jr. Make America’s Diet Healthy Again?

Robert F Kennedy Jr. set out to change the way Americans eat.

From the dyes in Fruit Loops cereal to the seed oils in chicken nuggets, Kennedy – President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) – has long spoken out against members of the public. part that he believes is harmful to Americans’ health.

“We are betraying our children by letting… [food] industries poison them,” Kennedy said at a campaign rally in November, after he ended his independent run for president and endorsed Donald Trump.

But if Kennedy hopes to target junk food, he will first have to change the country’s food regulations — and take on Big Food.

“What he proposed was to get into the food industry,” said former New York University nutrition professor Marion Nestle. “Will Trump back him up on that? I’ll believe it when I see it.”

The former environmental lawyer – who still faces Senate confirmation – is widely seen as a controversial pick, given his history of making unfounded health claims, including both that vaccines can cause autism and that wifi technology causes cancer.

However, some of his ideas around FDA reform have received support from health experts, lawmakers, and concerned consumers alike — including some Democrats. Democracy.

Kennedy “will make America healthy again by reforming HHS and the FDA,” Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis wrote on social media this week, welcoming his nomination. After receiving public backlash for praising him, Polis validated his endorsement, writing on social media that “science must remain the foundation of our nation’s health policy.” me”.

Before the election, Kennedy — a former Democrat — floated several ideas to address chronic diseases under the slogan “Make America Healthy Again.”

He regularly advocates eliminating ultra-processed foods – products altered to add fat, starch and sugar, such as frozen pizzas, crisps and sugary breakfast cereals, which have been linked to related to health problems such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

He primarily took aim at school lunches, telling Fox News: “We have a generation of kids swimming in a toxic soup right now.”

Part of Kennedy’s new duties will include oversight of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has more than 18,000 employees.

The agency is responsible for ensuring the safety of pharmaceuticals and the U.S. food supply, but has been criticized in recent years by some lawmakers and consumer groups who accuse the agency of This lack of transparency and action on food safety.

The 70-year-old has pledged to take a sledgehammer to the agency and fire employees he says are part of a “corrupt system.”

“There are entire departments, like the nutrition department at the FDA… that have to go and not do their job,” Kennedy told MSNBC this month.

He also pushed for the elimination of food dyes, including red No. 3, and other additives banned in other countries.

The former Democrat also pointed to more controversial health issues, including fluoride in drinking water, which he said should be banned altogether, and raw milk, which he believes has health benefits despite its risks. Bacterial pollution is increasing.

He also went after seed oils, writing on social media that Americans are “inadvertently being poisoned” by products like canola and sunflower oil used in fast food.

Some public health experts support Kennedy’s goal to tackle the problem of processed foods, which they say the United States consumes at much higher rates than many other countries.

“It was thrilling to hear someone argue for doing something about chronic illness,” Ms. Nestle said.

Dr. Peter Lurie, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit group that advocates for food safety, said Kennedy’s goal is to eliminate certain food and drug additives. dyeing may also be beneficial.

Former FDA officials said some food dyes, including Red No. 3 – banned in California – should also have been blocked by the US government because of concerns about carcinogens.

The FDA has rejected Kennedy’s claim that the United States allows thousands of additives banned in the European Union. The spokesperson said there was a need to “dig deeper and understand the context behind the numbers” when comparing regulations in the US and the EU, which use different methods.

But public health experts and former officials say some of Kennedy’s goals were unworthy — and in some cases, harmful.

For example, drinking raw milk that has not been pasteurized – a process that helps kill bacteria – can make people sick or even kill them, research has shown.

“There is no evidence of a nutritional benefit of the magnitude that we know of from not pasteurizing milk,” Dr. Lurie said.

Kennedy’s proposal to remove fluoride from drinking water could also be problematic, Ms. Garner said, because fluoride, at low levels found in water, has been shown to improve oral health.

Removing it from the water supply is also beyond his authority because fluoride levels are controlled by the states.

And his claim that seed oils are helping fuel the obesity epidemic also has no scientific basis, Dr. Lurie said.

“We see no evidence for that. “In fact, they seem like important products insofar as they can substitute for saturated fats” like butter, he said.

Food reform, even as part of the public health discussion, may simply be politically and bureaucratically unrealistic, some experts say.

“It’s a lot more complicated than he says,” Dr. Lurie said. “These are real challenges and you will encounter resistance in the industry every now and then.”

First, the FDA does not have authority over the catch of all “ultra-processed foods,” several former officials told the BBC.

Instead, they say, the process is more complicated. Both the United States Department of Agriculture and the FDA regulate the food industry. The FDA does not make the rules – it implements policies passed by Congress and works to limit unhealthy foods by enforcing limits and labeling on certain certain nutrients, like sodium and saturated fat.

Ms. Garner said that Kennedy’s comments “made for great political rhetoric.” “In my view, I don’t see how that could be possible without drastic policy and other infrastructure changes.”

The former FDA official said he would also face industry backlash for his proposed ban on pesticides and genetically modified organisms commonly used by American farmers.

“Businesses will complain,” said Rosalie Lijinsky, a former FDA official for 33 years.

The industry has become accustomed to limiting oversight by both Democrats and Republicans — including under Trump’s first term — while many of Kennedy’s goals even involved building regulation more clogged.

Several food industry groups met with lawmakers before Kennedy’s appointment this month to lobby against him, Politico reported last month.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said this week that he planned to meet with Kennedy before his confirmation hearing and “spend a lot of time educating him about agriculture.”

Kennedy’s position also puts him at odds with President-elect Trump, a longtime fan of fast food who has pushed to roll back stricter health requirements for school lunches during his term. his first period.

“You have some ideas that make some sense, but they are exactly the kind that this administration opposes,” Dr. Lurie said.

In a statement to the BBC, the Food Industry Association, which represents retailers, manufacturers and food manufacturers, such as General Mills, said it looked forward to working with Trump’s team to “ ensuring food and drug policy continues to have a scientific basis, minimizing regulatory complexity.”

Jeff Hutt, a spokesman for the political action committee Make America Healthy Again, which is calling on Republican lawmakers to confirm Kennedy, said industry complaints about Kennedy’s agenda amount to nothing. surprising.

Mr. Hutt said the health movement’s goal is to “prioritize America’s health over corporate profits.”

“Even if the idea of ​​banning processed foods is politically unworkable, it’s still a discussion we need to have,” he said.

Former officials said Kennedy could still work within existing U.S. regulatory frameworks to improve the American food system.

Ms. Nestle said Kennedy could use ultra-processed foods by changing the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, which set nutritional standards for industry and federal government programs, including school lunches and military meals.

“They have a huge impact on the food industry,” Ms. Nestle said. “That will make a big difference.”

The guidelines are updated every five years by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and DHHS, which previously said there was insufficient evidence against processed foods.

Still, officials and nutrition experts have raised concerns about how Kennedy proposes to implement his agenda, including firing FDA nutritionists.

Ms. Lijinsky said the move will have a major impact on food safety. “If you lose top experts, you’re going to have problems,” she said.

Ultimately, Ms. Garner said it was difficult to distinguish some of Kennedy’s more reasonable food improvement goals from the false health claims he spread.

“There is an opportunity here,” Ms. Garner said.

“But I think there are legitimate concerns based on other issues and his approach to those issues that could impact this one.”