by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appointed by President-elect Donald Trump to be secretary of Health and Human Services, may be best known for his anti-vaccine stance, but his plans for America have a lot to do with transforming the food system.
In Trump’s first speech since election night at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday night, he said Kennedy would “help make America healthy again” and protect Americans from “harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and food additives.”
Kennedy on toxic chemicals from food
One of Kennedy’s focuses is on toxic chemicals in the environment, particularly from pesticides and fertilizers used in agriculture.
“Pesticides, food additives, pharmaceuticals and toxic waste permeate every cell in our bodies,” Kennedy said during Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin’s American Health Crisis Roundtable in September.
“This attack on our children’s cells and hormones is relentless. They’re swimming around in a toxic soup…We’re poisoning all of our children and all of our adults en masse.”
Michael M. Santiago / Staff / Image Source/Getty Images / Canva
There is scientific evidence to support the belief that chemicals used in agriculture, such as glyphosate and phthalates, can have negative health effects, such as increasing the risk of certain cancers and disrupting hormone balance.
However, said nutritionist Christine Byrne of Ruby Oak Nutrition Newsweek that Kennedy’s statements were “a massive misrepresentation and oversimplification of science.”
“The American food system is complex and while it is far from perfect, allegations like these are intended to stoke fear, not push for change,” she said. “To say that children are swimming around in a ‘toxic soup’ is vague, scary and simply not true.”
Dr. Federica Amati, senior nutritionist at nutrition science company ZOE, said Newsweek that Kennedy raises “some legitimate concerns about the quality of our food and the impact of xenobiotics on health, particularly on children.”
“We know that diet-related chronic diseases are a public health emergency, so there is an urgent need to bring about change,” she said.
In an Oct. 17 video on Kennedy’s campaign website, Kennedy said he wanted to “undo 80 years of agricultural policy in this country” and criticized the current system of “destroying the soil” through “chemical-based agriculture.”
This speaks to the regenerative agriculture movement, which seeks to improve soil quality by limiting the use of harsh chemicals and certain industrial methods such as tillage and monocultures.
Amati said Kennedy “expressed a legitimate concern about the health of our soil, which is linked to environmental health.”
Kennedy on the dangers of seed oils
On Fox News on October 28, Kennedy called seed oils “one of the unhealthiest ingredients we have in food” and contributes to “inflammation throughout the body.” Two days later, he said on the station that McDonald’s fries would be healthier if they were fried in tallow instead of seed oil.
Seed oils are a much-discussed topic. Some nutrition experts agree that seed oils – such as canola, rapeseed or sunflower oil – cause inflammation in the body and increase the risk of diseases such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
Other nutrition experts – including most registered dietitians – argue that seed oils are a safe source of unsaturated fats in moderation and that saturated fats such as tallow raise cholesterol and contribute to the risk of heart disease.
“Consuming too many seed oils can have negative health effects, but the same goes for saturated fats like suet,” Byrne said. “It’s best not to demonize a single food, but to eat a varied diet.”
Kennedy on highly processed foods
Kennedy frequently expressed concerns about the obesity epidemic and the extent of lifestyle-related diseases in the United States, blaming highly processed foods as a major culprit.
There is considerable debate about highly processed foods, but there is widespread agreement that processed foods – which contain chemical additives such as emulsifiers and sweeteners and are designed to maximize palatability – are linked to negative health consequences such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Kennedy has repeatedly called highly processed foods “poison,” saying on Johnson’s panel, “We are literally systematically poisoning our children for profit.”
In the same discussion, Kennedy criticized the legalized use of chemical additives in American foods that are banned in many European countries and suggested that he might introduce stricter regulations against them.
On Fox News on October 30, Kennedy said, “I’m going to get processed foods out of school lunches right now.” Here he appears to be using the word “processed” to mean “ultra-processed.” The term “processed food” refers to any food that has undergone processing, including healthy foods such as pasteurized milk, home-baked bread and canned vegetables.
Amati said that while the evidence on additives was “evolving,” Kennedy’s “overall message of reducing highly processed foods is correct.”
Kennedy on USDA and FDA
Kennedy said regulators like the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration are contributing to the spread of obesity and related diseases in the U.S. for profit.
For example, at a July presidential campaign rally in Maine, he said, “The USDA was founded to help the family farmer and ensure a healthy food supply, but its real mission is to do the exact opposite.”
“It’s about giving us poisoned, processed, addictive foods that are poisoning and killing us en masse and making us the sickest population in the world.”
Byrne said, “Placing sole blame for Americans’ health problems on the food and agriculture industries ignores so many other factors that contribute to negative health outcomes, including the many social determinants of health.”
Amati said: “The overall key message that we urgently need to change our food environment is consistent with the state of public health.”
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