The confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as America’s new Health and Human Services ( HHS) secretary opens a generational window to revitalize the country’s health before the twin obesity and chronic disease outbreaks become endemic.
In our fresh guide, Fat And Unhappy: How” Body Positivity” Is Killing Us ( and How to Protect Yourself ), we explain how the foods and pharmaceutical companies have preyed on the knowledge and mental baggage of fat to profit off a country left severely fat, tired, and depressed. Simply put, Americans are willing to be happy and good but don’t know how, and corporate America wants to keep that attitude.
In his Phoenix support talk for then-Republican candidate Donald Trump, Kennedy said,” If I’m given the chance to resolve the severe illness problems and transformation our food manufacturing, I promise that within two times the chronic disease stress will dramatically decrease.” ” We will make Americans healthy again”.
Now, Kennedy, confirmed as HHS secretary on Thursday, has that chance. We recommend that Kennedy immediately do the following five things:
1. Flip The Food Pyramid
The archaic food pyramid was removed by the federal government as the official dietary visual guide in 2011, but the current” MyPlate” infographic to take the place of the food industry’s pyramid is not much better.
More than ten years ago, when the then-First Lady led the Obama administration’s fight against childhood obesity on the eve of a renaissance in nutrition, she unveiled the replacement chart.
” This is a quick, simple reminder for all of us to be more mindful of the foods that we’re eating”, Obama said at a press conference. We’re all strewn through a lot of dietary information, which makes it difficult for us to sort through it all. However, we do have time to look at our kids ‘ plates.
The dietary guidelines, however, remained reliant on outdated science unfairly critical of low-carb, high-fat diets for metabolic health. The Obama administration’s use of the MyPlate model, which left Americans confused about how to deal with the swelling crisis, missed an opportunity to alter the trajectory of childhood obesity and the nation’s overall health. Today, there are significantly more children and adolescents between the ages of 2 and 19 who are struggling with severe obesity and obesity than when Barack Obama first took office.
Every five years, the Department of Agriculture is in charge of updating the dietary guidelines. A new administration determined to implement the most recent science without the influence of industry is now the time to radically reevaluate the rules.
2. Reform Food Subsidies and SNAP Benefits
Federal food subsidies tarnishe agricultural markets and serve as corporate gifts to the food industry. Over 70 % of American calories are made up of taxpayer-funded industrial products.
Federal initiatives that encourage farmers ‘ production for colossal food processors are the only ones that allow farmers to grow so much wheat, corn, and soybeans. Kennedy should work to reformulate food subsidies to promote healthier, better foods like organic animal agriculture rather than the widespread production of corn and soy ready for engineering into frankenfoods.
In addition, taxpayers pay money to junk food producers through food stamps, a problem Kennedy has already pledged to address in a September op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.
” Nine percent of all]Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ] funding goes to sweetened drinks, according to 2011 data”, Kennedy wrote. It’s absurd for U.S. taxpayers to spend tens of billions on subsidizing junk that harms the health of low-income Americans.
While Kennedy was nominated to lead HHS, and not the agency in charge of SNAP benefits, which is the Department of Agriculture, that doesn’t mean Kennedy has no influence over the issue as the administration’s chief crusader on obesity and chronic disease. Food industry giants spend billions of dollars on federal food stamps each year, and Americans are sick of paying for bad habits.
3. Prioritize Preventative Medicine
An area Kennedy will have direct control over is the National Institutes of Health’s ( NIH) agency priorities. According to Kennedy, “half of NIH research budgets should be directed toward preventative, alternative, and holistic approaches to health,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
” In the current system, researchers don’t have enough incentive to study generic drugs and root-cause therapies that look at things like diet”, Kennedy wrote.
As we previously reported in our book, the American health care system has changed into a sick care system because the food and pharmaceutical industries have much more money to spend on treating disease symptoms than on preventing or curing it in the first place. Only 3 percent of federal funding for disease prevention is allocated to this area. Kennedy has a chance to alter the way that taxpayer money is spent in order to stop people from starting to get sick.
4. Make Our Food Less Toxic
Far too many chemicals found in common American food have been banned in the European Union due to their high levels of toxicology and health risks. For example, most Americans probably have no idea that titanium dioxide, a food additive that creates a shine or brightness, lurks in roughly 13, 000 items, including popular brands of soups and mac and cheese. The European Food Safety Authority discovered that titanium dioxide can damage DNA strands and cause chromosomal damage in 2021. Additionally, research has demonstrated that it can infect animals with neurotoxicity and inflammation. Three years ago, the European Commission outlawed titanium dioxide as a food additive in the European Union.
This is just one of many examples, though. It’s time for the FDA to re-examine toxic ingredients like titanium dioxide, potassium bromate ( a suspected carcinogen ), brominated vegetable oil ( known for , causing nervous system , damage ), and propylparaben ( a preservative associated with , fertility disruption , and hormonal imbalances ).
Kennedy has a unique opportunity to press on the federal organizations in charge of ensuring food safety and reevaluate the potential contaminants in the supply. Food dyes have long been associated with hyperactivity, irritability, and aggression in children, but well-meaning parents everywhere have no idea that it appears in the most innocuous places, like fruit gummies that are marketed as healthy. What would happen to our children if we eliminated these harmful endocrine disruptors from their diets every day?
5. Recruit Melania, and Don’t Be Obama
Beauty is subjective, health is not. Both are aspirational, and neither have to be toxic.
Melania Trump has what most others don’t: a portfolio as an internationally-recognized supermodel whose memoir redefines body positivity in an era of corporate-sponsored gluttony. Trump celebrated her sober lifestyle without drugs and alcohol in her book, which was released last fall, while also revering the human body.
She wrote in response to controversy over her previous nude modeling, claiming that” the female form was once revered and honored in Western culture.” ” I believed then, as I do now, that women should take pride in their bodies, not feel shame”.
Trump’s participation in the latest obesity crusade doesn’t need to turn this into a vanity campaign. Her figure speaks for itself. Food and pharmaceutical giants, meanwhile, as outlined in Fat and Unhappy, have bankrolled apathetic messages of” Body Positivity” to enable gluttonous lifestyles that can be mined for sick care dollars. When sexual vitality is probably one of the strongest motivators for a restoration of health and wellness, to pretend that the pursuit of physical attraction is not an incentive to encourage Americans to eat and move better is a delusional exercise in the corporate-sponsored activism that has failed previous efforts.
Looks aren’t everything, but not they’re not nothing either. Was Ellen Degeneres ‘ dancing on television really going to persuade Americans to eat more vegetables? No, but videos of Kennedy flexing six-pack abs while doing push-ups in his 70s probably have. A first lady posing alongside Kennedy will also be able to demonstrate her flawless skin as the pair emphasize the benefits of healthy eating. However, the Trump movement is determined to persuade Americans to make better decisions byeducating the public on what’s actually in those cupcakes, in contrast to Obama’s activism’s attempt to make an ally of the food industry and lectured children to put down cupcakes.
The first lady has already pledged to launch a second campaign for child wellness. Given the recent renaissance in metabolic psychiatry, which has identified myriad mental disorders to improper diet and lifestyles, any effort to” Be Best” would be incomplete without an educational component on nutrition.
A new initiative with its roots in the end of childhood bullying is also a natural fit for a new campaign to promote exercise and healthy eating. Name more offensive remarks that children have heard as children than snotty comments about their size. In fact, many Americans today will claim that their early years were incredibly painful when they started to gain weight. Nobody should be the subject of offensive comments about their appearance in a perfect world, but we are much more likely to end body shame when we start putting everything to shame.
Tristan Justice is the co-author of” Fat and Unhappy: How Body Positivity Is Killing Us ( and How ‘ Body Positivity Is Saving Yourself )” and is a national correspondent for The Federalist. He has also contributed to The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His articles have also appeared on Fox News and Real Clear Politics. Tristan majored in political science at George Washington University, and he minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here. Buy” Fat and Unhappy” here. Since 2011, Gina Bontempo has been a multi-certified trainer and health coach who has helped people get fit, establish new habits, and make changes in their lives. She completed her Master of Theological Studies at Harvard University, where she worked with families and terminally ill patients in hospices.
