If there’s one thing most Americans can agree on, it’s that most Americans are unhealthy.

In 2024, more than 40 percent of Americans are overweight and nearly one in 10 are severely obese. The top four leading causes of death for Americans are heart disease, cancer, accidental injury, and stroke, three of which are exacerbated by poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle.  

Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the incoming Secretary of Health and Human Services, agrees with most Americans. In an ad campaign released this fall, Kennedy stood in front of a table of Cheez-Its, Cap’n Crunch, and Doritos, carefully explaining how the Food and Drug Administration allows chemicals banned in other developed countries into the American food supply to cut costs.

“A few people get very, very rich, and the toxins end up in every supermarket aisle,” Kennedy noted before expounding on the harmful properties in tartrazine, commonly known as Yellow 5 dye, which is found in many foods at American grocers.

“Like the frog in slowly boiling water, we didn’t really notice as we got sicker and sicker,” Kennedy explained. “We’ve grown now to accept chronic disease conditions as normal. But now, we’re finally waking up to this cataclysm and we’re asking ourselves, ‘How in the world did this happen?’” 

Ultraprocessed foods make up an estimated 73 percent of the American food supply. These foods have been found to reduce the bioavailability of vitamins and lead to metabolic syndrome, diabetes, angina, elevated blood pressure and reduction in biological age.

Like Yellow 5, Red No. 3 is also commonly found in food products on the shelves of supermarkets throughout the United States. It has been nearly 35 years since the FDA banned the use of Red No. 3 in cosmetics after studies found it caused cancer in animals, yet the chemical still remains in the U.S. food supply while the agency continues to review the color additive used in food.

Kennedy’s views on corn are non-debatable. He has advocated for less reliance on the subsidy which is used to feed cattle and to cheapen production costs for many of America’s most popular food items. Michael Pollan’s fantastic 2006 book The Omnivore’s Dilemma provides an extensive look at how corn has invaded the U.S. food supply. From the beverages we drink, to the foods we eat, America relies on corn to cut food costs and power trade. Ninety-five percent of animal feed in America is now made with corn which, Pollan notes, is the root cause of liver disease in cattle. 

High-fructose corn syrup, which is linked to cardiovascular disease, has singularly replaced cane sugar in soft drinks over the last half century. The most popular soft drink companies in the country all use it as a cheap alternative to cane sugar. Type 2 diabetes, childhood obesity, and poor dental health are all linked to the substance which Americans consume at twice the recommended limit. And it’s not just in the foods and drinks we consume. Corn is also found in trash bags, charcoal, toothpaste, batteries, matches, and lining the shelves in supermarkets across America. 

But Kennedy’s concerns about corn aren’t what’s making waves across the American media landscape. The real fears over Kennedy’s ascension to the top of America’s federal health institution have to do with pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines. 

The talking heads at CNN were practically apoplectic the day after President-elect Donald Trump nominated Kennedy to lead the HHS. For them, Kennedy is not so much a threat to the health of Americans but a serious challenge to their advertisers. 

Whether it’s Ozempic, or Wegovy, or Jardiance, or Mounjaro, on CNN any hour of the day every ad break is peppered with pitches by leading pharmaceutical companies that have little interest in addressing the root causes of obesity and diabetes.

When the CNN host Kaitlin Collins recently read a tweet from Kennedy that promised to send FDA officials packing, her producers made sure not to highlight the section of his post which called for Americans to eat clean foods, get in the sun, and most importantly, exercise. There’s simply no money to be made off Americans getting off the couch and going for a walk in the sun. The pharmaceutical industry prefers our people sick so they can sell them pills. Kennedy is the first real challenge to the biggest game in town. 

Kennedy’s outspoken views on vaccines are well documented. He has repeatedly questioned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention schedule of immunization for children. During an appearance on the “Health Freedom for Humanity” podcast in 2021, he encouraged people to speak out against the over-vaccination of children. 

“I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, ‘Better not get him vaccinated,’” Kennedy said. “If he hears it from 10 other people, maybe he won’t do it, you know, maybe he will save that child.”

In the 1940s, American children were recommended the vaccines for smallpox, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. Today, American children are recommended 15 different immunizations, including the recently added vaccination against Covid-19. Though Kennedy’s skepticism of the immunization schedule is debated by experts, what can’t be debated is that American children are receiving more vaccines than ever before in US history. 

With his cabinet appointment looming, Kennedy has attempted to moderate his message on vaccines. In an interview with NPR following Trump’s victory, Kennedy promised he won’t be nearly as radical as his critics claim.

“If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away,” Kennedy told NPR. “People ought to have a choice and ought to be informed by the best information, so I’m going to make sure that scientific safety studies and efficacies are out there and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them.”

Virologists have specifically targeted Kennedy’s belief that the unprecedented surge of autism rates in American children is connected to vaccines. In 1997, one in 2,500 children were diagnosed with autism. By 2017, that number had exploded to one in 68. Experts claim the surge is a result of a better understanding of the disease, but skeptics, including Kennedy, have suggested the rise is linked to the broader immunization schedule for American children. Kennedy has repeatedly claimed that “vaccines cause autism,” a statement that is debated and dismissed by leading virologists. 

“I don’t think there’s any scientific question that vaccines cause autism,” Kennedy stated during a podcast appearance with Patrick Bet-David. Speaking with Jesse Watters in 2023, Kennedy repeated his claim. “I do believe that autism comes from vaccines, but I believe most of the things people believe about my opinions on vaccines are wrong. All I’ve said about vaccines is we should have good science. We should have the same kind of testing, placebo-controlled trials, that we have for every other medication.” 

Despite his stated objections to the ballooning immunization schedule, Kennedy claims his interests lie less in the prohibition of vaccines and more in creating transparency for informed consent. It’s a concern that is echoed by a broad swath of the American public, especially Republicans. In 2019, Gallup found that more than 50 percent of Republican voters with children believed it was “extremely important” to vaccinate their children. By 2024, that number had nearly halved to 26 percent. 

Vaccine skepticism didn’t appear out of nowhere. The Covid-19 pandemic put American vaccine policy front and center as businesses, government institutions, and educational centers mandated a rushed, faulty vaccine that was advertised as a magic bullet but failed to live up to the hype. If the medical and media institutions of America harbor frustrations with increased skepticism surrounding vaccine policy, they need not blame Kennedy. 

Robert Redfield, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the first Trump administration, defended Kennedy’s nomination to head HHS on Sunday. “Kennedy is not antivaccine,” Redfield said. “What Kennedy is about is transparency about vaccines, honest discussion about vaccines, asking for the data to show that these vaccines are safe and they’re efficacious.”

Those concerned that Kennedy’s appointment to lead America’s top health agency will usher in a wave of forced nutrition and government-prescribed dieting could rest a little easier Sunday after a picture posted this weekend aboard Trump’s plane showed Kennedy eating McDonald’s with the MAGA crew. Don Trump Jr. humorously captioned the image “Making America Healthy Again starts TOMORROW.” 

For Americans, tomorrow can’t come soon enough. 

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