Can RFK Fix What's Eating America?
True health reform starts not with a prescription, but with what’s on our plates.
Every time I go to Europe, I eat mountains of food. I gorge myself on pasta, have a few glasses of wine at dinner, and savor all the delicious desserts the continent has to offer. Yet I still lose weight. Not so in America, where I know the things I put into my body for sustenance, no matter how healthy I try to make them, are slowly killing me.
I was reminded of this gloomy reality when I stumbled across a terrifying article in The Wall Street Journal titled “A 12-Year-Old’s Journey Into the World of Ozempic.” It’s a headline that only could exist here, where 74% of the adult population is overweight, and nearly 30% is obese. For children, that rate is nearly 20%.
Some of the blame lies with the American food supply. Highly processed foods line grocery store shelves and fast-food menus, filled to the brim with refined sugars and artificial chemicals to both maintain longevity and induce addiction.
But just as much blame lies with parents. As the Journal reports on mother/daughter duo Kait and Birdie Handler, “Birdie would fixate on the promise of particular foods, like ice cream, and get upset when she couldn’t eat them. [Her mother] watched her regularly eat adult-size portions at meals and ask for seconds.”
While it is obviously difficult to deal with a child screaming and crying over not getting what they want, it is the job of the parent to enforce healthy and positive tendencies. No good parent would feed their kid two adult sized portions each meal and then bolster that with a steady diet of sugary junk. Passing the baton to Big Pharma to keep children healthy through drugs rather than rising to the occasion should serve as a damning indictment of modern parenting.
And the trend seems to be growing. Per the Times “More than 30,000 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 were dispensed brand name and compounded GLP-1 medications last year, according to an analysis by University of Michigan researchers.”
Relying on drugs like Ozempic for children signals a societal and cultural failure to address the root causes of the obesity epidemic: poor diet, lack of physical activity, and systemic issues in food production.
The dystopian sense that something has gone terribly wrong, that we’ve created a world that requires massive amounts of medical interventions to maintain a subpar standard of living, has led to the rise of RFK Jr.
I don’t agree with Kennedy on everything. I think his views on the environment are dangerous and I do think he leans a little too hard into the conspiracy theory side of health scares (e.g. chemtrails). But goddamn if he isn’t spot on about the massive issues with American public health. That Kennedy’s efforts are facing resistance from many mainstream outlets should also be proof that he’s on target.
In a somewhat bafflingly article, The New York Times took issue with Kennedy’s assessment that the Canadian version of Froot Loops cereal had less ingredients than its American counterpart writing
He was wrong on the ingredient count, they are roughly the same. But the Canadian version does have natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots while the U.S. product contains red dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1 as well as Butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, a lab-made chemical that is used “for freshness,” according to the ingredient label.
In Europe, where I can eat an obese child’s weight in pain au chocolat, these artificial dyes have been banned for years as concerned regulators saw a connection between behavioral issues in children and heavy use of the additives.
It is here too that Kennedy has the potential to radically alter the country’s health landscape. Kennedy highlights the harmful influence of corporations on public policy. Big Food is likely to be one of the most stubborn enemies Kennedy faces in light of their death grip on government officials and regulators.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf told NBC News that he faced a “gridlock of various interests that made it difficult to change things.” Undoubtedly, there are Big Food interests mixed in that smorgasbord that Kennedy will need to tackle. '
Before I’m accused of sounding like a leftist advocating for a nanny state to control Americans’ health decisions, I should clarify. Americans like Kait and Birdie Handler should absolutely take accountability for their own health and take concrete steps to improve their lives. It is not the government’s responsibility to ensure Americans eat their broccoli after all.
Returning briefly to Europe, any tourist to the Old World will note with a sense of disgust that Europens tend to smoke like chimneys. When I lived in France, my neighbor would smoke about a pack and half a day. Yet, it is not the government’s job to prevent smoking!
Standing up to Big Food and Big Pharma, and ensuring that the most basic thing required to live, the food we eat everyday, isn’t poisoned with harmful additives should be something that receives bipartisan support.
The battle against America’s obesity epidemic can’t be won with pills. It instead requires a wholesale rethinking of our food and what goes in it. The fact that Europeans can indulge in rich foods without the same obesity crisis speaks volumes.
True health reform starts not with a prescription, but with what’s on our plates.