ASecretary of Health Robert Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly accused manufactured foods to combat chronic disease and obesity in the country and called on Americans to limit their consumption of foods with added sugar, salt, fat, dyes and preservatives.
Among the many controversial And unsubstantiated health care claimshis position on ultra-processed foods is one of the least controversial. More than 65% of Americans say they favor reforming processed foods to remove added sugars and dyes, according to a January report from the Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center. vote.
However, while RFK Jr. stresses the importance of eliminating ultra-processed foods from the U.S. diet, nutrition experts note that some Trump administration policies, including huge subsidies to corn and soybean farmsundermine this goal.
“Maha's leadership is really not delivering on their promise to fight chronic disease, and they are betraying members of the public who trust them to address this very real problem that really concerns Americans,” said Aviva Musicus, an assistant professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.
In September, Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services released its Make America Healthy Again strategy. reportcalling it a roadmap to improving children's health. The report identified highly processed foods as a major driver of rising rates of chronic disease in children and made more than 120 recommendations, including educational campaigns to promote new, future dietary guidelines; promoting policies to limit the use of food dyes; and potential changes to nutrition information regulations.
The report was criticized however, by nutrition and public health experts for emphasizing voluntary action rather than meaningful regulation of food and chemical companies. It proposes tracking Americans' exposure to chemicals and pesticides, but does not place any restrictions on pesticide use, for example. Although poor nutrition is considered harmful to children's health, it does not regulate most additives in ultra-processed foods (UPF).
Instead, he proposes developing a government-wide definition to “support potential future research and policy action.” The plan also recommends exploring “potential industry recommendations” to limit the sale of unhealthy foods to children. Some supporters say the report's goals collision with the Trump administration's cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), Medicaid, and scientific funding that are essential to public health.
“When it comes to food, Maha doesn’t seem particularly interested in regulation, despite talking about the need to protect consumers from the influence of the industry and the harm it causes,” Musicus said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services wrote in a statement to the Guardian: “The MAHA Strategy is a comprehensive plan of more than 120 initiatives designed to reverse the failed policies that have contributed to the epidemic of chronic disease among children in America. It represents the most ambitious reform program in modern history – overhauling our food and health systems, transforming education and advance science to protect America's children and families.”
She added: “HHS is committed to serving the American people, not special interests, by providing radical transparency and supporting science based on gold standards.”
Ultra-processed foods are industrially modified foods that include processed additives to improve taste, convenience, and shelf life. Representing up to 73% of the US food supply, UPFs are associated with a number of health risks including cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, Cancer, Digestive and microbiome problemsAnd poor mental health.
Many of the additives in UPF, such as high fructose corn syrup, corn starch, dextrose, soy lecithin and maltodextrin, are derived from corn and soybeans, two commodity crops that receive millions in agricultural subsidies. Trump reconciliation accountThe law signed in July increases the cost of these subsidies by $52 billion in the next 10 years, according to analysis Environmental Working Group. (Subsidy payments have increased even as programs like Snap, which provided food assistance and nutrition in 2024 41 million Americansfaced significant cuts.)
Corn and soybean subsidies have “definitely contributed” to the spread of UPF, said Ben Lilliston, director of rural strategies and climate change at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. For example, drinking high fructose corn syrup increased by 1000% between 1970 and 1990.
“Our farm policy is designed to encourage farmers to overproduce corn and soybeans,” Lilliston said. Decades of huge subsidies on cash crops led to excess amounts of corn and soybeans, which ended up being used to make additives in ultra-processed foods such as corn syrup and soy lecithin, he added.
“It's hard to find processed foods when you look at the ingredients that don't have corn and soy. They're incredibly cheap – below the cost of production – there's so much of it and there's so much access to,” Lilliston said. Ultra-processed foods now account for more than half the calories in the American diet, according to data. data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Soybeans and corn – most of which converted animal feed, ethanol fuel and by-products used in UPF—account for more than half of the country's arable land. Farms growing fruits and vegetables (known as specialty crops) tend to be smaller and are not eligible for the majority subsidies. But these are “the types of farms that will put healthy food, fruits and vegetables on plates across the U.S.,” said Jared Hayes, senior policy analyst at the Environmental Working Group.
Before joining Trump's cabinet, RFK Jr. himself blamed farm subsidies for America's addiction to ultra-processed foods. In 2024 interviewRFK Jr. said the obesity epidemic in the US is caused by food “poisoned” by “heavily subsidized” cash crop derivatives. In 2024 article In the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy listed several steps Trump could take to “make America healthy again,” and among them was crop subsidy reform.
“They artificially cheapen corn, soybeans and wheat, so these crops end up in many processed forms,” he wrote, adding: “Our subsidy program is so backward that less than 2% agricultural subsidies go to fruits and vegetables.”
First Mach Assessment Reportpublished in May, blamed the food industry for rising rates of chronic disease. Since its publication, more than 250 food and agriculture groups, including the American Soybean Association and the National Corn Growers Association, have signed the agreement. letter claiming it includes “misconceptions” about food and agriculture and calls for “the formal inclusion of food and agriculture representatives in future commission processes.”
But the subsequent report made little mention of the food industry's role in children's health, and did not suggest ways to regulate what ingredients companies add to their products. While the first report mentioned ultra-processed foods 40 times, the second, strategic report only mentioned the term twice.
“Kennedy has cast himself as an anti-corporation hero while using the same old tactics of befriending the very industries he claims he wants to change or regulate,” said Rebecca Wolf, head of food policy at Food and Water Watch.
“There is anti-corporate rhetoric, but at the same time there is an inability and unwillingness to actually take on corporate power,” Wolf said. “We just [been] I look very closely at the difference between narrative and policy, and what I see now is a policy that will not protect people, but will actually endanger their health even more.”
To truly create a healthier diet in the US, Musicus says, Trump administrationIn addition to regulating UPF, the very programs that make nutritious food and health care more accessible to low-income families and individuals should not be cut.
“We've seen the federal government cut Snap benefits, write off millions of Americans from health insurance, cut programs that help farmers deliver local food to schools, devastate government funding for nutrition and health research, and jeopardize access to life-saving vaccines,” Musicus said, adding that RFK Jr. simultaneously failed to introduce meaningful regulation in the food industry.
“As a result, the overall impact of this administration on public health has been negative, even though they continually talk about improving the health of Americans,” she said.
