It is unclear what Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s day one priorities will be if he is confirmed to be the next Health and Human Services Secretary, but diet and nutrition experts suggest Kennedy could effectuate changes on a number of different fronts when it comes to healthy eating. These potential reforms might include overhauling school lunch programs, establishing new standards for seed oils and ultra-processed foods, setting limits on toxins, and more.
Kennedy, who wants to ‘Make America Healthy Again,’ has been a staunch advocate for reforms to the food industry and President-elect Donald Trump has said he will have permission to ‘go wild on health’ if he is confirmed.
One major opening for Kennedy would be overseeing a revision of the federal government’s ‘Dietary Guidelines for Americans,’ one of the most powerful tools in terms of shaping public perception about what is healthy. The guidelines must be revised every five years and the deadline for the next update arrives in 2025. Kennedy, if confirmed, would ultimately be in charge of hiring the experts who draft the guidelines.
‘I know that they really want to focus on kids,’ Nina Teicholz, nutrition expert and founder of The Nutrition Coalition, told Fox News Digital.
Teicholz, who has been in discussions with Kennedy’s team about the new national dietary guidelines, suggested that he could potentially use them to implement changes to school lunches, such as adding a limit on sugar, for which Teicholz said there currently is none, and bringing back whole milk to school cafeterias, which was prohibited under the Obama administration.
The addition of whole milk to school cafeterias could limit how frequently children consume high-sugar, flavored-milk beverages, Teicholz said. She also pointed out that current recommendations that are keeping whole milk out of schools ‘is based on the saturated fat content in milk, but there’s really no good evidence to show that saturated fats have any negative effect on children.’
‘I think that Kennedy has aimed to stand for evidence-based changes to policy,’ Teicholz said. ‘So, that means not making policy based on weak science.’
Teicholz added that in addition to school lunches, there is other ‘low-hanging fruit’ associated with the guidelines that Kennedy could go after.
Kennedy could use the guidelines to narrow the definition of ultra-processed foods, she pointed out, which is a sector of the food industry that Kennedy has previously been critical of. Teicholz also said that research on ‘ultra-processed foods’ is scant, and, therefore, you could see Kennedy commissioning more studies on such foods as well.
Dave Asprey, an author and nutrition advocate who has written several New York Times best-selling books about healthier eating, said he thinks it is likely Kennedy will also add toxin limits within the new dietary guidelines, aimed at pesticides and herbicides that have come under scrutiny. He also said he wouldn’t be surprised if Kennedy and his team were to implement new standards around animal feed.
Asprey added that Kennedy’s experience as a trial lawyer could aid him tremendously in initiating legal proceedings if he wanted to pursue companies that ‘are continuing to push outdated, unhealthy guidelines.’
‘Where can he actually impact real change? The dietary guidelines – because they control how we feed our kids, what we do in hospitals and a lot of our public policy,’ Asprey said.
Kennedy has recently been courting support for his nomination on Capitol Hill, and, according to GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Kennedy told him that he would exercise restraint and use a light touch when seeking to regulate the food and agriculture industries.
But, according to Mara Fleishman, CEO of the Chef Ann Foundation, a healthy-eating nonprofit, the Trump administration’s desire for a more limited-government approach to governing could clash with Kennedy’s efforts to reform the food industry.
‘I think time will tell what – if anything – RFK Jr. can, or will, do,’ Fleishman said.
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Kennedy but did not receive a response.