They’re Lying About Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
American Conservative reported:
If there’s one thing most Americans can agree on, it’s that most Americans are unhealthy. In 2024, more than 40% 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% 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.
Food Lobbyists Plot to Have It Their Way With RFK Jr.
America’s most famous fast-food fan may be an unlikely candidate to make America healthy again, but Donald Trump seems willing to tackle the eating habits that have led to skyrocketing rates of obesity. The junk food industry is not lovin’ it.
RealClearInvestigations has learned that representatives of companies that make snack foods, sugary beverages, and cooking oils are already meeting to discuss how to thwart the reform agenda of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the former consumer rights attorney Trump has said he will nominate to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Their response provides an early example of what experts predict will be a massive effort by D.C. lobbyists to position their clients in response to Trump’s pledge to change how Washington does business.
Although much of the early criticism of Kennedy’s nomination has focused on his skepticism regarding some vaccines, the nominee is a longtime critic of the food industry, which he says is a leading contributor to America’s obesity epidemic. In recent months, he has called for a crackdown on food additives, limits on certain crop protection chemicals, stronger guidelines regarding what he says are conflicts of interest among regulators and business, and a review of any substance causing, what he argues, Americans to be “mass poisoned by big pharma and big food.”
General Mills to Engage Regulators on Food Dyes Targeted by RFK Jr.
General Mills Inc. is planning to engage federal officials over potential restrictions on food dyes that it uses in some of its cereals, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), calls for them to be removed.
“Because this is always an evolving space, we work in close partnership with policymakers on this issue,” the company said in a statement. “We will engage with federal regulators as they consider any additional changes they may propose.”
Kennedy boosted attention on the use of dyes in the final weeks of the U.S. presidential campaign as a high-profile supporter of Donald Trump, who then made him his choice to run HHS. “The first thing I’d do isn’t going to cost you anything because I’m just gonna tell the cereal companies: Take all the dyes out of their food,” Kennedy said late last month.
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Over 160,000 Pounds of Ground Beef Recalled Due to E. Coli Risk
About 167,000 pounds of both fresh and frozen ground beef products have been recalled over possible E. coli contamination, according to the the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
After the Minnesota Departments of Agriculture and Health noticed a link between a group of reported illnesses and ground beef from Wolverine Packing Co., a meat distributor based in Detroit, Michigan, the FSIS said they worked with the Minnesota Departments to investigate.
Fifteen people were reported sick as of Nov. 20, with symptoms beginning between Nov. 2 and Nov. 10. That same day, the FSIS said in a press release, the Minnesota Department tested a ground beef sample from Wolverine Packing Co. and found that it contained a strain of harmful bacteria called E. coli O157:H7.
The FSIS provided a list of all affected products and images of every product label that is part of the recall. The fresh products have a “use by” date of Nov. 14, and the frozen ones have a “use by” date of Oct. 22, they said. The recalled products list the number “EST. 2574B” inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture mark of inspection.
Georgia Woman Sues in Response to E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Carrots
Melinda Pratt had been buying the same brand of organic carrots for years: Bunny Luv by Grimmway Farms. Pratt, 40, a mother of three in Savannah, Georgia, said she most recently bought the brand’s whole carrots from her local Sam’s Club on Sept. 30.
After she ate them, she said, she began experiencing bloody diarrhea and stomach pain that felt like “somebody getting stabbed in the stomach repeatedly and not stopping.” Her symptoms also included nausea and vomiting, Pratt said, adding that she was the only one in her household who ate the carrots.
“I genuinely thought at some point that I was slowly dying,” she said.
A couple weeks later, she was hospitalized for three days with an E. coli infection. Pratt sued Grimmway Farms on Monday. The company recalled batches of organic whole and baby carrots Saturday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that the products were most likely linked to a multistate E. coli outbreak.
Are Food Recalls and Outbreaks on the Rise? FDA Says U.S. Food Supply Still ‘One of the Safest in the World’
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Wednesday that the U.S. food supply is still “one of the safest in the world,” in the wake of a number of foodborne disease outbreaks affecting items ranging from organic carrots to deli meats to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. E. coli, listeria and other contaminants have sickened thousands of people and forced a number of recalls in recent months. But despite those high-profile examples, data cited by the FDA suggest recalls were not unusually high this past year.
For the fiscal year that ended in September, there were 179 recalls deemed by the agency’s food and cosmetics arm as being for the highest-risk classification of issues, like potential contamination with bacteria or undeclared allergens. That’s up from 145 high-risk recalls in 2023, but less than the 185 the agency recorded in 2022. There were 167 high-risk recalls in 2019.
