Meals dyes, sick children and a dip in contaminated water: Kennedy weighs in on his first 100 days

Because the Trump administration pushes for deep cuts in federal well being businesses, Robert F Kennedy Jr. has produced a 72-page abstract on the environmental toxins, chemical compounds and ultraprocessed meals he mentioned are inflicting an “existential disaster” in the USA.

In an interview Thursday afternoon with Tom Llamas, senior nationwide correspondent for NBC Information and upcoming anchor of “Nightly Information,” Kennedy, the secretary of well being and human companies, mentioned the “Make America Wholesome Once more” report, which blamed sedentary, technology-driven existence and the overprescribing of medicines, represented “the primary time in historical past” that the federal authorities has acknowledged the “unfavourable influence of those environmental exposures on the American individuals.”

The prolonged report went into nice element about what’s unsuitable with children in the USA however didn’t provide a lot depth about what the federal well being businesses would do to “make them wholesome once more.”

Llamas requested Kennedy why, “within the spirit of presidency effectivity,” the report didn’t provide extra options, “since you might have written this on Day 1.”

Kennedy promised that “we’re going to do one thing about it” inside 60 days. “We’re going to ship the prescription of the initiatives that we have to do.”

The MAHA report launched Thursday gave a darkish view of youngsters’s well being, specializing in persistent ailments like diabetes, weight problems and neurodevelopmental issues, but it makes no point out of socioeconomic elements or lack of entry to well being care that contribute to such situations in children.

As an alternative, mentioned Kennedy, who has authority over Medicaid, “well being care prices are increasing at 2% larger than our financial system.” About 40% of all kids in the USA obtain medical health insurance by means of Medicaid.

Ultraprocessed meals and environmental toxins had been on the prime of Kennedy’s checklist of issues that must be urgently addressed to curb will increase in persistent ailments throughout childhood.

He has already mentioned the federal government will work with the meals business to interchange synthetic, artificial meals dyes with pure options.

“I introduced the meals corporations in two weeks after I got here into workplace, and I acquired a whole lot of them at that time, early on, to agree that they had been going to do one thing about it,” Kennedy informed Llamas on Thursday. “We’ve got fast-tracked the approval already, final week, of three new vegetable-based dyes.”

Listed here are few key takeaways:

Person-friendly dietary tips are coming

Kennedy mentioned the Trump administration is working to simplify what he known as “prolonged” and complex paperwork meant to advise individuals on wholesome consuming.

New tips within the works, he mentioned, would immediate households to deal with entire meals fairly than ultraprocessed meals.

He highlighted state efforts to ban the acquisition of soda and vitality drinks underneath the Supplemental Diet Help Program, previously often known as meals stamps.

Can childhood diabetes be reversed?

Kennedy mentioned many childhood ailments will be handled with meals, together with Kind 1 diabetes, which he known as juvenile diabetes.

“In lots of circumstances, juvenile diabetes and prediabetes, which now impacts 38% of teenagers, will be reversed fully by altering food plan,” Kennedy mentioned. “Meals is drugs, and meals additionally impacts temper, it impacts psychological sickness, it impacts the immune system, and we want to verify our children have entry to good meals and that oldsters have entry to the very best info to allow them to make good selections for his or her kids.”

Kind 1 diabetes is an autoimmune illness through which the physique doesn’t make insulin, and it isn’t related to weight problems. About 2 million individuals in the USA have Kind 1 diabetes, in response to the American Diabetes Affiliation. It’s often first identified in kids and younger adults. Folks with Kind 1 diabetes can handle signs with insulin and are suggested to observe a food plan excessive in greens and fiber, however the illness isn’t reversible.

Are childhood vaccines protected? Do they comprise fetal tissue?

Kennedy asserted that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) incorporates “thousands and thousands of particles which are derived from fetal tissue.”

That’s deceptive, consultants mentioned.

It’s true that some vaccine analysis used cells from elective abortions from greater than 50 years in the past. That’s as a result of some viruses merely develop higher in these cells and might subsequently be studied extra extensively.

However within the lab, these cells undergo an intense purification course of to make sure no human DNA is transferred into vaccines.

“No new cell traces are being generated,” mentioned a nationally revered pediatric infectious illness physician. The doctor’s employer didn’t authorize an on-the-record interview.

“Theologically, I’m fairly conservative,” the physician mentioned. “If we had been taking new cell traces from new terminations of pregnancies, I might have a special feeling about it.”

What’s up with that dip in contaminated water?

On Might 11, Kennedy posted photographs on X of him and his grandchildren splashing in a Washington, D.C., creek recognized to be contaminated with uncooked sewage.

The photographs, particularly ones that circulated on-line displaying him shirtless within the creek, prompted questions on whether or not Kennedy knew the potential risks of swimming in a physique of water that had been contaminated for many years.

Kennedy mentioned it’s as much as the American public to maintain public waterways freed from contamination. “We’ve got a proper to make use of them for swimming, for fishing, and we needs to be involved about people who find themselves polluting them.”