I am hearing about some strange happenings in our nation’s capital. Bipartisan meetings are being held with witnesses that everybody agrees on, without any rancor. An important subject is getting serious attention.
This has to do with the “Make America Healthy Again,” which Robert F Kennedy Jr. brought from his Democratic campaign for the presidency to the Trump campaign.
The idea that is being explored is that America’s processed food is making people sick with everything from obesity to diabetes and more.
The. Ways and Means Committee’s health subcommittee already held a hearing on “Investing in a Healthier America: Chronic Disease Prevention and Treatment.”
Testimony at that one was pretty hard on the food industry for diet-related diseases from all those ultra-processed foods.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, then held a roundtable discussion on the issue scheduled to hear from RFK Jr.
Former Sen. William H. Frist, himself an MD who served as Senate Majority Leader, from 2003-2007 said: “When I began my medical career, these national epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes did not exist. These diet-related chronic diseases have increased in our adult lifetimes.”
Frist was among those laying out the diet crisis that now exists in the United States, including that poor nutrition is the leading risk factor for death and disability in the United States, causing more health harm than other major risk factors such as tobacco use, alcohol, opioids, physical inactivity, or air pollution.
Poor diets are estimated to kill 10,000 Americans each week, cause 1,500 new cases of cancer each week, and 16,000 new cases of diabetes each week.
These numbers tell us that more American adults are sick than healthy.
Children and teenagers aren’t spared — among 2-5 year-olds, one in eight has obesity. Among teens, one in four has obesity, and nearly one in three has pre-diabetes.
Frist also had a national security warning.
In 1941, one in three draft-age Americans did not qualify for military service because of nutritional deficiencies that had been hanging over from the Great Depression. Today, nearly eight in 10 young Americans do not qualify for military service, and the top medical disqualifiers are overweight and obese.
In other words, raising a world-size army in 1941 wasn’t easy. Today, it’s impossible. Instead, everyone who is overweight is being put on lifelong drugs.
Among the witnesses speaking out at these congressional proceedings have been Dr. Marek Hyman, Dr. Anne Peters, Dr. Francesca Rinaldo, and Professor Ashley Gearhardt — all experts.
“Make America Healthy Again” seems to have a bipartisan following. But politics is going to have a lot to say about where MAHA goes from here.
And the food industry has yet to weigh in with any significant actions.
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