The United States’ obesity rate has dropped for the first time in 50 years under President Donald Trump’s administration, Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced this week.
“Since President Trump came into office, obesity rates in this country have dropped by 2.5 percent,” Kennedy announced during an event in Charlotte. “That’s the first drop in 50 years.”
Kennedy said that drop will have “significant impacts on health care costs in this country,” noting that obesity drives the vast majority of chronic disease.
“Forty-eight cents out of every dollar that you pay to the federal government in taxes is now going to treat for health care, and about 90 percent of that is spent on treating chronic disease,” Kennedy said, noting that when his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was president, the nation did not spend any money on chronic disease and had the status as the healthiest country in the world. That is not the case present-day, as the U.S. has the “highest chronic disease burden,” he said, offering greater perspective.
“When my uncle was president, three percent of children were obese. Now it’s 20 percent… 77 percent of our kids cannot qualify for military service because of chronic disease, mainly obesity. This has national security implications. It is absolutely destroying our country economically. It’s the biggest cause,” he said.
Kennedy also said that obesity rates shot up in the U.S. because of ultra-processed foods and misinformation about proper nutrition — not sudden laziness on the part of the American people.
“It’s not because they suddenly became indolent or lazy or hungry. It’s because they were being mass poisoned by ultra-processed foods, and because of the food pyramid and the dietary guidelines, we were directed away from protein, away from healthy foods,” Kennedy observed.
The majority of calories consumed by Americans, he continued, come from ultra-processed foods.
“It’s poisonous. It destroys your metabolic system. It makes you obese, and you know, people, diabetes, for example, is driven by ultra-processed food. When I was a kid, a typical pediatrician would see one case of type two diabetes over a 40 or 50 year career. Today 38 percent of American teens are diabetic or pre diabetic,” he said, deeming it a “terrible crisis.”
“These are kids who are now going to be dependent on pharmaceutical interventions for the rest of their lives,” he said, offering one more example of how toxic ultra-processed foods are.
Kennedy explained that just over half of the adult population in China is now diabetic or pre diabetic. Yet, 95 years ago, there was “no diabetes in China.”
“Why is that? It’s because they build 20,000 fast food joints, and they began importing American ultra-processed foods, and our diet is now killing us,” he said. “If you’re obese or overweight, it’s not your fault, it’s because the government has been lying to you for 50 years.”
“And now you have a government that is telling you the truth,” he said to applause.
Kennedy’s announcement comes months after the Trump administration unveiled a new, inverted food pyramid encouraging Americans to eat “real food” and prioritize healthy fats, protein, dairy, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
