Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for health and human services secretary, has a reputation for supporting fringe and controversial public health ideas, but some of his statements about chemicals in the food supply and ultraprocessed foods are supported by evidence.

The independent-presidential-candidate-turned-Trump-ally has garnered significant attention for his bold policy agenda item of significantly reducing ultraprocessed foods from the American diet.

Although the Food and Drug Administration has no definition of ultraprocessed foods, they are typically considered products with high levels of additives, coloring, and preservatives. As of 2022, ultraprocessed foods make up approximately 73% of the U.S. food supply.

A study published in the medical journal The Lancet last week found that nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults are medically overweight or obese, and Kennedy attributes this obesity epidemic to harmful chemicals in the food supply.

Spokespeople for Kennedy did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment, but the former environmental lawyer has long drawn attention to the chemicals that make foods ultraprocessed, including food dyes, the pesticide glyphosate, and seed oils.

Kennedy is projected to have an uphill battle in the confirmation process, with several senators on both sides of the aisle expressing concern about Kennedy’s support of anti-vaccine organizations and the claim that childhood vaccines can cause autism spectrum disorders.

Yet several prominent players from both sides of the aisle have endorsed Kennedy and his vision to “make America healthy again,” including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) did not directly endorse Kennedy, but he has been an outspoken critic of the multinational corporations running the U.S. food system. Following the Kennedy nomination announcement, Booker posted a video on X on Monday criticizing chemicals in ultraprocessed foods.

“What makes this all worse and corrupt is the chemicals in our food system,” Booker said. “There are ingredients in our foods that should not be there, chemicals that are linked to cancer and hormone disruptions.”

Here is everything to know about three of Kennedy’s top targets in terms of reforming the food supply.

Food dyes

Kennedy’s Claim

Kennedy has long been a critic of artificial food coloring, claiming that food dyes deemed safe by the FDA can cause hyperactivity conditions in children.

In 2021, Kennedy shared on Facebook a summary post on food dyes from his foundation, Children’s Health Defense, that connects artificial food dyes with attentiveness, memory, and learning difficulties.

While campaigning for Trump with the slogan “Make America Healthy Again” and in the transitioning Trump administration, Kennedy has taken aim at companies including Kellogg’s and General Mills for using artificial colors in their cereal products in the United States but not in Europe, where those chemicals are more heavily regulated.

“In Europe, the same companies are producing the same products, but they’re using natural coloring,” Kennedy told Fox News in August. “But here, they can get away with it. We have about almost 1,000 chemicals that are in our food that are either outright banned in Europe or actively discouraged.”

Science

An increasing amount of medical evidence suggests that these types of chemicals can cause neurodevelopmental problems in children.

In April 2021, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment issued a report reviewing existing studies on the effects of artificial food dyes on humans and lab animals. They found that children can have differing levels of sensitivity to these chemicals that can change the brain’s neurotransmitters, which are responsible for carrying signals from one nerve to the next.

“Evidence shows that synthetic food dyes are associated with adverse neurobehavioral outcomes in some children,” then-OEHHA Director Lauren Zeise said. “With increasing numbers of U.S. children diagnosed with behavioral disorders, this assessment can inform efforts to protect children from exposures that may exacerbate behavioral problems.”

The finalized OEHHA report included information on Blue dyes No. 1 and No. 2, Green No. 3, Red No. 3 and No. 40, and Yellow No. 5 and No. 6, all of which were approved by the FDA between 1969 and 1987.

The FDA has not taken measures to update any of these chemical approvals for food use since the 1980s, except for Red No. 3, which was banned by the FDA for use in cosmetics and topical drugs in 1990 for its carcinogenic properties.

The food safety agency is still actively reviewing whether to remove Red No. 3 from food and beverages, but pressure on the agency to act has increased steadily following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed a bill banning all of the dyes mentioned in the 2021 report, except for Red No. 3. Ten other states, including Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York, have bills moving through their respective legislatures to ban Red No. 3.

Glyphosate 

Kennedy’s Claim

Kennedy also says that the pervasiveness of glyphosate, the pesticide in RoundUp, is a cause of the obesity epidemic.

Kennedy, who was involved in the personal injury lawsuit against Monsanto in the 2010s for the weed killer’s link to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, spoke about the pervasiveness of glyphosate in the food supply when interviewed by Jordan Peterson in late September.

“The reason GMOs are so popular is because they’re resistant to pests,” Kennedy said in September. “And the reason they’re resistant to pests is because they’re resistant to pesticides, like glyphosate, so you can saturate the whole landscape with glyphosate from airplanes, and the only thing that’s green is GMO corn, which is ‘RoundUp ready.’”

Kennedy told Peterson that this makes the products treated this way, including both corn and wheat, “laden with pesticides.” He said that gluten intolerance, celiac disease, and wheat allergies became prevalent after glyphosate became an essential chemical to treat processed wheat in 1993.

Science

While medical experts debate the degree to which glyphosate poses a risk to human health, Kennedy is correct about its pervasiveness in the American diet.

Glyphosate use rose by over 3,000% in U.S. agriculture since glyphosate-resistant GMO crops were developed in the mid-1990s. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, approximately 281 million pounds of glyphosate were applied to 298 million acres every year from 2012 to 2016.

As of 2017-2018 samples from the FDA, nearly 40% of all human food samples, domestic and imported, contained a detectable level of glyphosate that was at or below the EPA-acceptable level of glyphosate residue.

In a 2022 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, more than 80% of urine samples drawn from over 2,000 children and adults contained detectable levels of glyphosate.

The EPA does not identify glyphosate as a possible human carcinogen, but in 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified the chemical as “probably carcinogenic to humans” based upon years of peer-reviewed studies.

Recently, glyphosate has also been found to exacerbate genetic predisposition to obesity, particularly in females.

Seed oils

Kennedy’s Claim

Kennedy says seed oils “are one of the driving causes of the obesity epidemic.” He also says obesity began to rise markedly in the U.S. when restaurants and fast food chains began replacing tallow, or rendered animal fat, with seed oils, including canola, sunflower, and corn oils.

RFK Jr. is not alone in calling for a return to the use of tallow, which has gained a significant following among naturalist and homesteading content creators on social media platforms.

Science

There is not as much evidence to suggest that seed oils are categorically harmful, as Kennedy or other seed oil critics would make it seem.

Seed oils are a key component of most processed and ultraprocessed foods, making it difficult to distinguish whether seed oils themselves are the driver of negative health consequences rather than the foods they are found in.

“We do know that diets high in processed foods are linked to poorer health outcomes,” Mayo Clinic registered dietitian Jason Ewoldt said in a web post by the healthcare group. “The seed oil is not the likely driver for negative health effects. These processed foods also tend to have higher levels of refined carbohydrates, salt and sugar, which are all things we know in excess can impact health negatively.”

But the science on the health consequences of seed oils in and of themselves is mixed.

Seed oils, which are significantly cheaper than animal-based products in the U.S., are high in unsaturated fats. They are also generally high in omega-6 fatty acids, which can promote chronic, whole-body inflammation, a key factor in developing obesity.

Generally, seed oils also have higher smoke points than animal-based fats, which makes them useful for high-temperature cooking, but they are also chemically unstable at higher temperatures. Tallow, by contrast, contains omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce inflammation, and remains chemically stable at high temperatures.

Certain studies show that soybean oil consumption, in particular, induces obesity, insulin resistance, and fatty liver disease in humanized mice, which are often used in the first stages of safety trials. Other studies suggest that it is overconsumption of seed oils that causes these conditions in mice, not the oils themselves.

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Human clinical trial data, however, find that soy, corn, and canola oil may not be as inflammatory as previously thought and that each oil could have its own health benefits if consumed in moderation.

Other long-term studies have also found that adults aged 50 to 71 who used butter and margarine had higher rates of mortality, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease compared to those who substituted animal fats for corn, canola, or olive oils.