MAHA Commission report recycles Kennedy pet peeves and contradicts administration’s actions

As we feared, the report of the MAHA Commission selectively cherry-picks the literature to support the idiosyncratic biases of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Rather than focusing on the root causes and well-studied solutions to chronic disease, the report recycles Secretary Kennedy’s long-standing pet peeves, from vaccines to seed oils to lack of exposure to sunlight.

In many instances, even when the report has a good idea, like increasing consumption of whole, unprocessed foods, the remedies suggested are at odds with efforts of Kennedy, Trump, Musk, and Republicans in Congress to decimate federal workforce and government spending. How is the American diet to improve when Republicans are hell-bent on cutting SNAP benefits, slashing school meals, ripping millions of Americans from their health insurance coverage, withdrawing proposed rules that would reduce foodborne Salmonella, and laying off food inspectors? The administration has slashed programs to bring local food into schools, eviscerated government funding for research on nutrition and health, eliminated the office responsible for stopping lead poisoning in children, and are threatening access to life-saving vaccines.

We appreciate Secretary Kennedy’s interest in things like synthetic food dyes and aspartame – which, to be clear, we’d be better off without – and his concern over ultra-processed foods may be well intended. If he wants to address ultra-processed foods, proposed rules on front-of-package labeling and sodium reduction are in the Federal Register awaiting his signature (both proposals go unmentioned in this report). But while Americans are consuming too much soda and other ultra-processed junk foods, this administration is actively working to push healthy foods out of reach for millions of people. Who wants to take nutrition advice from someone who’s trying to take food out of your mouth?

Kennedy and Trump are pushing policies that will make Americans sicker, hungrier, and more at risk from unsafe food. At this moment, that is the true risk to children’s health.

Dr. Lurie is a former Associate Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and the co-author of an article on the MAHA Commission in JAMA Health Forum.