{"id":277467,"date":"2026-02-10T20:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/277467\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T20:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:42:13","slug":"rfk-jr-calls-reducing-ultraprocessed-foods-spiritual-warfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/277467\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr. calls reducing ultraprocessed foods ‘spiritual warfare’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a> ramped up his condemnation of ultraprocessed foods during an event at the Heritage Foundation<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

Kennedy spoke with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts on Monday to celebrate one year of his tenure implementing the \u201cMake America Healthy Again<\/a>\u201d agenda. In the conversation, he emphasized the importance of improving the American diet.<\/p>\n

The secretary said 70% of what children eat<\/a> is considered ultraprocessed, \u201cand it\u2019s killing them\u201d through metabolic dysfunction diseases, such as diabetes and obesity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a spiritual warfare,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cIt\u2019s a war at scale against cellular activity. It\u2019s an assault on children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy also said ultraprocessed foods are \u201cmuch worse than cigarettes\u201d in their negative systemic health effects, adding that 40 cents of every taxpayer dollar goes toward treating \u201cdiet-induced chronic diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of Kennedy\u2019s speech highlighted the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans<\/a>, set by the Health and Human Services and Agriculture departments every five years to govern federally funded food programs, such as food stamps, school lunches, and military meals.<\/p>\n

The new guidelines emphasize consumption of protein, healthy fats, and vegetables, while recommending decreasing grains and excessively processed carbohydrates.<\/p>\n

Kennedy said updating national food recommendations is not \u201cstarting a nanny state.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you live in this country, you ought to be able to buy Coca-Cola if you want one or eat a Krispy Kreme donut,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re going to tell you it\u2019s not good for you and allow you to make your own choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the discussion between Kennedy and Roberts revolved around food and changes in the healthcare industry, but the secretary briefly mentioned the rise in chronic autoimmune and neurological diseases.<\/p>\n

Kennedy said that when he was a child, he worked with the Special Olympics and was \u201craised in the center of the movement for rights for people with intellectual disabilities,\u201d but did not know any children with autism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see these damaged kids, and now I see a whole generation as damaged that has autoimmune and neurological injuries, and all of these kids struggling with health issues, and I know that\u2019s not what children are supposed to look like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kennedy said now it\u2019s \u201charder to be a parent than at any other time in history,\u201d painting a picture of a parent having to deny their child enticing sweets at the grocery store checkout counter.<\/p>\n

RFK JR. TOUTS KETO DIET AS CURE FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA<\/a><\/p>\n

He advised parents to take \u201ca posture eternally of fierce skepticism towards authority\u201d as the \u201ccivic duty of living in a democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCorporations and government have commoditized us,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cThey\u2019re taking away our souls, and they\u2019re turning us into just eternal consumers, and the stuff that they\u2019re selling us is bad for us, almost all bad for us, and so we need to approach life understanding that and teach our kids that lesson, be skeptical, and these are all lies you\u2019re being told.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ramped up his condemnation of ultraprocessed foods during an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[5993,49885,134,527,105304,7892,111,139,556,69,4368,5460],"class_list":{"0":"post-277467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-autism","9":"tag-food-and-beverage","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-heritage-foundation","13":"tag-maha","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nutrition","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-obesity","19":"tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}