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Tragic, but no longer surprising: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report this month showing that ultra-processed foods make up more than half of the calories consumed by the majority of Americans.

This truly is what “starving in the midst of plenty” looks like. Our farmers and ranchers grow enough high-quality food to feed the world. Yet, instead of filling our plates with real stuff, our country of 340 million has allowed less-than-nutritious food and sugary drinks to become the mainstay of the American diet.

We are in crisis – and processed foods are fueling it.

Americans are addicted to junk, and as a result, we’ve seen our country become overweight, out of shape and less healthy: four out of every 10 adults are obese and six out of every 10 of us have at least one chronic disease. Not only does this hurt our individual health and longevity, but it’s also creating a nightmare that’s bankrupting our hospital systems and Medicare programs.

KENNEDY IS CONFRONTING ‘CORRUPT’ HEALTH AGENCIES TO MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN

Hamburgers and pizza – two of the top five caloric contributors according to the multi-year study – are staples of our culture. They’re familiar and (absolutely) delicious. But as with any of these ultra-processed foods, overconsumption is only going to lead to problems.

American agriculture is the answer.

We need to get back to basics: that starts with a balanced diet mainly of protein, fruits and vegetables. At the root of it, that’s the type of food that keeps you healthy and nourishes your body – plus, it helps a hardworking farming or ranching family. That’s what we produce.

My state is the gold standard of agriculture. Go anywhere in the world, and people know Nebraska-raised protein – from a cow, pig or chicken – is the best tasting, most nutritious food you can buy. We are also top-rated producers of corn, beans and other edible foods that can all be a part of a healthy, balanced diet.

Because of who we are, we’re leading on these issues: In Nebraska, we worked with Secretary Brooke Rollins to become the first state in the nation to cut soda and energy drinks out of taxpayer-funded food stamp programs. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is about helping families in need get healthy food onto their plates, not subsidizing the purchase of junk that’s making our country unhealthy.

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President Donald Trump’s recent announcement that the Presidential Fitness Test would be coming back is great news for our kids. It also signals an important shift in the American psyche: we are realizing we can no longer just get by – we have to get serious about this crisis, take action, and make some fundamental changes in the way we think about and what we do with food and exercise.

This moment is a wake-up call, not an overnight fix. More Americans are getting serious about getting stronger, eating healthier and living well longer.

By cutting junk foods and incorporating nutritious, high-quality protein and healthy produce – grown right here by our hardworking farmers and ranchers – we can take big steps toward solving these issues.

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“Make America Healthy Again” isn’t just about wellness, it’s a movement about ingraining a shared set of values: more personal responsibility, more discipline, more healthy choices.

I know this: American agriculture is ready to do our part.

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Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.

SNAP junk food restrictions are spreading across the United States, with 12 states now blocking purchases of soda, candy, and other foods deemed unhealthy.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, supported around 41 million Americans per month in 2024, providing a monthly stipend to buy groceries at participating stores. With the conservative Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement leading the charge, there has been a renewed push to limit what SNAP users can buy with their benefits.

So far, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah have had approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to ban certain types of unhealthy foods from being bought with SNAP benefits. All, barring Colorado, are Republican-led states.

Supporters say restrictions curb diet-related disease and prevent taxpayer dollars from funding unhealthy choices. Critics argue limits won’t change eating habits and reflect an ideological effort to control how low-income families shop.

The Case for Restrictions

Diet-related diseases cost the U.S. an estimated $1.1 trillion annually, according to a Tufts University study, with 85 percent of health care spending tied to chronic conditions linked to diet. Poor nutrition is also associated with roughly 500,000 deaths per year. A 2022 study found that children participating in SNAP consumed more sugary drinks and processed meats compared with income-eligible children who were not enrolled in the program.

“SNAP has looked essentially the same for over 60 years, despite scientific consensus that sugary drinks are harming our health,” Christina Roberto and Alyssa Moran from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine wrote in an opinion piece for Newsweek. “By subsidizing sugary drinks with SNAP, we are rewarding an industry that limits choices for lower-income families, ensuring the lowest-quality food is the most available and affordable option.”

Republicans also frame restrictions as protecting taxpayers from footing the bill for diet-related illness. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders called for action against soda, candy, and dessert in 2024, linking them to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Republican Representative Josh Brecheen said earlier this year: “Don’t ask the taxpayer to pay for it and then also expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the resulting health consequences.”

“For years, SNAP has used taxpayer dollars to fund soda and candy—products that fuel America’s diabetes and chronic disease epidemics,” Health and Human Services Secretary and MAHA spearhead Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said after six more states gained approval for restrictions earlier this month, adding that the restrictions help put “real food back at the center of the program.”

File photo of a person shopping in the candy aisle of a grocery store. File photo of a person shopping in the candy aisle of a grocery store. GETTY

The Case Against Restrictions

But experts say SNAP limits alone won’t improve health. Stephanie Hodges, public health dietitian at The Nourished Principles, told Newsweek: “Restrictions alone are unlikely to improve eating habits. The primary barrier to consuming healthier food is affordability…Banning certain foods, without incentives, is not going to have the impact many policymakers think it will.”

A 2018 PLOS Medicine study found that a 30 percent financial incentive for fruit and vegetable purchases could prevent more than 300,000 cardiovascular events and cut health care costs by over $6 billion, showing that incentives may be more effective than bans.

“SNAP benefits average $187 per person per month. Restrictions don’t make people healthier; they reinforce stigma and control. If the goal were improving health outcomes, we’d see expanded Medicaid, reopened rural hospitals, and investment in food deserts,” Kavelle Christie, a health policy expert and CEO of Orion 360 Health, told Newsweek.

What’s more, USDA data from 2016 shows SNAP and non-SNAP households spend similarly. SNAP users spend 40 percent of each dollar on basics like meat, fruits, and vegetables, 20 percent on sweetened drinks, desserts, and candy, and the remaining 4 percent on other groceries.

“Restrictions don’t change diets,” Christie said. “With $187 a month, families often choose calorie-dense foods that stretch further than fresh produce. That’s survival, not preference.”

Access, Freedom and Equity

Critics highlight access barriers in rural and underserved areas. Christie said that those in rural communities often live without reasonable access to healthy foods, sometimes known as “food deserts,” which are low-income areas lacking access to affordable, healthy food options.

According to the USDA, “53.6 million people, or 17.4 percent of the U.S. population, live in tracts that are low-income and low access and are more than one-half mile or 10 miles from the nearest supermarket.”

“Rural communities have lost over 100 hospitals in the past decade and often rely on gas stations or small markets. Restrictions can leave families with almost nothing usable. That’s the real equity issue: communities are losing access on both the healthcare and nutrition fronts,” Christie said. “That’s not a path to better health; it’s an erosion of autonomy and dignity. What these communities need is more investment in grocery stores, better jobs, healthcare, and preventive services, not more barriers designed to control them.”

Registered dietitian Staci Gulbin, who is a former SNAP user, told Newsweek that restrictions will likely deepen food access issues.

“For those in rural areas, or in inner city regions where there are few grocery stores with healthy food options, restrictions on food purchases could lead to further food access issues,” she said. “I feel a more effective solution to try and combat chronic disease in these food insecure populations is to educate them on how to eat healthier, empower them to do so, and increase their access to healthy food rather then placing further stigma and restriction on what they can eat.”

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr will not target ultra-processed foods or pesticides as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, according to the draft of a new government report.

The document, first seen by The New York Times and dated August 6, is described as “pre-decisional” and addresses ultra-processed foods only in calling on the departments of HHS and Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to agree on a government-wide definition for the term.

It does not outline any plans to restrict their sale, despite low-nutrition junk foods accounting for 62 percent of the calories consumed by American children, according to the Times.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr may have decided against going after junk food and pesticides, new draft report indicates (AP)

The draft reportedly also calls for “more targeted and precise pesticide applications” and for research programs examining decreasing pesticide volumes but again stops short of restricting their use.

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That would appear to represent a win for Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins, who said earlier this month: “There is no chance that our current system of agriculture can survive without those crop protection tools.”

Elsewhere, the document reportedly calls for research into areas such as the impact of electromagnetic radiation, children’s oral health, the role of the microbiome as well as the effects of exposure to poor air quality and microplastics. The report also recommends government action on increasing breastfeeding rates, infertility, encouraging physical activity, and educating the public on the dangers of vaping.

However, the validity of the draft was dismissed by White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai, who said in a statement: “Unless officially released by the administration, any document purporting to be the MAHA report should be dismissed as speculative literature.”

Kennedy’s officials previously released a report in May detailing the factors that they believed were having a malign effect on the health of U.S. children, notably attacking chemical food additives that, its authors alleged, are tied to cancer and developmental disorders.

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Their publication was criticized as “sloppy” and “shoddy” by experts, however, who accused them of using AI to compile it after it was found to include citations from non-existent academic sources.

Kennedy has long spoken out against processed foods. At his Senate confirmation hearings in January, he declared: “Something is poisoning the American people, and we know that the primary culprits are changing food supply, a switch to highly chemical-intensive processed foods.”

Kennedy awkwardly posing with a McDonald’s spread in the company of President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Elon Musk and House Speaker Mike Johnson late last year (Donald Trump Jr/X)

During the same hearings, he stressed the importance of making the public aware of the impact of unhealthy eating, but added, “I don’t want to take food away from anybody. If you like… a McDonald’s cheeseburger, Diet Coke, which my boss loves, you should be able to get them.

“If you want to eat Hostess Twinkies, you should be able to do that, but you should know what the impacts are on your family and on your health.”

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President Donald Trump is indeed well-known for his passion for fast food, famously serving a mountain of burgers to elite athletes at the White House during his first term and pulling a shift at a Pennsylvania branch of the Golden Arches as a campaign stunt late last year.

Kennedy previously criticized Trump’s diet, telling The Joe Polish Show last November: “The stuff that he eats is really bad.

“Campaign food is always bad, but the food that goes onto that airplane is, like, just poison. You have a choice between – you don’t have the choice, you’re either given KFC or Big Macs. That’s when you’re lucky and then the rest of the stuff I consider kind of inedible.”

Soon afterwards, Kennedy was pictured eating McDonald’s on board Trump’s plane in the company of the president, Donald Trump Jr, Elon Musk, and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

He told Fox News host Sean Hannity in March he believed Trump had lost 30 pounds despite his questionable intake, attributing the miracle to the president’s “genetic system,” which Hannity agreed was “second to none.”

Questions about a possible push for new pesticide regulations were raised in May when the White House released an initial report, from a presidential commission chaired by Mr. Kennedy, that raised strong concerns about possible links between pesticides and childhood diseases. It also linked the dominance of ultraprocessed foods in children’s diets to a range of chronic diseases.

Those findings touched off tensions between Mr. Kennedy’s movement and Republican lawmakers who have traditionally drawn support from powerful agriculture, food and drug lobbyists.

The Times obtained the draft of the new report from a former federal official. An industry official confirmed that it was nearly identical to a copy the administration had recently shown the official at the White House.

Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, on Thursday would not verify the draft. At this stage, any draft would go through a number of revisions before it is finalized. The document The Times reviewed was labeled “pre-decisional” and dated Aug. 6.

Called the “Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy,” the report comes from the commission led by Mr. Kennedy, which includes cabinet secretaries and agency heads from across the government.

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.

The Trump administration is in talks to boost the rollout of a “very wholesome meal for under $5” to underserved areas, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.

Newsweek reached out to the Department of Health & Human Services via email for comment.

Why It Matters

During his time in the Trump administration, Kennedy has made combating ultra-processed foods a centerpiece of his public health agenda. Labeling these foods as “poison,” Kennedy has repeatedly emphasized their central role in America’s chronic disease epidemic, especially among vulnerable populations.

Access to affordable, healthy food remains a critical challenge in many underserved communities, often called “food deserts.” These areas face higher rates of diet-related illnesses like diabetes, putting strain on individuals and public health systems.

Kennedy has said healthier U.S. diets are key to his vision to “Make America Healthy Again.”

What To Know

Kennedy outlined a new public health initiative on Monday, promising a shift away from corporate profit motives toward genuine health improvements, especially in underserved communities.

“We’re going to launch a new rubric where we, the public health agencies, actually do public health rather than promoting the profit taking by private corporations. And there’s some parts though in some underserved communities, there are food deserts where people don’t have access to some of these foods. And if they do, sometimes it’s too expensive,” Kennedy told Scripps News.

Addressing concerns about reaching lower socioeconomic areas, Kennedy acknowledged the difficulties but emphasized that “cheap food is an illusion. If you say this food is cheap and you get diabetes from it, is it really cheap? We’re working all over the country in food deserts.”

“We’re working with private corporations that are providing good meals. We looked at one company that we met with recently that can provide a very, very wholesome meal for under $5. A Big Mac costs, I think, $9 now,” he said.

“You can get high-quality food as we change these rules to incentivize people to buy better food. You’re going to see the markets respond, and you’re going to see better food going into these food deserts,” he added.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attends a news conference in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 5, 2025. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attends a news conference in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 5, 2025. Mark Thiessen/AP

The average price of a Big Mac meal in the United States in 2024 was around $9.29, while a Big Mac alone costs $5.29, according to McDonald’s. However, prices can vary by location. Some locations, like those in New York, might charge upward of $8.69 for a Big Mac, according to Tasting Table, while others could be lower.

Kennedy did not reveal any details about the meals or which companies would manufacture them.

Earlier this month, he lauded Mom’s Meals, a company providing $7-a-portion dishes directly to Medicaid and Medicare recipients.

He specifically praised the firm for providing “without additives” meals, funded by taxpayers, to sick and elderly Americans. The menu includes dishes like chicken bacon ranch pasta for dinner, as well as options such as French toast sticks with fruit or ham patties.

However, an Associated Press review of Mom’s Meals menus, including ingredient lists and nutrition labels, found the products to be heat-and-eat, ultraprocessed foods of the kind Kennedy frequently blames for making people ill.

Marion Nestle, a nutritionist and food policy expert at New York University who examined the menu for the AP, said the meals contain chemical additives that would be impossible to replicate in a home kitchen. She noted that many items are high in sodium, and some also contain elevated levels of sugar or saturated fat.

Mom’s Meals stated that its food products “do not include ingredients that are commonly found in ultra-processed foods.” Teresa Roof, a company spokeswoman, added that the company does not use synthetic food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, certain sweeteners, or synthetic preservatives that are banned in Europe.

Under Kennedy’s leadership, the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) Commission has spotlighted that nearly 70 percent of U.S. children’s calories come from ultra-processed foods.

In a recent social media post where he criticized the vast amount of ultraprocessed foods in American diets, Kennedy urged Americans to make healthier choices.

“This country has lost the most basic of all freedoms, the freedom that comes from being healthy,” Kennedy said.

He reiterated his stance in his interview with Scripps News, pointing to sugar and ultra-processed foods as critical public health threats, linking them to rising diabetes rates.

“We are giving the poorest members of our society diabetes when they’re young, and then we’re paying for it later with Medicaid,” he said.

A study published in the April 2025 issue of the Metabolism journal showed that individuals with the highest intake of ultra-processed foods had a 24 percent greater risk of developing diabetes compared to those with the lowest consumption.

What Happens Next

Kennedy did not provide details about the contents of the meals or where or when they will be introduced.