{"id":24607,"date":"2025-03-25T08:01:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T09:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=24607"},"modified":"2025-03-25T09:23:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T09:23:39","slug":"washington-bends-to-rfk-jr-s-maha-agenda-on-measles-baby-formula-and-french-fries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=24607","title":{"rendered":"Washington Bends to RFK Jr.\u2019s \u2018MAHA\u2019 Agenda on Measles, Baby Formula and French Fries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public health leaders are horrified by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s approach to measles, but government and industry are responding to him.<\/p>\n

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, is offering a new twist on President Trump\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d slogan that touches a wide range of food industries.<\/span>Kayana Szymczak, Adam Friedlander, Scott Semler for The New York TImes; Joe Raedle\/Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Babies are not ordinarily a fixture of closed-door White House meetings.<\/p>\n

But when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, convened a group of women this month for a discussion on nutrition and other topics, a healthy-eating activist who calls herself \u201cthe Food Babe\u201d was stunned to see President Trump\u2019s press secretary with her eight-month-old on her lap.<\/p>\n

While several female cabinet secretaries looked on, the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, lamented that baby formula seems healthier in Europe than in the United States, where a recent study found that many varieties are laden with added sugars<\/a>. Last week, Mr. Kennedy met with formula makers and announced a push<\/a> to expand options for \u201csafe, reliable and nutritious infant formula.\u201d<\/p>\n

The activist, Vani Hari, was thrilled. \u201cIt was such an amazing opportunity to see some solidification of the MAHA agenda across the different cabinets,\u201d she said, using the initials for Mr. Kennedy\u2019s \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d movement. She called the event \u201ca dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The gathering of \u201cMAHA Moms,\u201d as Mr. Kennedy calls the corps of influencers and activists who follow him, was one of a series of choreographed events held in recent weeks by Mr. Kennedy, who occupies a highly unusual place in Washington. The scion of a famous Democratic family, his embrace of Mr. Trump, his tendency to spin wild theories<\/a> out of kernels of truth and his promotion of what critics say is quack medicine have made him one of the most polarizing figures in the cabinet, even as he has developed a loyal following of his own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Vani Hari, who attended Mr. Kennedy\u2019s nutrition summit at the White House, called the event \u201ca dream come true.\u201d<\/span>Mike Belleme for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Yet even some critics of Mr. Kennedy applaud his focus on obesity and healthy eating. He makes powerful industries and civil servants uncomfortable, holding forth from his newly powerful perch as head of the Department of Health and Human Services on an eclectic menu of topics \u2014 offering up alternative remedy ideas one day while blasting industrial food companies the next.<\/p>\n

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Public health leaders are horrified by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s approach to measles, but government and industry are responding to him.Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, is offering a new twist on President Trump\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d slogan that touches a wide range of food industries.Kayana Szymczak, Adam Friedlander, Scott Semler for The New York TImes; Joe Raedle\/Getty ImagesBabies are not ordinarily a fixture of closed-door White House meetings.But when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, convened a group of women this month for a discussion on nutrition and other topics, a healthy-eating activist who calls herself \u201cthe Food Babe\u201d was stunned to see President Trump\u2019s press secretary with her eight-month-old on her lap.While several female cabinet secretaries looked on, the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, lamented that baby formula seems healthier in Europe than in the United States, where a recent study found that many varieties are laden with added sugars. Last week, Mr. Kennedy met with formula makers and announced a push to expand options for \u201csafe, reliable and nutritious infant formula.\u201dThe activist, Vani Hari, was thrilled. \u201cIt was such an amazing opportunity to see some solidification of the MAHA agenda across the different cabinets,\u201d she said, using the initials for Mr. Kennedy\u2019s \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d movement. She called the event \u201ca dream come true.\u201dThe gathering of \u201cMAHA Moms,\u201d as Mr. Kennedy calls the corps of influencers and activists who follow him, was one of a series of choreographed events held in recent weeks by Mr. Kennedy, who occupies a highly unusual place in Washington. The scion of a famous Democratic family, his embrace of Mr. Trump, his tendency to spin wild theories out of kernels of truth and his promotion of what critics say is quack medicine have made him one of the most polarizing figures in the cabinet, even as he has developed a loyal following of his own.Vani Hari, who attended Mr. Kennedy\u2019s nutrition summit at the White House, called the event \u201ca dream come true.\u201dMike Belleme for The New York TimesYet even some critics of Mr. Kennedy applaud his focus on obesity and healthy eating. He makes powerful industries and civil servants uncomfortable, holding forth from his newly powerful perch as head of the Department of Health and Human Services on an eclectic menu of topics \u2014 offering up alternative remedy ideas one day while blasting industrial food companies the next.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24609,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24607"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24615,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24607\/revisions\/24615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}