HHS Secretary Kennedy touts fixes for obesity, chronic illness, mental health issues

Key Takeaways

The country is facing a physical and mental health crisis, and counties can help improve health outcomes by prioritizing prevention over treatment, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), told a General Session audience Feb. 24. 

HHS is redefining its approach to public health by enacting a series of changes around nutritional guidance and education, the success of which is dependent on implementation at the community level, Kennedy told county officials on the last day of the NACo Legislative Conference. 

The United States has the highest chronic disease burden in the world among high-income countries, and most chronic diseases are linked to poor nutrition and diet, he said. Healthcare is one of the fastest growing budget items in the federal budget, and obesity rates have significantly risen over the past few decades, Kennedy noted.

“On Capitol Hill, they have been arguing for decades whether we should have single-payer [healthcare] or Obamacare or all these other systems,” Kennedy said. “They're all like switching deck chairs around on the Titanic. 

“The ship is going down, and the only way we can deal with rising healthcare costs is if we deal with the chronic disease epidemic.”

Counties operate hospitals, long-term care facilities and mental health facilities, which need to assess patients for metabolic challenges, pre-diabetes, obesity, hypertension and heart disease, and then offering dietary advice to prevent chronic disease, Kennedy said.  

“Counties are ground zero for changing behavior [around nutrition],” Kennedy said. “… One of the things that we can do at the county level is to focus more on prevention rather than treatment.”

In January, HHS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture released new nutritional recommendations, restructuring the “food pyramid” and prioritizing protein, dairy, healthy fats, fruits and vegetables.  

“This is what children should be eating,” Kennedy said. “And when they eat it, their health changes. Most [people with] type 2 diabetes can lose the diagnosis by changing their diet.”

Surveys show that roughly 70%-80% of doctors feel unprepared to offer dietary advice, according to the National Institutes of Health. HHS is working with medical schools across the country to add 40 hours of nutritional learning into their curriculum, Kennedy said. 

“There’s no such thing as Republican children, Democratic children,” Kennedy said. “We all want our kids to be healthy, and we’re not going to get there [without change]. The dietary guidelines are really going to drive changes across the board.”

Numerous states have opted in to prevent their SNAP recipients from spending food assistance benefits on soda, candy and other “ultra-processed food,” Kennedy said.

“We’re giving the poorest kids in our country diabetes,” he noted. “And the taxpayers are funding it. 

“… We’re now the first nation in the world that has chronic obesity and malnutrition in the same people. They’re eating things that have no nourishment, they’re eating poison.”

When a Big Mac meal at McDonalds costs $12, it’s worse for a person’s health and wallet to eat fast food when they could cook a fresh, nutritional meal at home, so HHS is working on a campaign to encourage people to cook their own meals, Kennedy said.   

“People don’t cook anymore,” he said. “They’re too busy and a lot of people have forgotten how to cook, but cooking is important because it’s something the whole family can participate in and it’s a daily ritual that brings people together.”

Last year, President Trump signed an executive order reviving the Presidential Physical Fitness Test in public schools. The test was criticized for causing students anxiety and was replaced in 2013 with the Presidential Fitness Program, which aimed to focus more on health-related fitness as opposed to athletic skill. 

“Competition and failure are part of life,” Kennedy said. “To learn to experience that and process that and learn to get up on our feet again and recover, we have to have that kind of resilience. If we don’t have resilience in our kids, they’re not going to be able to face a very challenging world.”

American children are “obese” and “damaged,” Kennedy said. Roughly 77% of American teenagers don’t qualify for military service, and the most prevalent reasons for disqualification include obesity and mental and physical health issues.

“That should get everybody’s attention,” Kennedy said. “It’s a national security issue.”

Physical and mental health are intertwined, and HHS is encouraging states to pass “bell-to-bell” legislation, banning cell phone use during the school day, Kennedy said. 

“I see this whole generation is plagued by anxiety,” Kennedy said. “And it may be food-oriented or it may be other exposures, but it seems to be related to telephone use, to social media.”

Kennedy recently visited a school in Loudoun County, Va. that has “bell-to-bell” restrictions. Most students he spoke with said that it was initially difficult to not be on their phones during the day, but that they’ve come to enjoy the break, he said. 

“The kids were all talking to each other,” Kennedy said. “Nobody was looking at their laps — which, if you go in a high school these days, they’re all looking at their laps [at their phones]. There’s no conversation happening, there’s no social interaction. There’s just this technological isolation that is stealing our souls.”

Research suggests that school cell phone bans improve test scores, and teachers largely support them because they improve student engagement and decrease behavioral issues, according to the National Education Association.

“It seems to us like a win-win situation,” Kennedy said. “If can get them off of cell phones, we can start focusing them again on other things, including sports and doing plays and art and building community with each other.”