Americans are getting heavier, and so is the task that awaits Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who, if confirmed by Congress as President-elect Donald Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary, will be entrusted with mitigating the problem as much as he can.
A new study published in the medical journal The Lancet suggests 260 million Americans could be overweight or obese by 2050, exacerbating an already devastating health crisis predominantly affecting lower income families.
Kennedy insists America's food supply is at fault – a culmination of seed oils, dangerous dyes, preservatives and other chemicals largely absent from foods in other developed nations.
Fox News medical contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier said a "trifecta" of issues have fueled the crisis, and fixing it won't be so easy.
"This is not going to be an easy fix. It is much more complicated than just telling people ‘eat healthier and do a little bit more exercise,’" she said.
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For new mothers, she suggested, breastfeeding is a healthy option to control not only your own weight, but also to prevent weight-related problems for your child.
Beyond babyhood, families and communities should focus more on creating healthy environments for outdoor play, getting education about nutrition back in schools and promoting exercise.
"We also need to get these unhealthy foods out of our supermarkets, not necessarily by banning them, but we need to make sure that people, if we are consuming them, we either need a warning [on the package] or they need to make them healthier. Frankly, we need a more affordable, healthy option," she said.
Some studies suggest weight-related medical issues disproportionately affect low-income families who rely on less expensive processed foods to keep their pantry full.
To add to the crisis, Antiobesity drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound – which promote weight loss by curbing appetite and regulating hormones affected by conditions that make weight loss more difficult like metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance or polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) – come in at over $1,000 per month, meaning only those able to afford the drugs can access them.
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With compounding pharmacies coming under the FDA's scrutiny as well, cost-effective medication alternatives are becoming increasingly limited.
"Obesity and overweight rates have have doubled since 1990… and it really boils down to several things: the ultra-processed foods in our diet, which, as RFK Jr. likes to point out, are not available elsewhere in the world. It's just here in the United States that we see these so much," Saphier said.
"[There's also] the lack of accessibility and affordability of healthy options and the fact that people just aren't moving anymore. We are obsessed with our devices. P.E. has been taken out of schools. We're not focusing on sports and afterschool programs, so this has just been a trifecta that has led us into this crisis."
