As regular Good Oil readers will know, I’m not exactly the biggest fan of Robert F Kennedy Jr. Still, even stopped clocks are right twice a day, and even an idiot nepo baby from the most odious family in America can get something right. Occasionally.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr said on Nov. 6 that new dietary guidelines have been delayed but will be released in December […]
A 421-page draft provided to officials from an advisory committee in 2024 includes recommendations for eating less meat, avoiding full-fat dairy products, and consuming more lentils and other plant-based proteins.
Basic, sensible stuff, then. Although it’ll be interesting to see how the pro-meat right react, especially to the ‘plant-based proteins’ stuff. Forgive me for suspecting that if Biden’s fat tranny health secretary had said the same, a large section of the right would lose their minds.
If Kennedy starts touting insect-based proteins, it’ll be hilarious.
Another sensible move is a deal with Big Pharma to lower prices of weight-loss drugs.
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a deal that could significantly expand access for millions of Americans to hugely popular obesity drugs by reducing the price to as little as $149 a month.
The Trump administration’s agreements with drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly would save consumers and the government considerable money on Wegovy, Zepbound and two obesity pills that are expected to win regulatory approval in the coming months.
Oh, no! Trump and Kennedy are doing deals with Big Pharma! Well, at least there’s no irony deficiency.
But, seriously, folks…
No doubt some puritanical types will whine that these drugs are ‘cheating’. How? If the goal is to get people to lose weight, then as long as they do so safely, who cares how it’s done? Sure, in the long term, diet and exercise will do wonders for people’s health, but in the short-term it must be borne in mind that obesity is a vicious feedback loop: the fatter people get, the harder it is to diet and, especially, to exercise. If the weight-loss drugs are followed up with healthier lifestyles, then all well and good.
The only catch is that the deal only applies to a limited cohort:
Trump, top US health officials and drug company executives at the White House outlined broader coverage of the injectable drugs for people on Medicare and Medicaid, the federal insurance programs for older people; many who have disabilities; and those with lower incomes. The deal also lowers the prices the government programs will pay.
Those measures are likely to expand access but still will stop far short of covering all of the millions of people with obesity under the federal programs […]
Starting around the middle of next year, Medicare and Medicaid’s costs for the injectable drugs will drop to $245 a month. That coverage will be for people who meet certain medical criteria, like having moderate or severe obesity. People can also have mild obesity accompanied by kidney disease, heart failure or uncontrolled high blood pressure. Or they can have a body mass index of 27 alongside prediabetes or established cardiovascular disease.
Copayments for eligible patients on Medicare will be no more than $50 a month. Patients on Medicaid already have little to no out-of-pocket costs.
In the meantime, for all that he’s wrong about nearly everything else, Kennedy at least cannot be faulted for wanting to make America healthier.
Kennedy […] said obesity is the No 1 driver of chronic diseases and leads to problems such as diabetes, and he said the new deal will cause a decline in the condition.
President Donald Trump has also tasked officials with addressing the root causes of chronic diseases, Kennedy said. The new dietary guidelines “are going to change the food culture” in the United States.
Kennedy also noted that officials are working to implement fitness programs in schools.
I’ll refrain from making ‘Strength Through Joy’ comparisons.
Another sensible move is simplifying the existing guidelines.
Kennedy told lawmakers that month that the draft update from 2024 was “clearly written by industry.” Some members of the advisory committee that drafted the update were found to have links to food manufacturers.
“We are changing that. So we’re going to have four-page dietary guidelines that tell people essentially, ‘Eat whole food; eat the food that’s good for you,'” Kennedy said at the time.
During an event over the summer, Kennedy said the lengthy proposed guidelines “were incomprehensible” and that the updated version would contain “guidelines that are common sense, that stress the need to eat saturated fats, dairy, good meat, fresh meat, and vegetables.”
Credit where it’s due.
