Robert F Kennedy Jr, promoted a company whose meals contain ultra-processed ingredients – which he has repeatedly railed against – on his “Make America healthy again” tour.
The US health secretary appeared at an enormous food plant in Oklahoma for a company called Mom’s Meals, which makes 1.5m “medically tailored” meals each week and ships them all over the country.
Companies including Mom’s Meals have been criticized for hijacking the “food is medicine” movement by providing “salty, fat-laden” meals to the ill and elderly, paid for by health insurance companies.
“This is really one of the solutions for making our country healthy again,” Kennedy said in a video posted to the his social media account. Kennedy visited Mom’s Meals to celebrate Republican Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt’s Food Is Medicine Act, which allows the state’s Medicaid program to purchase such meals.
Nutritionists told the Guardian that the company’s menus contain ultra-processed ingredients and could be healthier. The Associated Press first reported nutritionists’ concerns with Kennedy’s promotion of the company.
“We can do better and there are lots of meal programs that do better, and they don’t have any of those kinds of ingredients in there,” said Marion Nestle, emerita professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, told the Guardian.
“It’s the texturizers and even the natural colors. It’s got all this stuff in it that food companies put into foods to make up for the fact the ingredients aren’t fresh.”
Walter Willett, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health, gave the meals a “C” grade in comments via email. Willet, who is generally skeptical of the utility of the ultra-processed label, said: “These meals could be ultra-processed but be much healthier.”
Teresa Roof, a spokesperson for Mom’s Meals, said the organisation works “continuously to ensure the quality of our meals, which are designed by registered dietitians and professional chefs to meet condition-specific medical guidelines including those from the American Heart Association, National Kidney Foundation, American Diabetes Association, and the National Institutes of Health.
“The question at hand is the definition of ultra-processed foods. Mom’s Meals does not produce any meals containing ingredients commonly found in ultra-processed foods. This means no: synthetic food dyes, added MSG, high fructose corn syrup, non-nutritive sweeteners (eg sucralose), partially hydrogenated oils or added trans fats, and synthetic preservatives banned in EU.”
Ultra-processed foods generally include ingredients you wouldn’t use in your home kitchen – such as stabilizers, gums and anti-sticking agents to name a couple in Mom’s Meals’ cheese tortellini meal. It also includes cooking processes you wouldn’t use at home, such as molding and extrusion.
There is a growing body of evidence that shows ultra-processed foods encourage people to eat more calories and are linked to obesity and diabetes. A recent study found these foods account for more than half of all the calories Americans eat. Food researchers are still studying exactly why ultra-processed foods prompt people to eat more.
The definition of ultra-processed, and its utility as a category, is a subject of debate in nutrition research circles. The meaning of the phrase has become increasingly controversial lawmakers have proposed bills attempting to reign in food processors.
The phrase “ultra-processed” has come into wide usage since Kennedy began painting it as the boogeyman of the US food system, criticizing the industrialized processes as “poisoning the American people” in his confirmation hearing. His agency is also planning a “bold, edgy” public relations campaign to warn Americans about the dangers of such foods.
“Why he would pick on these meals as being the solution to America’s food problems – I have no idea,” said Nestle.
“But ones that are made with better ingredients and don’t have all the junk in them would cost more, and they’d probably have to be shipped frozen.”
Notably, the state act comes after Republicans and Donald Trump signed a mega bill to cut $1tn out of Medicaid and $186bn from government food supports, colloquially known as “food stamps”, over the next decade. Medicaid is a public health insurance program that covers 71 million low-income, disabled and elderly Americans.
This is not the first time Kennedy has made a controversial choice of companies to promote. In March, he visited Steak ‘n Shake, a burger and fries restaurant, where he praised the company’s use of beef tallow in fryers and made inflammatory statements about vaccines.
