U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explained why the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) revolution is urgent during Friday’s episode of The Alex Marlow Show, pointing out that the United States is “the sickest country in the world” with “the highest burden of chronic disease of any nation in history.”
“One of your victories so far has been the removal of the food pyramid or the turning it upside down,” Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow pointed out to Kennedy, before noting that one of the reasons he has been “a card-carrying contrarian” is “because of the food pyramid.”
“It’s corporate capture. You realize it’s just because of lobbyists and corporations with powerful interests,” Marlow added, before asking the HHS secretary to elaborate on his food pyramid removal, calling the action “historic.”
Kennedy explained, “The week after I got in, I was handed a document of 453 pages long, which was the dietary guidelines that the Biden administration had developed over four years. And they were incomprehensible. They were clearly written by food industry lobbyists.”
“Again they reflected the commercial aspirations of those companies rather than public health,” he continued. “We threw them out and we brought real nutritionists in from the best universities in the country, the most prestigious universities.”
“We locked them in a room for 11 months and they came out with science-based recommendations that are all cited and sourced, peer-reviewed publications and government databases. And it’s nine pages long,” Kennedy added.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks about the Trump administration’s updated nutrition guidelines at a press conference in Washington, DC, on January 8, 2026. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Health and Human Services secretary went on to say, “We talk about the microbiome, and about gut health, and inflammation, and how to restore your metabolism. And we’re now the sickest country in the world.”
“We have the highest burden of chronic disease of any nation ever in history, 77 percent of our kids cannot qualify for military service,” Kennedy added.
“When my uncle was president, we spent zero on chronic disease,” he noted, before pointing out that today, the United States spends “48 cents out of every federal dollar” in taxes “to treat chronic disease.”
“It’s existential for our country,” Kennedy asserted. “It’s a cost that is rising exponentially by the year. And it’s rising because we’re getting sicker and sicker. And the way that we fix that is beginning with changing the food pyramid.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Kennedy said the U.S. military reduced food costs by nearly 50 percent — and still made food healthier.
“People have forgotten how to cook, and it actually is a lot cheaper to eat good food if you cook it at home,” he said, adding, “We have a program in the military where we’re feeding the troops really high quality food,” before noting that it brought the cost from $18.50 per day per soldier $10 per day.
“We are in the middle of a spiritual malaise in this country, and it’s all related” Kennedy continued. “And if we’re going to fix that, one of the ways that we can start to achieve that is by reinstituting this ritual, this sacred ritual of cooking a meal with our families every night.”
A woman plays with a baby on stage as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary hold a news conference at the Health and Human Services Department on April 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The HHS secretary also talked about GLP-1s, calling them “a game-changer.”
“The impacts that we’re seeing, not only on weight, but there’s data out there now from MIT that shows it helps kidney health, liver health, cardiac health,” Kennedy said. “I think it really is a game-changer.”
“There are problems with them, there are GI tract problems, and some people can’t take them,” he acknowledged, before noting, “A lot of people get off them right away because of the side effects, but for many people, and I think for society as a whole, it could be really transformative.”
The Alex Marlow Show, hosted by Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, broadcasts coast to coast on weekdays from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern on the Salem Radio Network stations. You can listen to the radio show online here. The show also airs at 9 p.m. Eastern on the Salem TV news channel. Marlow’s podcast, The Alex Marlow Show Presented by Breitbart News, is released weekdays at 9 p.m. Eastern. You can subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, Rumble, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
