By Zachary Stieber
Contributing Writer
The commission chaired by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is slated to release its next report Tuesday.
The Make America Healthy Again Commission “is on track to submit its Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy report to the president on August 12th,” Kush Desai, a spokesman for the White House, said in an email on Monday.
“The report will be unveiled to the public shortly thereafter as we coordinate the schedules of the president and the various Cabinet members who are a part of the commission,” he added.
A spokesperson for Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment.
The commission’s first report was released in May. It largely details problems with the health of Americans and attributes the rise of chronic diseases among children to a poor diet full of ultraprocessed foods, exposure to chemicals, a lack of physical activity, and the overprescription of medications.
“America will begin reversing the childhood chronic disease crisis during this administration by getting to the truth of why we are getting sick and spurring pro-growth policies and innovations to reverse these trends,” the report states.
A short section at the end features 10 recommendations, including advising new government-funded trials on the effects of various diets and calling for the development of new systems to monitor the safety of drugs and vaccines.
President Donald Trump established the commission shortly after his second term began. In an executive order in February, he said the commission should “study the scope of the childhood chronic disease crisis and any potential contributing causes, including the American diet, absorption of toxic material, medical treatments, lifestyle, environmental factors, government policies, food production techniques, electromagnetic radiation, and corporate influence or cronyism.”
Per the order, the commission was required to submit its first report to the president within 100 days. It was also required to present a strategy to Trump on how to address chronic diseases, including obesity, within 180 days.
That deadline was Aug. 12.
Kennedy has emphasized removing synthetic additives from foods, with regulators in his department banning several and working with companies to remove others. He has also targeted ultra-processed foods such as soda, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says provide more than half of Americans’ calories.
Dr. Jim Krieger, executive director of Healthy Food America, told a briefing ahead of the report’s release that officials could propose new, mandatory labels on products that are high in fat, sugar, and salt, or contain certain additives, as well as a new tax on beverages with sugar.
“There are many things that can be done,” he said.
