Robert F Kennedy Jr, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, is a controversial figure.
As one of the most prominent members of President Donald Trump’s team, he entered the White House with a healthcare mandate that looks set to overhaul the way American healthcare, in particular food regulation, is managed.
He was a controversial pick on many fronts and his approach to regulatory reform has raised eyebrows among health officials and campaigners.
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While his Make America Healthy Again campaign has a strong focus on curbing the prominence of ultra-processed foods and their role within typical American diets, he has made a controversial statement about the health concerns posed by saturated fats.
In a statement made alongside other top public health officials on 14 July 2025, RFK Jr said that saturated fats have been made a scapegoat for health concerns by the medical community.
Saturated fats have been shown through myriad scientific studies to have a detrimental effect on health when consumed in immoderate quantities. They can increase the risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, strokes, and other cardiovascular issues.
They’re commonly found in animal-based products, particularly red meat and full-fat dairy, along with baked and fried foods.
“There’s a tremendous amount of emerging science that talks about the need for more protein in our diets, more fats in our diets,” RFK Jr is quoted as saying at a U.S. Department of Agriculture event.
He added that the federal government would release new dietary guidelines in the ‘next several months’ that would stop what he deems to be an ‘attack on whole milk and cheese and yogurt over the past couple of decades’.
This could have a profound impact on federal nutrition programmes in the US, such as the guidance around school meals’ composition that currently seeks to limit saturated fat consumption.
“The medical establishment locked arms and walked off a cliff together,” Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary is also quoted as saying at the same event.
“That dogma still lives large and you see remnants of it in the food guidelines we are now revising,” he added.
The statements have been met with resistance in the medical community, with the American American Academy of Pediatrics and the Center for Science in the Public Interest urging the government to maintain a recommended limit of 10% of caloric intake coming from saturated fats.
Rachael Davis