RFK Jr.’s new dietary guidelines push protein at every meal, full-fat dairy, vegetables, fruits and whole grains. The slogan, ‘Eat Real Food’ is mantra embraced by his circle of influencers.
RFK Jr. announces new dietary guidelines
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced new dietary guidelines, saying his message is clear: eat real food.
WASHINGTON − Get ready for some sauerkraut-infused meals.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is putting his cooking skills to the test with celebrity chefs to motivate Americans to eat healthy.
Kennedy is launching “The Real Food Show,” a new cooking series on July 30, to help translate the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans into easy, affordable meals they can prepare at home, he said in an exclusive sit-down interview with USA TODAY.
An evangelist of fermented food who once carried a personal stash of sauerkraut to restaurants, the HHS secretary said the recipes will feature kimchi, sauerkraut and yogurt.
As he prepares to try to change Americans’ eating habits, Kennedy also talked about cooking with the family as an antidote to loneliness; his own eating habits (“I’ll eat anything. I don’t have a gag reflex”); his status as a weight loss guru among members of the Trump Cabinet; and a culinary habit his wife banned while going out to dinner.
The new dietary guidelines, unveiled in January, prioritize protein at every meal, full-fat dairy, vegetables, fruits and whole grains. The slogan “Eat Real Food” accompanying the new guidelines is an oft repeated mantra among his circle of influencers, including boxing legend Mike Tyson.
“When we published the dietary guidelines, there was immediately sort of a good reaction, but also a little trepidation from the public and from critics saying that this food is a lot more expensive than the ultra-processed food that we’ve been eating,” Kennedy said ahead of the show. “And that’s not true.”
The program will showcase how to prepare healthy meals for less than $5 a serving whenever possible, according to HHS.
The first couple of episodes will feature chefs Andrew Gruel and Robert Irvine. The program will be broadcast online here. For the first episode with Gruel, RFK Jr will cook up a recipe for Crispy Salmon Cakes with Apple, White Bean & Green Salad.
Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement has found common ground among a bipartisan group of voters, primarily those known as MAHA Moms, with its promise to combat chronic childhood diseases by reducing environmental toxins, ultra-processed foods and “overmedicalization.”
‘Americans have forgotten how to cook’
Kennedy said the show can teach people it can be cheaper and healthier to cook at home.
“Fast food is not less expensive,” he said. ”That meal costs $12 to $14. People can eat a lot cheaper at home and a lot better food. But many Americans have forgotten how to cook. It’s becoming a lost art.”
Part of the job of Kennedy’s Health and Human Services Department will be “reintroducing” Americans to cooking, he said.
More than half of all men and almost three-quarters of women regularly cook at home, according to a 2023 study in the peer-reviewed journal Current Developments in Nutrition from the American Society for Nutrition.
A ‘sacred ritual’ to beat isolation
Kennedy said cooking is not just a way to get good nutrition but also a “sacred ritual that has been abandoned.”
“We have a malaise, an epidemic of isolation in this country,” he said.
Addiction, he said, is a disease of isolation and disconnection.
“And one of the ways that we can start connecting people again is through that sacred ritual of cooking again, of coming together with your family and creating something that’s beautiful, that’s useful, and sitting down with them and enjoying that.”
Practicing what he preaches: Kennedy cooks two meals a day
The HHS secretary was quick to give credit to his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, as the better cook in their household.
Kennedy said that while he cooked two “rudimentary” meals a day, his wife is a “much better cook.”
When they have company or when the kids come home, Hines takes over the skillets.
“She loves cooking and she loves baking,” he said. “She’s a very, very good cook.”
His repertoire consists of eggs, bacon, cheeseburgers and hamburgers.
“I can cook a really good omelet,” Kennedy said, adding that he learned it from Chef Gruel. “And then my specialty would be steaks and meat and fish.”
Given Kennedy cooks two meals a day, it should come as no surprise that he’s encountered his fair share of kitchen disasters.
“I’ve left stuff cooking in the oven and forgotten about it and burned it to a crisp,” he said, with a laugh.
There is a way to eat sauerkraut
Kennedy, known to be an aficionado of fermented foods, was in the habit of taking his own sauerkraut to restaurants, he said.
“I used to carry it with me, but I got too many complaints.”
Asked if the complaints came from fellow diners, Kennedy said: “My wife, mainly. It’s hard to carry without spilling it. And when you spill it, it causes other problems.”
He also does not make his own.
“I use store-bought sauerkraut,” he said. Then the HHS secretary described the correct way to eat it.
“The way that you’re supposed to eat it is bite for bite,” he said. “You take a bite of the meat, take a bite of the sauerkraut. That is kind of the prescribed, perfect way of eating it. You know, I don’t do that perfectly every time that I try.”
Trump Cabinet’s weight loss guru
It’s not just Kennedy who is on the “meats and ferments” diet. Other followers, he said, include Vice President JD Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
He said they had all lost weight on the diet.
How does it feel to be the Trump Cabinet weight loss guru? “A lot of pressure,” he said, laughing.
‘I will literally eat anything’
Asked about the most exotic food he has eaten, Kennedy said: “I will literally eat anything because I don’t have a gag reflex.”
“I love experimenting with foods. When I travel, I’ll eat … street vendors’ cooking.”
Though Kennedy might be a carnivore diet enthusiast, he also has experimented several times with being on a vegan diet.
But it never lasted long.
“I just had a, a craving, an atavistic craving for protein,” he said.
His wife, he joked, would say he lasted all of 24 hours.
“I prepped the kitchen and did everything when I could, but I cannot last very long on it,” he said. “I feel hungry all the time.”
RFK Jr.’s Achilles heel
Kennedy might be on a mostly carnivore diet, but he confessed he has a weakness for desserts.
That doesn’t mean he’ll gobble up a packaged doughnut in the middle of the day, but if it’s freshly baked pie, it’s another matter.
“I like key lime pie and I like ice cream and I like chocolate,” he said. “My Achilles’ heel is desserts.”
(This story has been updated with new information.)
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal.