Quack Quack Quack Kennedy

[TV and credit cards]

RFK Jr. is targeting ultraprocessed foods.

“Do we want to risk our kids getting sicker while we wait for this perfect evidence to emerge?”

I hope he can make some headway on this.

Why? Is there any reason whatsoever to believe that there's a corellation between how much processing a food has, and how healthy it is?

Surely he ahould be targetting ultra unhealthy foods. Processed or not.

There does seem to be a relationship, but I suspect it's a matter of lots of processing meaning lots of optimizing for taste over nutrition. And that the highly processed stuff is very often in a form you can quickly consume lots of calories without really noticing it.

Well of course we're going to optimize for taste, we're optimized to make money. And it's not just the convenience of "quickly consuming", it's about making something very flavorful that one does not grow tired of consuming; optimizing mouthfeel.
Will we find the correlation between processing food for flavor and any detriment to our health? Not likely in the lifetime of anyone reading this post. How long have we been studying nutrition? Again, it's all about the benjamins. It was some ten years ago I had read that people in the medical field, specifically GPs received little training on nutrition. Why? It was unlikely there would be even a single course dedicated to nutrition. What training there was was usually incorporated into another class. Is it any better today? I wouldn't bet on it. Obesity rings the cash register, baby.
Whole food, low processed, highly processed? I've read enough circumstantial evidence to cause me to tend toward the whole food end of it all. I'm not waiting for the final proof, the smoking gun that would be found in my autopsy. I've long since stopped making excuses for maintaining a unhealthy diet. I've yet to fully conquer it but at least I stopped lying to myself. Age is telling me I'd better start trying harder.
Is Jr going to accomplish fuck all? I highly doubt it. Even if they swap out Lunchables for apples in public schools, their little brains are already wired to crave sugar, salt, and fat. Yeah, I know the quality of fruits and vegetables they would likely have. They can be found in any low end supermarket. At best they are nearly devoid of flavor. They are grown for appearance only.

 

[southernhybrid]

It's true that most doctors usually don't receive much if any education in nutrition, but a lot of nutrition is common sense. I took nutrition as an elective when I received my nursing degree. My ex had a MSN in nutrition, but his diet was horrible, despite always being thin. I agree that a lot of food is addictive, especially sweets, but as I said before, we had all those ultra processed sweets back in the 50s when I was growing up, but obesity was rare, so I think there's a lot more to it than processed foods. Maybe stressful lives make people want to eat as an outlet. And, most people aren't very active. It's complicated.

Antidepressants do make some people gain weight, but there are plenty of thin people who take them as well. RFKfr. wants to try to blame a few things on obesity without taking many other factors into consideration. As far as taste goes, I find nuts, and vegetables far more tasty compared to junk food. Why is that? I ate all the junk food as a child but lost my taste for it as I grew old. I was underweight through most of my childhood and very active. I've also known people who ate mostly healthy foods who ended up obese. The only time I was a bit overweight was when I ate most of my meals in restaurants, when working full time and too exhausted to cook, or exercise. Once I switch to par time work, cooked most of my meals and started being more active, the weight came off.

There is a lot we don't understand. I live in a small city where it's very common to see people who are enormously overweight. I even exercise with a few women who fit that description, while others are extremely thin. I have a friend who is desperately trying to lose weight. She doesn't eat junk food. She exercises like crazy and doesn't take any medications. Why is she obese, not extremely obese, but well over weight? She's told me that she used to own a dancing school and was not overweight until she sold it. There are just so many factors that impact a person's weight. Plus some people who are overweight are very healthy, while others end up with diabetes and heart disease. We could go on all day and still not totally understand the things that influence weight. Maybe plastic particles that we inject have something to do with it. Has that been researched? I have no idea but might see what I can find later today.

 

[crazyfingers]

My wife and I went down and got the MMR today. I'm sure I got it as a kid and she also but according to the CDC, the early shot wasn't very good and people who got the shot in the 1960's should get a new one. So we got it. I know that right now there is no known measles in Massachusetts but we figure it's a good idea. Who knows. If it does come to Massachusetts there might be a run on the vaccine. Our insurance doesn't cover it. I thought that insurance was supposed to cover what the CDC recommends people get. Oh well. It was $125 each.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

How the anti-vaccine movement weaponized a 6-year-old's measles death

Anti-vaccine influencers see the child’s death as proof — not of the danger of measles, but of their own debunked theories.

www.nbcnews.com

The couple, who are Mennonites, believe their daughter’s death was the will of God. When Children’s Health Defense’s director of programming, Polly Tommey, asked specifically about parents who heard their story and might be “rushing out, panicking,” to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, the parents rebuked the intervention that offered the best chance of preventing their daughter’s death.

Imagine being so stupid that you conflate your own lack of will with the will of a non-existent god.

(Kennedy mentioned in article as head of anti-vaxx group, which is why I linked it here).

 

[crazyfingers]

How the anti-vaccine movement weaponized a 6-year-old's measles death

Anti-vaccine influencers see the child’s death as proof — not of the danger of measles, but of their own debunked theories.

www.nbcnews.com

The couple, who are Mennonites, believe their daughter’s death was the will of God. When Children’s Health Defense’s director of programming, Polly Tommey, asked specifically about parents who heard their story and might be “rushing out, panicking,” to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, the parents rebuked the intervention that offered the best chance of preventing their daughter’s death.

Imagine being so stupid that you conflate your own lack of will with the will of a non-existent god.

(Kennedy mentioned in article as head of anti-vaxx group, which is why I linked it here).

RFK Jr. was/is a major spreader of anti-vax lies.

Children's Health Defense - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Children's Health Defense (CHD) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit activist group mainly known for anti-vaccine misinformation, and which has been called one of the main sources of misinformation on vaccines.[1][2][3][4][5] Founded as World Mercury Project in 2007 by Eric Gladen, it was chaired by lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from 2015 to 2023.[6]

The group has been campaigning against various public health programs, such as vaccination and fluoridation of drinking water.[7] The group has been contributing to vaccine hesitancy in the United States, encouraging citizens and legislators to support anti-vaccine regulations and legislation,[8][9] although arguments against vaccination are contradicted by general scientific consensus.[10][11][12][13]

 

[southernhybrid]

My wife and I went down and got the MMR today. I'm sure I got it as a kid and she also but according to the CDC, the early shot wasn't very good and people who got the shot in the 1960's should get a new one. So we got it. I know that right now there is no known measles in Massachusetts but we figure it's a good idea. Who knows. If it does come to Massachusetts there might be a run on the vaccine. Our insurance doesn't cover it. I thought that insurance was supposed to cover what the CDC recommends people get. Oh well. It was $125 each.

I need to remind my son to get a second MMR. Mr. Sohy doesn't think he ever had the measles, so he took the two MMR vaccines. I had the measles and remember having a high fever and nasty little itchy bumps. Even if it doesn't kill you or give your brain damage, the measles are a nasty infection that should be avoided by vaccinations.

Will of god? That is how my Christian friends see everything. If they pray for someone with cancer and that person dies, it was god's will. If they make an offer on a house and the offer is taken, that was god's will. It's always god's will, regardless if it's something good or bad. Plus they believe that god has preordained when everyone will die. I asked one what was the point of eating healthy food and exercising, if god had already decided when one would die. Crickets. I got crickets for the answer. Sorry for going off topic but I've been hearing this shit a lot lately....

 

[crazyfingers]

My wife and I went down and got the MMR today. I'm sure I got it as a kid and she also but according to the CDC, the early shot wasn't very good and people who got the shot in the 1960's should get a new one. So we got it. I know that right now there is no known measles in Massachusetts but we figure it's a good idea. Who knows. If it does come to Massachusetts there might be a run on the vaccine. Our insurance doesn't cover it. I thought that insurance was supposed to cover what the CDC recommends people get. Oh well. It was $125 each.

I need to remind my son to get a second MMR. Mr. Sohy doesn't think he ever had the measles, so he took the two MMR vaccines. I had the measles and remember having a high fever and nasty little itchy bumps. Even if it doesn't kill you or give your brain damage, the measles are a nasty infection that should be avoided by vaccinations.

Will of god? That is how my Christian friends see everything. If they pray for someone with cancer and that person dies, it was god's will. If they make an offer on a house and the offer is taken, that was god's will. It's always god's will, regardless if it's something good or bad. Plus they believe that god has preordained when everyone will die. I asked one what was the point of eating healthy food and exercising, if god had already decided when one would die. Crickets. I got crickets for the answer. Sorry for going off topic but I've been hearing this shit a lot lately....

When I was a kid I got German measles which I learned is Rubella. I don't recall how old I was. Quite young I'm sure though I do remember my parents telling me to take a cold shower to reduce the itching. Perhaps that means that I had the less effective vaccine or hadn't gotten it yet.

 

[Elixir]

If they pray for someone with cancer and that person dies, it was god's will. If they make an offer on a house and the offer is taken, that was god's will. It's always god's will, regardless if it's something good or bad. Plus they believe that god has preordained when everyone will die.

So they’re hard determinists.
Did you ever ask them why bother?
Why bother with gods and churches and stuff, if your ticket to heaven or hell has already been punched?

 

[southernhybrid]

If they pray for someone with cancer and that person dies, it was god's will. If they make an offer on a house and the offer is taken, that was god's will. It's always god's will, regardless if it's something good or bad. Plus they believe that god has preordained when everyone will die.

So they’re hard determinists.
Did you ever ask them why bother?
Why bother with gods and churches and stuff, if your ticket to heaven or hell has already been punched?

I'm always tempted to say a lot more than I do, but I usually refrain. The one I'm closest to is a precious Black woman who is the same age as I am, and she tries to avoid saying religious things to me most of the time, but my Catholic friend is a bit nuttier than I realized. She's the one that told someone right in front of me that she knew it was god's will to move here, near her family, when the offer she made on her home was accepted. The offer was what the buyer wanted, and I think it was cash so why wouldn't the person take the offer/ Oh wait....it was god's will. What was I thinking? Duh.

Another one gave me back something I bought for her because she is poor and I felt bad for her, when she found out that I don't believe in "the power of prayer". When I asked her how her kidney function was doing the other day because she is one step away from dialysis. She told me she just ate a hamburger because she was praying. People with kidney disease are supposed to be on a low protein diet, so I guess that was a way of telling me to fuck myself as god will cure her late stage kidney disease. Ok. Enough ranting about my Christian friends and frenemies this morning. At least the ones I like best, didn't vote for the felon and they do vent to me about that asshole, so we do have some important things in common.

 

[thebeave]

My wife and I went down and got the MMR today. I'm sure I got it as a kid and she also but according to the CDC, the early shot wasn't very good and people who got the shot in the 1960's should get a new one. So we got it. I know that right now there is no known measles in Massachusetts but we figure it's a good idea. Who knows. If it does come to Massachusetts there might be a run on the vaccine. Our insurance doesn't cover it. I thought that insurance was supposed to cover what the CDC recommends people get. Oh well. It was $125 each.

I need to remind my son to get a second MMR. Mr. Sohy doesn't think he ever had the measles, so he took the two MMR vaccines. I had the measles and remember having a high fever and nasty little itchy bumps. Even if it doesn't kill you or give your brain damage, the measles are a nasty infection that should be avoided by vaccinations.

Will of god? That is how my Christian friends see everything. If they pray for someone with cancer and that person dies, it was god's will. If they make an offer on a house and the offer is taken, that was god's will. It's always god's will, regardless if it's something good or bad. Plus they believe that god has preordained when everyone will die. I asked one what was the point of eating healthy food and exercising, if god had already decided when one would die. Crickets. I got crickets for the answer. Sorry for going off topic but I've been hearing this shit a lot lately....

When I was a kid I got German measles which I learned is Rubella. I don't recall how old I was. Quite young I'm sure though I do remember my parents telling me to take a cold shower to reduce the itching. Perhaps that means that I had the less effective vaccine or hadn't gotten it yet.

I remember my parents telling me to take a cold shower too, but it had nothing to do with measles.

 

[ZiprHead]

My wife and I went down and got the MMR today. I'm sure I got it as a kid and she also but according to the CDC, the early shot wasn't very good and people who got the shot in the 1960's should get a new one. So we got it. I know that right now there is no known measles in Massachusetts but we figure it's a good idea. Who knows. If it does come to Massachusetts there might be a run on the vaccine. Our insurance doesn't cover it. I thought that insurance was supposed to cover what the CDC recommends people get. Oh well. It was $125 each.

I need to remind my son to get a second MMR. Mr. Sohy doesn't think he ever had the measles, so he took the two MMR vaccines. I had the measles and remember having a high fever and nasty little itchy bumps. Even if it doesn't kill you or give your brain damage, the measles are a nasty infection that should be avoided by vaccinations.

Will of god? That is how my Christian friends see everything. If they pray for someone with cancer and that person dies, it was god's will. If they make an offer on a house and the offer is taken, that was god's will. It's always god's will, regardless if it's something good or bad. Plus they believe that god has preordained when everyone will die. I asked one what was the point of eating healthy food and exercising, if god had already decided when one would die. Crickets. I got crickets for the answer. Sorry for going off topic but I've been hearing this shit a lot lately....

Just heard this morning the Mennonite woman whose child died from the measles said the same thing, it was god's will, and she is still telling people to not get the vax.

Religion is a mental illness.

 

[Elixir]

Religion is a mental illness.

Meh. Murkin fundies get programmed to say “god swill” about everything. French people say “c’est la vie” to the same effect.

 

[unapologetic]

RFK Jr. is targeting ultraprocessed foods.

“Do we want to risk our kids getting sicker while we wait for this perfect evidence to emerge?”

I hope he can make some headway on this.

Why? Is there any reason whatsoever to believe that there's a corellation between how much processing a food has, and how healthy it is?

Surely he ahould be targetting ultra unhealthy foods. Processed or not.

(not meaning to pick on you Bilby)
ULTRA processed is misleading. Sheeple are focusing on the amount instead of the processes. It is woo. Too general. We need to pinpoint the process and why. Then tweak the process instead of running from the problem out of paranoia, ignorance, and superstition. Some processes have benefits for the consumer, not just the processor. Learn the difference.
Pasteurization for example. Raw milk is unsafe (not just a short shelf-life). If there is a problem with Pasteurization itself, find out why. and improve it. Help everyone. Maybe cow's milk is less than perfect for humans. Closing the FDA helps no one. The FDA is the answer, not the problem. RFK jr's ignorance is a problem.

Religion is a mental illness.

 

[DBT]

I wonder how many Trump supporters will continue to love him over the next few years.

 

[bilby]

(not meaning to pick on you Bilby)
ULTRA processed is misleading. Sheeple are focusing on the amount instead of the processes. It is woo. Too general. We need to pinpoint the process and why. Then tweak the process instead of running from the problem out of paranoia, ignorance, and superstition. Some processes have benefits for the consumer, not just the processor. Learn the difference.

Well, yes, that's pretty much what I am saying.

"Processed" doesn't imply "bad" or "unhealthy to eat", any more than "unprocessed" implies "good" or "healthy to eat".

Anyone who doesn't believe me, is welcome to eat some unprocessed, 100% natural, wild-grown without pesticides, Belladonna.

Clearly there are some processes used in food preparation that reduce the health benefits of some foods. Cooking and/or peeling vegetables often dramatically lowers their vitamin content, for example. But this is something most people do at home with "fresh" vegetables - even ones they grew themselves "organically", or bought from Whole Foods or similar "organic" produce vendors.

"Processed" isn't really a meaningful word in this context. Just like "organic".

It's all just woo. You might as well decide what to eat by casting your horoscope.

That's not to say that there are not, or cannot, be certain foods that we should avoid (or at least choose only to eat rarely) for the benefit of our health. But the amount of woo in the nutrition field is overwhelming, and mostly nonsense.

Humans are omnivores. We can thrive on an extraordinarily wide range of diets.

Orthorexia Nervosa is a psychiatric illness.

 

[Axulus]

What the actual fuck?

 

[Jarhyn]

What the actual fuck?

I mean what's a Nazi regime without some good old fashioned "Nazi science"?

 

[southernhybrid]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/...e_code=1.7E4.Jnr1.mXcjH4rDLypz&smid=url-share

Gifted article above

The Trump administration on Thursday announced a massive layoff of 10,000 employees at the Health and Human Services Department, as part of a dramatic reorganization designed to bring communications and other functions directly under the purview of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The layoffs, reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, are a drastic reduction in personnel for the health department, which now employs about 82,000 people. Together with previous layoffs, the move will bring the department down to about 62,000, the agency said.

The restructuring will include creating a new division called the Administration for a Healthy America, which Mr. Kennedy said will go by the acronym A.H.A. “We’re going to do more with less,” he said, even as he acknowledged it would be “a painful period for H.H.S.”

The 28 divisions of the health agency will be consolidated into 15 new divisions, according to a statement issued by the department. Mr. Kennedy announced the changes in a YouTube video.

Mr. Kennedy’s department touches the lives of every American. Through its various agencies — including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health — it regulates drugs, monitors food safety, tracks infectious disease and conducts biomedical research.

This idiot is going to Make America Sicker Again! And, it's sickening.

 

[Playball40]

It's true that most doctors usually don't receive much if any education in nutrition, but a lot of nutrition is common sense. I took nutrition as an elective when I received my nursing degree. My ex had a MSN in nutrition, but his diet was horrible, despite always being thin. I agree that a lot of food is addictive, especially sweets, but as I said before, we had all those ultra processed sweets back in the 50s when I was growing up, but obesity was rare, so I think there's a lot more to it than processed foods. Maybe stressful lives make people want to eat as an outlet. And, most people aren't very active. It's complicated.

Antidepressants do make some people gain weight, but there are plenty of thin people who take them as well. RFKfr. wants to try to blame a few things on obesity without taking many other factors into consideration. As far as taste goes, I find nuts, and vegetables far more tasty compared to junk food. Why is that? I ate all the junk food as a child but lost my taste for it as I grew old. I was underweight through most of my childhood and very active. I've also known people who ate mostly healthy foods who ended up obese. The only time I was a bit overweight was when I ate most of my meals in restaurants, when working full time and too exhausted to cook, or exercise. Once I switch to par time work, cooked most of my meals and started being more active, the weight came off.

There is a lot we don't understand. I live in a small city where it's very common to see people who are enormously overweight. I even exercise with a few women who fit that description, while others are extremely thin. I have a friend who is desperately trying to lose weight. She doesn't eat junk food. She exercises like crazy and doesn't take any medications. Why is she obese, not extremely obese, but well over weight? She's told me that she used to own a dancing school and was not overweight until she sold it. There are just so many factors that impact a person's weight. Plus some people who are overweight are very healthy, while others end up with diabetes and heart disease. We could go on all day and still not totally understand the things that influence weight. Maybe plastic particles that we inject have something to do with it. Has that been researched? I have no idea but might see what I can find later today.

And there are PLENTY of average and underweight people that have type II diabetes. Insulin resistance leads to obesity, not the other way around.

 

[KCFlyer]

Antidepressants do make some people gain weight, but there are plenty of thin people who take them as well.

I disagree with RFK on a lot, but back in 2003 my doctor put me on Paxil. I was on them until 2016. I weighed 212 in 2003 and I weighed 270 in 2016. My new doctor told me he hates Paxil so after I came off it I read up on it. Possible side effect was a weight gain of 50 to 60 pounds.