RFK Jr. singles out 4 potential causes of ‘crisis’ impacting nearly half of America’s kids, shocking report shows

( NYPost )

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fingered four potential causes of childhood chronic disease in a bombshell report released Thursday — the first step in the Trump administration’s bid to reverse what it calls a health “crisis” impacting 40% of America’s kids.

The report by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission identified poor diet, environmental chemicals, lack of physical activity and chronic stress, and overmedicalization as likely responsible for persistent maladies — including obesity, autism, cancer, mental health issues and allergies.

The document also called for further investigations of any possible link between vaccines and chronic diseases — saying there has been “limited scientific inquiry” into the issue.

Policy recommendations stemming from the report are due in August of 2025 to President Trump — who called the initial findings “alarming, unbelievable, terrible.”

“Unlike other administrations, we will not be silenced or intimidated by the corporate lobbyists or special interests,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, before suggesting that autism “has to be artificially induced” given the rise in diagnoses from one in 10,000 children by their eighth birthday a few decades ago to one in 31 today.

Poor diet

The report cited “ultra processed foods” (UPFs) as among the most likely causes of the chronic disease crisis.

Currently, the commission wrote, 70% of the diets of American children are made up of high-caloric, low-nutrient foods made up of ingredients that are not naturally found in kitchens — like dyes, flavoring and non-sugar sweeteners — and sold in ready-to-eat packaging.

Other problematic ingredients include engineered ultra-processed grains, sugars and fats, which largely didn’t exist a century ago.

Additives of particular concern include red 40, a commonly used dye associated with behavioral problems in children; Titanium Dioxide, which could lead to DNA damage; Propylabaren, a widely used preservative thought to cause hormonal disruptions; and artificial sweeteners, which have been linked to obesity and metabolic issues, the report states.

UPFs make up 50% of all Americans’ diets, the commission goes on, while making up just 10% to 31% of the intake in countries like Portugal, Italy and France.

The commission argued the US needs to promote natural products made in America.

“Farmers are the backbone of America – and the most innovative and productive in the world,” the commission wrote. “We continue to feed the world as the largest food exporter. The greatest step the United States can take to reverse childhood chronic disease is to put whole foods produced by American farmers and ranchers at the center of healthcare.”

The report also targets government programs like school lunches and food stamps, and notes that other countries provide incentives for consumers to choose nutritious domestic products over UPFs.

Chemicals in the environment

The report also cited unnatural substances in the air, land and sea as potential causes of chronic disease, especially in children — who are described as more likely to come into contact with household dust, put their hands and mouths on contaminated objects and touch floors covered in harmful compounds.

The report stated dangerous chemicals are present in items including heavy metals, pesticides, microplastics, cleaning products and cosmetics, nonstick cookware, and the water system — referring to fluoride.

The report also warned of electromagnetic radiation from technology including mobile phones and laptop computers and cited one study that claimed incidents of microplastics in American brain tissue rose by 50% between 2016 and 2024.

One potential solution to identifying harmful chemicals in the atmosphere could be developed through AI, the commission argued.

“The great challenge of the next decade is for government and industry around the world to understand the impacts of the cumulative chemical exposure that a child faces,” the report read. “This presents an opportunity for American technologic innovation to develop new risk evaluation tools and to promote solutions.”

Farmers, who rely on some of the chemicals cited to grow their crops, should work with the government on making healthy and affordable products, the commission suggested.

Decline in exercise

Children being more sedentary in the digital age also could lead to chronic disease through lack of exercise and limited time outside, the report stated.

A 2020 statement from the American Heart Association found that 60% of 12-to-15-year-olds don’t have healthy cardiovascular fitness, it noted — and more than 70% of children aged 6-17 didn’t meet the recommended 2024 federal requirement for daily exercise.

Children are less likely to play outside, ride their bike to school, engage in physical activity at recess or exercise in general, choosing to spend time on the internet instead.

Increased access to screens — with nearly 50% of teens reporting that they are constantly online — also contributes to mental health issues as well as loneliness, lack of sleep and chronic stress, per the report.

The commission hinted that there should be further inquiry into how online platforms push certain content towards children.

Overmedicalization

The commission also stated that corporate interests and “misaligned” incentives have led to children being overdiagnosed and put on medication when other remedies could be sought — specifically mentioning that the American people deserve to know more about vaccines.

“In recent decades, American children have, as a product of these misaligned incentives, been subject to an unprecedented period of over-prescription driven, in large part, by corporate influence, with demonstrable consequences for their health.”

The report added that “vaccines benefit children by protecting them from infectious diseases. But, as with any medicine, vaccines can have side effects that must be balanced against their benefits. Parents should be fully informed of the benefits and risks of vaccines.”

The report noted that more than half of European countries don’t require childhood vaccination to attend school — while all 50 US states require it with exemptions only for religious or other personal reasons.

“Despite the growth of the childhood vaccine schedule, there has been limited scientific inquiry into the links between vaccines and chronic disease, the impacts of vaccine injury, and conflicts of interest in the development of the vaccine schedule,” the report said.

The side effects of vaccines don’t have to be stated if there is not enough evidence to support the link, the report pointed out before arguing it is currently difficult to question vaccines due to mandates and efforts to curb vaccine hesitancy.

Specifically, the commission criticized the American Medical Association for adopting a new policy condemning health disinformation, which they said “silences critical discussion” about vaccines.

One in five US children are reported to take prescription medications, including for ADHD, antidepressants, antibiotics and more.

The report slammed the overprescription of such drugs without a full examination of environmental factors first.

The MAHA Commission was established by Trump via executive order in February. It is headed by Kennedy and includes Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, among others.

The next steps listed at the conclusion of the report suggested the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration “build systems monitoring of pediatric drugs,” expand autism data records, create a task force to apply AI to early detection datasets, and create a national lifestyle initiative that creates randomized trials with limited health interventions.

“We will not stop until we defeat the chronic disease epidemic in America,” Trump said. “In some cases, it won’t be nice or it won’t be pretty, but we have to do it.”