You May Call RFK Jr. a Wingnut, But Coca Cola Will Offer an HFCS-free Version of Its Flagship Soda

 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a Trump cabinet member whom progressives love to hate. He's been repeatedly branded as a "wingnut" and a "crackpot,' and his views on vaccines have often been maliciously misrepresented. Senator Elizabeth Warren darkly hinted that he was trying to enrich himself while in public service.

Let's give Bobby a break. Unlike his predecessors, he's called out Americans for our unhealthy eating habits and vowed to make us healthier. As Kennedy has repeatedly said, the U.S. spends more on health care than any nation in the world, yet our country is not the healthiest--far from it.

 Americans have high rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, and these ailments can be traced in significant part to our diet. The corporate food industry laces all kinds of processed food with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) because it is cheap, and it's cheap because our government subsidizes corn production.

Now, thanks partly to Secretary Kennedy, Americans are looking more closely at what they eat and have come to realize that ultra-processed food and high-fructose corn syrup are bad for us. Research has found a link between heavy consumption of HFCS and obesity, diabetes, and liver disease.

 And the corporate food industry is taking notice. Most notably, Coca-Cola announced that it will soon offer a version of its flagship soda containing cane sugar, not HFCS. The corporate giant isn't making the switch because the government forced it to take action. Instead, it's responding to the public's heightened concern about all kinds of food additives--including HFCS. 

Americans' belated interest in the food they're ingesting is partly due to Secretary Kennedy's focus on the nation's diet.  I'm grateful to him for trying to make us healthier and thankful he's in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services.

If that makes me a wingnut, I'm happy to embrace that label.

Image credit: Patrick Fallon via Getty Images 

Americans aren't healthy: Let's give RFK Jr. a chance as HHS Secretary

 My great-grandfather, Jonah Fossey, emigrated from England with his family in the 1880s. He landed in Halifax and died at the age of 96 in Nickerson, Kansas.

Jonah's son, William James Fossey, moved to Oklahoma Territory as a young man. He established a grocery store in Buffalo, Oklahoma, and a cattle-hauling business and died at 92.

James Fossey, my father, grew up in northern Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl years. He joined the Army Air Corps before Pearl Harbor, was captured by the Japanese, and survived the Bataan Death March. Dad died in a VA hospital in 1999 at the age of 81.

I'm 76 years old, have two stents in my arteries, and suffered a debilitating stroke in 2022. A cyst covers the entire right lobe of my thyroid gland, so the ol' thyroid's got to go. I will be fortunate to live as long as my father and have no chance of living into my 90s as my grandfather and great-grandfather did.

Americans aren't living as long as they did just a few years ago; my family is just one example. The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other developed country, yet we don't live as long as the Europeans.

Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. RFK Jr. is fiercely critical of our nation's healthcare system and food industry. Trump haters claim Kennedy is "unhinged." Froma Harrop, a reliable shill for progressive Democrats, recently published an op-ed calling him a weirdo, an idiot, and a fruitcake.

I say let's give RFK Jr. a chance. We are not a healthy nation. One in three American adults is prediabetic, and 40 percent are obese. We gotta do better; we gotta live better.

Speaking of fruitcakes. I ate a lot of fruitcakes as a kid during my family's bleak Christmas celebrations. Is that why a cyst is taking over my thyroid gland?

RFK Jr. Photo credit: Politico.

RFK Jr. needs Secret Service protection. Did his siblings ask President Biden for it?

 Robert F Kennedy Jr. is a serious candidate for president of the United States. So far, he's qualified to be on the ballot in nine states and hopes to be on every state ballot when the presidential election takes place in November.

The Biden administration has repeatedly denied RFK Jr.’s requests for Secret Service protection, which has placed a significant financial strain on his campaign. As a result, Kennedy is compelled to allocate campaign funds to cover his security expenses.

Early this month, six of RFK Jr.’s siblings publicly endorsed Joe Biden for president, even appearing at a Biden campaign event in Philadelphia. “[Biden]has us thriving again, believing again, behaving like good neighbors again,” Kerry Kennedy gushed, while five of RFK Jr.’s siblings smiled approvingly.

Did any of Kennedy's brothers and sisters ask President Biden to provide their brother with Secret Service protection? Did any of Biden’s Kennedy endorsers condition their support on a presidential promise to give their brother the personal security Biden enjoys?

Apparently not. RFK Jr.’s docile relatives performed for Biden’s dog and pony show without demanding Secret Service protection for their courageous brother.  

Perhaps that's understandable. After all, who could imagine a Kennedy being assassinated by political enemies?