Big Wellness and Corruption

Before taking office, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed to avoid conflicts of interest in U.S. health policymaking, and said food companies and drugmakers exerted too much influence.

Kennedy has surrounded himself with MAHA activists and entrepreneurs touting alternative health approaches that stand to benefit from his rhetoric, changes in policy, and being publicly linked with the top public-health official.

When Kennedy announced at the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters last month that the agency would work with food companies to strip some artificial food dyes from the American diet, he was joined by Vani Hari, an activist known as the Food Babe who co-founded Truvani, a company that makes plant-based protein powders, snack bars and supplements. Target started selling some of her products in April. Hari is “an extraordinary leader,” Kennedy said after her remarks. Also speaking was Dr. Mark Hyman, an author of nutrition books and the co-founder of a membership-based health program called Function Health. Hyman has been a “friend and partner on these issues for 20 years,” Kennedy said, adding that his “The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet” was “a very good book.”

In March, Kennedy and other cabinet officials filmed a video with so-called MAHA moms, including Hari, in which they stumbled while reading the scientific names of ingredients listed on packaged foods. One such word, “riboflavin,” is vitamin B2, which helps the body break down carbohydrates and protein. The video was posted on the official White House X account.

Today’s $2 trillion US market represents nearly one-third (32%) of the entire global wellness economy, with American consumers spending more than $6,000 per person annually on wellness.