| |  | The Lead Brief | Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. aims to put his mark on the nation’s food supply. The Trump administration has rolled out a campaign on updated dietary guidelines urging people to eat “real food” rather than highly processed snacks that have been a growing part of people’s diets in the U.S. It’s unclear how far Kennedy will go on regulatory changes to the food industry and what kinds of research the federal government will be using as it tries to make changes to Americans’ diets. → Some of those changes could soon take the spotlight, as Kennedy said on CBS News’ 60 Minutes Sunday, as the secretary said he will address a citizen petition calling for an overhaul on how the federal government treats ultra-processed foods. (More on that below.) While on his nationwide “Take Back Your Health” tour, Kennedy has cited a Harvard University psychiatrist who claimed that he had “cured schizophrenia using keto diets.” My Washington Post newsroom colleague Fenit Nirappil has the story breaking down the claim. Christopher Palmer, the associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School whom Kennedy referenced, has disputed how the secretary described his work. Why it matters: This incident illustrates the stark dissonance between Kennedy’s approach to scientific studies on food and nutrition compared to how he views the science underpinning vaccines. Palmer told Fenit that it’s more accurate to say that a keto diet — a strict regimen that’s high in fats and low in carbs — has helped patients with schizophrenia to be in remission rather than being cured. Schizophrenia is a chronic illness that psychiatrists argue is managed rather than solved. Although there is some preliminary research that has shown potential in using the keto diet to treat severe mental illness, experts argue that there are crucial caveats Kennedy did not offer when talking about it. Large, randomized, controlled trials are considered the gold standard for evidence-based medicine to compare people who receive a particular treatment with those who do not. And there haven’t been any of those types of studies showing that patients with schizophrenia are better off with a keto diet than medication alone. Fenit lays it out clearly: Kennedy and his allies in the anti-vaccine movement often demand large, randomized and controlled trials for vaccines, which scientists have described as unethical for immunization because they withhold proven disease protection from children — and unnecessary because the vaccines have already been extensively studied for safety and efficacy. As health secretary, Kennedy says his decisions are guided by “gold-standard science.” → That brings us to the next chapter in the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to revamp the nation’s food supply. Kennedy said on Sunday that he would respond to a petition from former Food and Drug Administration leader David Kessler to reexamine ingredients used in ultra-processed foods, including high-fructose corn syrup and certain refined flours. These are ingredients used in food and allowed because they’re considered generally recognized as safe, or GRAS. “There is no way for any American to know if a product is safe if it is ultra-processed,” Kennedy said. → Although there are not yet specifics about how the department will act on the petition, Kennedy stopped short of specifically regulating ultra-processed foods as a category. But there could still be changes for food companies. “The devil will be in the details,” lawyers at law and lobbying firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld wrote in a post on Tuesday. “For now, the takeaway is clear: GRAS reform is no longer just a talking point. The conversation has moved squarely into the realm of regulatory action — even if the ultimate shape of that action remains very much a work in progress.” | 
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