Bad diets, too many meds, no exercise: A look inside the latest ‘Make America Healthy Again’ report

Savannah Knott hangs up her backpack for the day on the first day in her second grade classroom at Mary Carrico Catholic School, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025, in Knottsville, Ky. (Greg Eans/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP)

WASHINGTON — A report that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised will improve the health of America’s children does not call on the government to make significant changes to its food or farming policies, according to a draft document obtained by The Associated Press.

The “Make America Healthy Again” strategy report is supposed to be one of Kennedy’s signature achievements as the nation’s health secretary, giving the government a roadmap to help its citizens lose weight, reduce chronic diseases and exercise more. Before coming to Washington, Kennedy had spent much of his career decrying the harms of chemicals sprayed on crops, prescription drugs, ultraprocessed foods, and vaccines.

His coalition, then, has expected him to take bold action as the nation’s top health leader. But a draft of the so-called “MAHA” report, first reported by The New York Times Thursday night, mostly calls on the government to further study chronic diseases, bad air quality, Americans’ diets and prescription drug use.

The report lays out four problem areas – poor diet, chemical exposure, lack of physical activity and overuse of medications -- that are to blame for chronic diseases in the U.S.

The White House has held off on publicly releasing the report, which was submitted to U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday. The latest report is the policy companion to a “MAHA” report released in May, which was found to have several errors in it.

White House spokesman Kush Desai refused to confirm whether the copy obtained by the Associated Press was a final version, though HHS officials have insisted the report has been finalized since Tuesday.

“President Trump pledged to Make America Healthy Again, and the Administration is committed to delivering on that pledge with Gold Standard Science,” Desai said. “Until officially released by the White House and MAHA Commission, however, any documents purporting to be the second MAHA Report should be considered as nothing more than speculative literature.”

Some in the agricultural industry had warily anticipated the report, fearing it would call for bans or investigations into the use of pesticides and herbicides that farmers in the U.S. regularly spray on crops to control weeds and enhance yields. Other farmers were concerned about how the report may target the use of corn syrup, a common sweetener, in American foods. Both products have been a central talking point in Kennedy’s “MAHA” movement, which has attracted a diverse coalition of suburban and rural moms, Trump supporters and liberals concerned about the nation’s food supply.

Instead, the report calls for an “awareness” campaign to raise confidence in pesticides.

Concerns from the agricultural industry waned as the report hit the president’s desk, with one of Kennedy’s closest advisers, Calley Means, calling for MAHA supporters to work with major farm companies on Tuesday.

Means also acknowledged that the “pace of political change” can be frustrating.

“We need to build bridges,” Means said, adding that: “We are not going to win if the soybean farmers and the corn growers are our enemy.”

Means did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. A spokesman for Kennedy also declined to comment.

The report urges the National Institutes of Health – which is facing a 40 per cent cut to its budget under the Trump administration – to undertake several studies on Americans’ health, including research on vaccine injury, autism, air quality, water quality, prescription drugs, and nutrition.

The report also calls for changes to the foods served in schools and hospitals, something that will be hard to deliver with the Trump administration’s funding cuts, said Kari Hamerschlag, the deputy director of the food and agriculture at the nonprofit Friends of the Earth. Earlier this year, the Republican-led administration wiped out US$1 billion set aside that helped food banks and schools procure food directly from local farmers.

“This is not going to transform our food and farming system,” Hamerschlag said. “This is not going to make people healthier. They need to put resources behind their recommendations.”

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Amanda Seitz, The Associated Press