Americans Overwhelmingly Support MAHA, RFK’s Plans To Reform The Food Industry: Americans are Overwhelmingly Behind Major Pillars of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Proposals to Reform the Food Industry as Secretary of HHS; What Americans Think of RFK Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again Agenda

Americans Overwhelmingly Support MAHA, RFK’s Plans To Reform The Food Industry:

Americans are overwhelmingly behind major pillars of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s proposals to reform the food industry as secretary of HHS.

The new movement to “Make America Healthy Again” is incredibly popular.

According to a recent YouGov poll released last week, Americans were three times as likely to hold a favorable opinion of the MAHA movement than they were to hold an either “very” or “somewhat unfavorable” perspective. Branding aside, Americans overwhelmingly favor the major pillars of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s proposals to reform the food industry as secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) even as opinions of Kennedy himself were profoundly polarized.

Majorities of both Republicans and Democrats were united in support of “requiring nutrition education in federally funded medical schools, banning certain food additives, funding research into alternative and holistic approaches to health, increasing restrictions on the use of pesticides in agriculture, and banning processed foods from public school lunches,” according to the poll.

Out of the 1,064 adults surveyed online between Nov. 19-20, respondents were most united on rules to prioritize nutritional education in medical schools, with nearly 8 in 10 who said they supported the proposal. However, as outlined in my new book Fat And Unhappy: How “Body Positivity” Is Killing Us (and How to Save Yourself), U.S. medical programs are already failing to meet the minimum standards for nutrition classes set by the National Academy of Sciences. Just 27 percent of medical schools met the academy’s recommendation of a 25-hour minimum embedded in curriculums, according to a 2010 survey.

Exactly what students are taught about nutrition in medical school meanwhile remains controversial as the public health establishment still promotes the low-fat diet as conventional wisdom. Kennedy, on the other hand, has rightfully condemned the low-fat dogma promoted by the food industry, though the YouGov survey did not go into details about how the potential new HHS secretary might reform nutrition curriculums in higher education. —>READ MORE HERE

What Americans think of RFK Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda:

While many Americans haven’t heard of Make America Healthy Again — a rallying cry for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Donald Trump’s pick as the next Director of Health and Human Services (HHS) — most do find common ground with Kennedy on at least one health or nutrition-related issue, a new survey finds. Public perceptions of Kennedy have become increasingly polarized by political party in the past year. While most Americans expect him to have influence in Trump’s administration, only about half say they want him to, including a large majority of Republicans.

Certain proposals by Kennedy — such as requiring nutrition education in federally-funded medical schools, banning certain food additives, and increasing restrictions on pesticides — are popular, receiving support from majorities of Democrats and Republicans. His plans to lift restrictions on raw milk and to remove fluoride from public drinking water are more divisive. And few Americans — but a sizable share of Republicans — agree with Kennedy’s assertions on the dangers of vaccines.

Health-related government agencies — including the HHS — are viewed positively by most Americans according to the survey, conducted two weeks before the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Public health officials are seen as less trustworthy than are people in certain other medical professions (including nurses, doctors, researchers); but opinions of public health officials are more positive than of health insurance providers or pharmaceutical executives. Support for increased regulation of health-related industries, in general, has grown since before the election.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Make America Healthy Again

When we first asked about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on the Economist/YouGov poll in April 2023, his net favorability — meaning the shares who view him favorably minus the shares who view him favorably — was +20 among Americans, and he was similarly well-liked among Republicans (+19) and Democrats (+17). Since then, opinions of Kennedy have polarized. Far more Republicans now have positive views of Kennedy (+63) than did last year, while most Democrats now say they dislike him (-41). Democrats had already soured on Kennedy by July 2024, before he dropped out of the presidential race. At that point, Republicans were evenly split on Kennedy; after he endorsed Trump in late August, his popularity among Republicans soared.

Most Americans (65%) think Kennedy will have at least some influence within Trump’s administration. Slightly more Republicans (38%) than Democrats (28%) believe he will play a large role. About half of Americans (51%) want Kennedy to have at least a little influence on Trump, including far more Republicans (77%) than Democrats (33%).

Kennedy has said that he wants to make America healthy again, and the mantra has become a catch-all for his proposals aimed at achieving this goal. Just over half of Americans (58%) say they’ve heard something about the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, including 48% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans. Americans are more likely to have a favorable (36%) than unfavorable (11%) view of MAHA. 24% of Democrats favor it while 15% oppose it; among Republicans, 57% favor it and 3% are opposed. —>READ MORE HERE

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