National Food Museum

More distressing news from Washington. Two small items that might have escaped your attention: * Steak 'n' Shake, in line with one of HHS Secretary RFK Jr.'s counter-health recommendations, announced with much fanfare (including a Fox News appearance by RFK Jr.) that it switched its frying oil to beef tallow. One thing that practically every nutrition expert agrees on is that switching from an unsaturated/polyunsaturated vegetable oil (soybean, canola, olive, etc.) to a more saturated fat like beef tallow increases the risk of heart attack. Make America Healthy Again?! I hope that RFK Jr. doesn't recommend allowing the use of trans fat-laden partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. * An?executive order?issued by the Trump administration on March 14,?calls for?the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the nation’s only federal agency for America’s libraries.?The IMLS is a key source of modest-sized grants for small and rural libraries, among others. The culture war continues! (The nascent National Food Museum has not received any federal grants.) (https://lnkd.in/gEabB5t9)

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RFK Jr. Confirmed as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was confirmed on February 13, 2025, as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. He has taken numerous positions, often unfounded, on a variety of health issues. Trump promised to let Kennedy “go wild on the food,”?but it is unclear what he will be able to accomplish on food and other issues considering expected opposition from the medical community; drug, health-care, food, and agriculture industries; and some Members of Congress. Here is a quick summary of some of his sensible and benighted positions as he stated previously. Note that HHS has only indirect influence over SNAP, school meals, crop subsidies, and pesticides, which are regulated by the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency.

As the research showing that alcoholic drinks cause breast, mouth, and other cancers has accumulated, the Surgeon General has finally recommended that those drinks add “cancer” to the current warning labels. The incoming Trump administration would vigorously support a cancer warning, considering especially that Trump doesn’t drink and HHS-Secretary-designate RFK Jr. is a recovering alcoholic. But the beer, wine, and liquor industries, including manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, will certainly use their tremendous political clout to block legislation. A warning label would help reduce alcohol consumption and the related harms, but an even stronger measure would be to boost federal alcohol tax rates, which have not been raised since 1991. 1. USA Today (freely available): Cancer warning labels on alcohol? It’s not that simple. https://lnkd.in/eE4PvPfT 2. New York Times (subscription required): Surgeon General Calls for Cancer Warnings on Alcohol. https://lnkd.in/eNNuEcnH

RFK Jr., notwithstanding his dangerous positions on vaccines, raw milk, mass shootings, and more has publicized eminently sensible, new food policies. This article authored by National Food Museum founder Dr. Michael F Jacobson (https://lnkd.in/e_UGB6G8) in The Hill, provides a roadmap for the incoming Trump administration if it truly wants to reduce the carnage due to the standard American diet. That diet, loaded with salt and sugar, marketed especially to kids, and pickled in alcoholic drinks, accounts for well over half a million deaths annually. Smart federal policies could greatly reduce that toll.