Can RFK. Jr Make America Healthy Again? @RobertKennedyJr/Twitter
Little did I know when I started on my health regime of Flintstones vitamins, a chewable C and two daily doses of Sancerre that I was partaking in a nearly half-trillion-dollar global market, the tentacles of which have now lured Trump-adjacent grifters into its grasp. Turns out the world’s appetite for meat, gasoline and YouTube is nothing compared to its desire for dandelion, milk thistle, and shark cartilage, among other vitamins, supplements, and neutraceuticals.
The President of the United States was himself an early adopter of the vitamins and supplement boondoggle. In 2009, he began selling personalised vitamins through The Trump Network. One deal included a plastic cup with a yellow screw top — the hitch being that prospective buyers of secret elixirs had to submit some urine, a little blood (rather generously, the kit included a bandaid), and a loogi of spittle in order for the analysis to proceed, all for a mere $139.95. Other early Trump vitamin “Essentials” included “Snazzle Snaxxs” for kids and “Supreme Greens”, which unfortunately ended up in a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit for its false claim of curing cancer.
Over the years, grifters of all shapes and sizes have jumped on the vitamin and supplement bandwagon, leveraging a plethora of falsified data to sell tablets, capsules, and powders that are for the most part nothing but gelatin, glucose syrup, and corn starch. It was only natural for MAGA to join the fray. A great many staff in the incoming Trump Administration, and those adjacent, are now hawking vitamins, including Dr Janette Nesheiwat (Trump’s pick for surgeon general), Kash Patel (his pick to lead the FBI), and of course the infamous Dr Oz, (the former talk show host Trump has nominated to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) who has advocated “nooptropics” on his Instagram feed — the so-called “smart drugs” that maximise brain power. Not to mention Oz’s long history of foisting raspberry ketones, forskolin, and saffron extract on the American public.
All this seems to be keeping alt-Right influencers in pocket. The alt-Goop industry has funded the likes of election-denier Kari Lake, 9-11 truther Laura Loomer, and Beauty Myth author turned anti-vaxxer Naomi Wolf. Longstanding Trump ally Dr Ben Carson has been delivering speeches and receiving tens of thousands of dollars for hocking “the most powerful supplement you can take for your health!” And the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has given his imprimatur to “Super Male Vitality Drops” and “Lung Cleanse Plus Spray”. Then there’s the MAGA influencer Dan Bongino, the ex-cop and frequent Infowars and Fox News guest branded by The New York Times a “misinformation superspreader”. His self-avowed purpose of “owning the libs” has impelled him to market “Dream Powder”, available in sea salt, peanut butter, pumpkin spice, and blueberry crumble flavours on his “Shopbeam” website, a product that upon further examination appears to be hot chocolate.
We have met their kind before. Clark Stanley, the self-proclaimed “Rattlesnake King” of America’s Wild West, was humbled when his infamous Snake Oil supplement, supposedly derived from a secret recipe of a Hopi medicine man, turned out to consist of chilli peppers, turpentine, and no viper extract whatsoever.
Lying below the surface is a form of male hysteria. Trump’s administration has come to look like a contest for the manliest man, the clear frontrunner of which is the ubiquitously shirtless nominee to oversee the $1.8 trillion budget of the Department of Health and Human Services. RFK Jr typifies the suspicion of the expert that permeates the MAGA world. Not only has he sworn to Make America Healthy Again by sending people addicted to antidepressants to Government “Wellness Farms”, but he is a great believer in the health benefits of raw milk and testosterone.
The lies of the supplement industry do however rest upon a scrim of historical fact. The father of vitamin therapy was Casimir Funk, who understood that beri-beri, scurvy, rickets, and pellagra were “deficiency disorders” that could be cured by supplements. He took the word “vita” (meaning life) and prefixed it to “amine” (a nitrogen product essential for life) and there was the neologism: vitamin, accepted by the scientific community since 1912. The idea of health in a pill transfixed the Dutch physiologist, Christiaan Eijkman, who won a Nobel Prize for his discovery of a substance in the husk of rice — thereafter known as vitamin B1. Not to be outdone, the chemist Linus Pauling won the Nobel Prize twice before becoming the first vitamin fanatic, insisting on daily doses of vitamin C. And that was just the start, as Pauling declared that ascorbic acid might prolong the lives of cancer patients and help with HIV.
In time, this scientific revolution would be hijacked by quack doctors, sea-moss-gel addicted yogis, and hippy-dippy acupuncturists. The supplement industry was unleashed in all its herbal glory in 1994 thanks to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which saw the FDA at long last bend to the will of supplement manufacturers, trade associations, politicians, and the public at large. From then on, supplements were regulated not as drugs, but as foods. The FDA would no longer be required to check the safety and effectiveness of dietary supplements before they hit the market. Since then, the number of products available has expanded twenty-fold.
In America, the world’s most gut-centric country, where food fads, food taboos, and food fetishes have mesmerised the population ever since the first malnourished Pilgrims clambered off the Mayflower, got down on their knees, and rejoiced that at long last they might detox from the fleshpots of Europe, the horror of unbalanced digestive circulations has been perceived as the greatest threat to our vaunted self-reliance. No wonder, then, that the key to American puissance has long been considered a probiotics of the body politic. As 19th-century philosopher Henry David Thoreau noted in his conclusion to Life Without Principle: “Not only individuals, but States, have thus a confirmed dyspepsia… Why should we not meet, not always as dyspeptics, to tell our bad dreams, but sometimes as eupeptics, to congratulate each other on the ever glorious morning?”
A belief in miracle vitamins and supplements may then be the ultimate expression of American optimism, which explains the vast political appeal of eupepsia, no matter what the cost. It is understandable that we pop pills. The majority of Americans do it, every day.
That said, take care when choosing your panacea. The next time you contemplate a hit of collagen-spiked youth serum, it might be wise to recall the tale of those 19th-century Jesuit missionaries who made their way through the verdant passes of the Himalayas in order to bring Christ to the pagan natives. Their destination came to an end when they discovered a cornucopia of multicoloured powders and hand-fashioned pills in local markets — clearly the secret to health and happiness immortalised in novels such as Lost Horizon. The Mongols consumed these strange supplements as sacred snuff, still others as a rare condiment sprinkled over the barbecued yak, and the missionaries were all in until one of them happened to discover the source: the dried and pulverised excreta of the Grand Lama.
Frederick Kaufman is a contributing editor at Harper’s magazine and a professor of English and Journalism at the College of Staten Island. His next project is a book about the world’s first political reactionary.
FredericKaufman 
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SubscribeSeeing 70-year-old Bobby Kennedy shirtless brought to mind the incongruity of the nominee for health security flaunting a “ripped” chest that came not from exercise but from anabolic steroids. His fitness is as fake as his tan.
TRT is a personal choice and not suitable for everyone, but the benefits of it are well documented and it is not the same as abusing anabolic steroids. Typically anyone who abuses anabolics won’t make 70 years of age.
Good points.
I’m not criticizing Bobby Kennedy for using testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). As you say, that’s his personal choice.
But I do criticize Bobby Kennedy for pretending that his ripped physique comes from exercise. When he posted videos showing his shirtless exercise routine, some noted that his pecs seemed unnatural. Struggling to do 8 pushups, and doing only 115 pounds on an inclined bench press, doesn’t give you pecs like that. Steroids do.
Bobby Kennedy first denied that he took steroids before he finally admitted that he is on TRT. But he still claimed that he did not take steroids, just testosterone that was “bioidentical” to natural testosterone. That’s intentionally misleading. TRT uses anabolic steroids. The only difference is the dose.
I’m 3 years younger than Bobby Kennedy, and I work out a lot. I can do 60 pushups at a time and I usually bench press 175 pounds for 3 sets of 6 (though not inclined). I look fit, but my pecs are far from ripped. No one would suspect me of steroid use.
The doses of steroid used in TRT tend to increase muscle mass, but not to the extent that they give you a ripped look. Bobby Kennedy’s look at his age is characteristic of a higher dose of steroid usage than just TRT.
That Bobby Kennedy lies about this does not surprise me. He lies pathologically, about all kinds of things. He’s charismatic and convincing, but with a pathological liar that is a fault not a virtue.
Carlos, your comment is impeccable (about the pecs), but I would ask that you not start a trend of referring to this person as “Bobby.” There was but one Bobby Kennedy, and he was assassinated in June 1968. Thanks.
TRT or not, it takes a huge amount of consistent effort and eating to look like that at 70. I’m 50 and not on TRT but I have my levels checked annually and I probably will in the future. I want to be a great example for my kids and be able to keep up rather than being old and frail.
I don’t get the hate at RFK. Providing information on vaccines that was previously hidden. Promoting the idea that Americans shouldn’t have to eat the dyes banned in Canada and Europe. Dealing with the skyrocketing rates of diabetes, alz, autism etc that greatly reduce the quality of life and economic situation of millions of Americans.
I think you forgot to post the rest of the article? The part where you actually made a coherent point?
Is this it then? For the next four years we are going have these pathetic, pointless, impotent jabs at everything Maga just so you people can cope? You’re just going to carry on like you always did, spewing bile and holier-than-thou smear pieces? Hoping normal service resumes in 4 years and you can carry on ignoring veterans and your homeless while giving tax payer’s money to illegal immigrants by putting them up in hotels solely due to them being an issue for the Right and thereby presenting you with a chance to champion them and display your superior nature in contrast to the cruel Right-wing anti-immigrant fascists? And sending $50 million in condoms to Palestine with impugnity, wasting trillions in corruption, or pocketing billions being in bed with big pharma (trivial compared to the Maga people selling vitamins I know, but still).
Well I’m glad your focussing only on petty flaws on the Alt-Right (no such thing outside the mind of the Left), and not looking at yourselves and recognizing the dire state of yourselves and your despicable hatred and arrogant belief in your supremacy that has revolted so many.
You’ll be decimated even further next time doing this. So just hang in there till the bitter end, seething and coping and exposing your horrifyingly childish personalities even further, banking on a swing back to the sneering Left that is not going to come for a long time. People are done with your negative hatred and division. You just can’t see it.
Amen.
“And sending $50 million in condoms to Palestine with impunity”
This supposed planned shipment was just a bald lie.
$50 million is a hoax designed to work the rightwing up into a lather of indignation.
Bile, baby, bile!
Unherd, Freddie, whoever is in charge, let me be clear: if you continue this recent trend of trying to turn yourselves into The Guardian 2.0 please remember I can read The Guardian 1.0 for free if I ever get the inclination to self lobotomise.
I subscribed to this website for your willingness to publish contrary information during the covid era censorship, and while your podcasts have remained largely excellent, the rather radical shift to the left of your opinion pieces is deeply disappointing.
Not so.
The point is to publish articles which mightn’t be published in the MSM, irrespective of political stance. This article very clearly meets the original premise of Unherd.
For the record, I’m the last person to be interested in pictures of pumped up males!
This is of a piece with going to the gym is right wing
There are two points which should be clearly separated. Politically, the question is whether the supplements industry is part of the medical-industrial complex or a counterculture against it. Mainstream big pharma tend to wait until people are ill and then spend as much money as possible managing (not curing) their condition. Supplements can (but not always) reduce the chances of getting ill, and so can be of benefit to the individual but might be ruinous to the pharma industry. Thus there is a strong desire by ‘the establishment’ to trash any form of preventative medicine where possible (unless they are commercially lucrative, like statins)
The second point is scientific. We are genetically hunter gatherers who are designed to eat 4000 calories of freshly picked or freshly killed food every day. Thus our need for micronutrients (all the stuff that is not protein, fat or carbs) is huge. It is not a suprise that our modern food is stripped of these nutrients in processing and even fresh food is grown in depleted soil. Deficiencies can be measured in the blood and medics can point to all the metabolic pathways that relay on these nutrients. You cannot methalate (grow new cells) without good vitamin B status, you will have poor immunity without good vitamin D status etc. All this is well established in the peer reviewed literature going back decades. There might be over-selling by some companies but that does NOT negate the scientific facts.
Is that you in the photo Frederick?
“Trump’s administration has come to look like a contest for the manliest man.” Seriously? If a leftist Democrat – not for the Republican Party – would do the same, that person would be praised. But now it is Kenedy, the horror (sarcastically said). The article manages not to mention the Kennedy name. The only reason an article like this gets published is to deal in Trump hate.
So the antivitamin (big Pharma) hit gang are upset about losing their mesmerised audience (hopefully). They certainly tripped over with the last vax lie. Now the gullible medical system finds their obedient patients started asking questions about many aspects of their cult follow the leader.
So what pills did RFK Jr actually take then? his physique is impressive for a 70 plus man, especially given the average physique of most Americans? what harmful substances is he promoting? the article you link to mentions testosterone and raw milk. Neither are particularly bad, just controversial to some. Raw milk can cause illness but ranks way down the list after e.g shellfish and other foods. Testosterone is widely prescribed. Reads like an article determined to sneer at RFK and co.
Did the author just wake up from a snooze begun in the 1970s? The attack on the straw man of snake oil supplements has no place on Unherd. Under what rock has the author been living?
The chronic disease pandemic has proved MSM medicine to be a spectacular failure. And a casual voew of youtube reveals infuencers discussing the latest published clinical studies of the various supplements. Smart affluent well-informed people are driving the huge demand for supplements and alternative medicine. This article espouses an outdated, cartoonish view of the wotld that is boring. Unnherd, we expect more from you.
Supplements? Is that what we’re calling T/S now?