The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) on May 9 said that they’re launching a new nutrition program that will help further the agenda of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The research initiative “will serve as a key element in fulfilling [Kennedy’s] commitment to Make America Healthy Again,” the agencies said in a statement.
Under the initiative, dubbed the nutrition regulatory science program, the agencies are going to carry out research that will answer questions such as how and why ultra-processed foods harm people’s health.
Officials also say they will look at how food additives affect human metabolism and the role of diet on health issues, such as autoimmune diseases, over one’s lifespan.
The answers “will enable effective policy development and help promote the radical transparency Americans deserve about the foods they are eating and how those foods can impact their health,” the agencies said.
Kennedy has said that one of his top priorities is removing “bad ingredients” from food and has repeatedly expressed concern about chronic diseases such as diabetes, particularly among children. More than four in 10 children have at least one chronic health condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The FDA previously banned several artificial dyes and says it is working with companies to remove others that the agency still allows to be added to foods and drinks. More recently, regulators approved new additives derived from natural sources.
Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA’s commissioner, said in a statement that “the FDA is focusing resources on the greatest contributors to the staggering health care crisis: chronic diseases.”
The nutrition program mirrors a joint FDA–NIH program that has conducted research on tobacco, officials said.
FDA staffers will offer expertise on regulation while the NIH will “provide the infrastructure for the solicitation, review and management of scientific research,” according to the agencies.
The researchers who will be involved have not been identified, but officials said the program will feature research that is free from conflicts of interest.
“Nutrition has always been a priority at NIH,“ Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the NIH, said in a statement. ”By teaming up with the FDA, we’re taking a major step toward answering big questions about how food affects health—and turning that science into smarter, more effective policy. It’s time to tackle the chronic disease crisis head-on. That’s why NIH is making this investment alongside the FDA.”
