Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Maha movement leave their mark on the United States
Some of his positions, such as his anti-vax skepticism, are divisive. But the health minister's fight for healthier food, summed up in the slogan "Making America Healthy Again," resonates with a large number of Americans, according to the Christian Science Monitor. This is particularly true among mothers worried about their children's health.
Recently, while accompanying her mother to a Target grocery run, Aisling Van Dyke's daughter asked her, as usual, to buy one of her favorite products: "Mom, look, there's organic ketchup!"
For someone like Van Dyke, a California campaigner for the “Make America healthy again” (MAHA) movement, weighing the pros and cons of food products like ketchup should soon become easier.
Indeed, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in late April his intention to eliminate all petroleum-based dyes from U.S. food products by 2026. The measure would affect many ketchups, which owe their beautiful red color to the use of dyes.
It was last summer, after supporting Donald Trump, that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. first brought the Maha label to prominence. The rather vague movement launched by the one-time Democratic presidential candidate mobilizes Americans with very different profiles, from advocates of healthier eating to those interested in alternative treatments or wary of medical institutions.
But it's also deeply divisive. Many of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s pronouncements, including his call to remove fluoride from drinking water and to launch new research on the safety and effectiveness of certain vaccines, have alarmed health experts and ordinary citizens alike. His plan to collect medical records for a new, comprehensive study on autism, announced in April, has also drawn sharp criticism.
Larry Gostin, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for National and Global Health Law, believes that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is guilty of a gross ignorance of the facts.
"It is precisely the job of a health minister to sort out good information from bad, valid scientific data from unfounded data; he should not just throw it all on the table and leave people to sort it out," he laments.
Yet people like Aisling Van Dyke prefer to judge for themselves. Along with her sisters, she runs a health and wellness website called “Maha Momma,” which draws inspiration from the policies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
They do research and answer questions that
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