Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a stunning 68-page report Thursday — the biggest “Make America Healthy Again” initiative yet.
RFK, Jr. and his team named four major factors of fueling the chronic disease epidemic affecting 40 percent of American children.
The Make America Healthy Again Commission identified poor diet, environmental chemical exposure, lack of physical activity, and over medication as the primary drivers behind skyrocketing rates of obesity, autism, cancer, mental health issues, and allergies in children.
“We now have the most obese, depressed, disabled, medicated population in the history of the world, and we cannot keep going down the same road,” Food and Drug Commissioner Marty Makary said during a Thursday media call.
The report delivers alarming statistics about American children’s health. Teenage depression nearly doubled from 2009 to 2019, one in 31 children are now diagnosed with autism by age 8, and childhood cancer has spiked 40 percent since 1975. More than one in five children over age 6 are considered obese.
President Donald Trump called the findings “alarming, unbelievable, terrible” and suggested autism rates “have to be artificially induced” given the dramatic increase from one in 10,000 children decades ago to current levels.
“Unlike other administrations, we will not be silenced or intimidated by the corporate lobbyists or special interests,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
The commission found that 70 percent of children’s calories now come from ultra-processed foods loaded with artificial dyes, chemical additives, and preservatives that didn’t exist a century ago. These foods make up 50 percent of all Americans’ diets compared to just 10 to 31 percent in countries like Portugal, Italy, and France.
Specific additives flagged include Red 40, linked to behavioral problems in children; Titanium Dioxide, which could cause DNA damage; and artificial sweeteners associated with obesity and metabolic issues.
“American children are highly medicated — and it’s not working,” the report states, citing explosive increases in pharmaceutical prescriptions. Antidepressant prescriptions for children increased 1,400 percent between 1987 and 2014, while ADHD medication prescriptions jumped 250 percent from 2006 to 2016.
The United States prescribes ADHD medications 2.5 times more than Britain and 19 times more than Japan, despite scientific evidence showing these prescriptions don’t improve long-term outcomes.
Environmental chemical exposure represents another major concern, with children particularly vulnerable to household dust, contaminated objects, and harmful compounds on floors. The report warns about heavy metals, pesticides, microplastics, and fluoride in water systems.
A 2025 study found microplastics in American brain tissue increased 50 percent between 2016 and 2024. The commission also raised concerns about electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones and laptops.
On fluoride specifically, the report noted that more than 60 percent of Americans consume fluoridated water, and cited studies showing associations between high fluoride exposure and reduced IQ levels in children.
Physical inactivity compounds the health crisis, with 60 percent of 12-to-15-year-olds lacking healthy cardiovascular fitness and over 70 percent of children aged 6-17 failing to meet federal exercise requirements. Nearly 50 percent of teens report being constantly online.
The commission also questioned current vaccine schedules and safety protocols for children. The report noted that more than half of European countries don’t require childhood vaccination for school attendance, while all 50 U.S. states mandate vaccines with limited exemptions.
“Despite the growth of the childhood vaccine schedule, there has been limited scientific inquiry into the links between vaccines and chronic disease, the impacts of vaccine injury, and conflicts of interest in the development of the vaccine schedule,” the report stated.
The health crisis carries national security implications, with roughly 75 percent of American youth aged 17-24 disqualified from military service due to obesity, asthma, allergies, autoimmune diseases, or behavioral disorders.
Despite spending double per capita on healthcare compared to similar developed nations, the United States ranks last in life expectancy among high-income countries and has higher rates of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya warned that today’s children will live shorter lives than their parents.
“For me as a parent, that is absolutely shocking,” he said during the media call.
The commission plans to release policy recommendations in 100 days, with specific proposals due August 30. Next steps include building systems to monitor pediatric drug prescriptions, expanding autism data collection, creating an AI task force for early disease detection, and launching a national lifestyle initiative.
Kennedy emphasized that environmental policy, economic policy, and public health policy are “100 percent aligned,” arguing that weak economies contribute to poor health outcomes.
“We will not stop until we defeat the chronic disease epidemic in America,” Trump declared. “In some cases, it won’t be nice or it won’t be pretty, but we have to do it.”
The commission includes Kennedy as chairman alongside Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, and other top administration officials.