RFK Jr. Reveals Dystopian Reason for Ending Childhood Obesity

The U.S. health secretary’s motivation for ending childhood obesity apparently rests on military recruitment.

Speaking at a Heritage Foundation event Monday morning, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that America’s fat kids need to lose weight so they can go to war, lest we “lose” the country.

“Seventy-seven percent of our children can no longer qualify for military service and most of that is diet-related,” Kennedy said. “We need to change what we’re feeding these children or we’re going to lose our country.”

The Pentagon’s 2020 Qualified Military Available Study found that just 77 percent of young Americans would qualify for service without a medical waiver due to reasons such as obesity, drug use, and mental or physical health disorders. The report noted, however, that just 11 percent of America’s youth would be disqualified from service for obesity. Kennedy appears to have his numbers backwards.

But the U.S. does have a severe obesity problem. Federal administrations dating back to the 1970s have attempted to address it, though seemingly to no avail, as rates are higher than ever: roughly two in every five Americans are obese, according to data from the National Institute of Health. Meanwhile, one in five children are affected by obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For all the political noise Republicans made when former First Lady Michelle Obama decided to tackle childhood obesity rates, Kennedy’s efforts are totally cool with conservatives—even, or perhaps especially, if his end goal is to use children’s bodies for America’s militaristic aims.

Back in September, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made clear that his version of the U.S. military would have no room for “fat troops.” Speaking before hundreds of America’s top military commanders at a mandatory in-person meeting in Quantico, Hegseth unveiled his efforts to de-woke-ify the country’s armed forces, including resetting military combat requirements to the “highest male standard only,” and updating the branches’ height and weight requirements. As such, he not-so-subtly admitted he wanted to force women out of service, as well as Black men by way of a ban on military beard waivers.

But it’s not clear if Kennedy’s MAHA agenda—which was generated by AI—will work. Last month, the health secretary unveiled the outcome of his department’s months-long project to reimagine the food pyramid. The result: an upside-down triangle in which butter, steak, and cheese play a leading role.

Furthermore, a fraction of Americans volunteer for military service, raising questions about whether or not obesity rates actually have an effect on recruitment efforts. Less than one half of one percent of the general public is active duty, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Roughly six percent of the population has ever served in the military, representing some 18 million veterans.