In a recent CBS News interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., currently serving as the health secretary, shared a perspective on health and personal choices. He stated, “If you want to eat doughnuts all day or drink sodas, that’s your choice,” and questioned whether society should be responsible for care when individual choices lead to sickness.
This viewpoint isn’t isolated. At an event in West Virginia, Kennedy criticized the governor’s weight, suggesting public accountability measures like monthly weigh-ins. He also commented on the obesity epidemic, advocating for solutions such as three balanced meals a day while questioning the effectiveness of medical interventions like GLP-1 medications. He remarked that companies behind medications like Ozempic and Wegovy rely on selling these drugs to Americans.
Kennedy’s language revisits an era when obesity was viewed as a lack of willpower rather than a medical condition. This approach contrasts with modern notions of body positivity and health acceptance. For admirers, Kennedy’s stance represents moral clarity. However, many public health officials see this as a return to outdated and harmful stigma.
Historian Allan Brandt from Harvard Medical School observed a resurgence of stigmatizing attitudes that were thought to have improved over the years. The shift from harsh health messaging towards understanding and destigmatization may have led some to perceive compassion as coddling. Issues like food deserts highlight structural problems that challenge narratives of personal responsibility.