SALINAS, CA — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy is wrong to raise unfounded skepticism about vaccines in a way that scares off people from taking them.
Yet Kennedy is right to talk so much about promoting public health and ensuing food safety, and to constantly bring those issues to the forefront of our national conversation.
As part of the administration’s new Make America Healthy Again initiative, the DHHS recently put out a report on a number of chronic diseases affecting our children. Many of those diseases are either caused — or made worse — by what our kids are putting into their mouths and into their bodies.
In an interview last month with CNN’s Kaitlin Collins, Kennedy brought up the effect that certain kinds of food are having on our health and the health of our family members.
“| think we’ve all agreed that processed food is not a good thing for human health, and that we':re driving a diabetes epidemic.” he said. “When | was a kid, the average pediatrician at that time saw one case of juvenile diabetes in his lifetime, over a 40-, 50-year career. Today, 38 percent of teens are diabetic or pre-diabetic.”“| think we’ve all agreed that processed food is not a good thing for human health, and that we':re driving a diabetes epidemic.” he said. “When | was a kid, the average pediatrician at that time saw one case of juvenile diabetes in his lifetime, over a 40-, 50-year career. Today, 38 percent of teens are diabetic or pre-diabetic.”
We need to listen. Over the decades, our leaders haven’t done enough to make our food safe. By now, we should have removed harmful chemicals and dyes, and gotten rid of ultra-processed foods that have helped fueled a surge in diabetes in both adults and children.
Health care providers who work with the Latino immigrant community in the United States need to pay particularly close attention to the issues of nutrition and food safety. And they need to make sure their patients make good choices. Otherwise, that hardworking community will continue to pay the price for our failure to keep America healthy.
Maximiliano Cuevas, MD is the CEO of Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas, a collective of non-profit community health care centers that serve patients in Monterey County.