Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has cooked up a new way to teach Americans to eat more healthy.
Kennedy launched “The Real Food Show” that will focus on how to cook healthy, inexpensive meals.
“Thanks to President (Donald) Trump, we flipped the food pyramid and put real food back where it belongs: at the center of the American plate,” Kennedy said in a video he posted Wednesday to YouTube.
“I’m traveling across America, connecting with renowned chefs to show families how to cook delicious, nutritious meals with real ingredients, and all at affordable prices,” Kennedy added. “America, it’s time to eat real food. Let’s get Cooking.”
The first episode aired Thursday on YouTube, with Kennedy and celebrity chef Andrew Gruel preparing crispy salmon cakes with apple, white beans and green salad.
The new dietary guidelines for Americans was unveiled in January that has vegetables, fruits, proteins, dairy and healthy fats at the top of the food pyramid and whole grains at the bottom.
The guidelines also cautioned Americans to avoid “highly processed foods” and refined carbohydrates.
“Diets rich in vegetables and fruits reduce disease risk more effectively than many drugs,” Kennedy said at a White House press briefing. “All grains outperform refined carbohydrates.”
“Added sugars, especially sugar-sweetened beverages, drive metabolic disease, and today, our government declares war on added sugar, highly processed foods loaded with additives, added sugar and excess salt,” he continued.
TheMayo Clinic recommends eating fiber-rich foods such as oats, beans and apples; filling your plate with fruits and vegetables; and eating whole grains instead of refined grain to lower levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, known as “bad” cholesterol.
Kennedy told USA Today his Cooking show will focus on convincing Americans that eating healthier does not cost more.
“When we published the dietary guidelines, there was immediately sort of a good reaction, but also a little trepidation from the public and from critics saying that this food is a lot more expensive than the ultraprocessed food that we’ve been eating,” Kennedy told USA Today. “And that’s not true.”