RFK Jr. stumps in Phoenix for health legislation, including banning soda through SNAP

PHOENIX — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was in Phoenix on Tuesday to thank Arizona legislators for bills that align with his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.

The two bills he was advocating for — HB2164 and HB2165 — will soon land on Gov. Katie Hobbs’ desk.

The first restricts schools that use federal funding for meal programs “from serving, selling or allowing a third party to sell ultraprocessed food on the school campus during the normal school day.”

The second would require the Arizona Department of Economic Security Director to request a waiver from the USDA “to exclude soda from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).”

What did RFK Jr. say in Arizona about health bills?

Kennedy connected an epidemic of processed foods to how he recalled tobacco manufacturers became food manufacturers in the late-20th century and again sought to make their product “more attractive and more addictive.”

“Our food used to be nutrient-dense. Today, it’s nutrient-barren,” Kennedy said at the state Capitol on Tuesday. “And your body craves it, it’s looking for the nutrients which it associates with those tastes. And that’s why your body remains hungry all the time.”

He said it has led to widespread obesity as well as chronic illnesses, such as his son’s chronic eczema.

Kennedy told an anecdote about how the son had outbreaks anytime he consumed carbohydrates such as pasta or bread at home. Then, when he went off to college in Italy, he would have “spaghetti three times a day, he never had an outbreak.”

The secretary then connected the processed foods with the unhealthy drinks being bought on SNAP and being paid for by taxpayers.

“If you want a Coke, God bless you, go get one. But the taxpayer should not be paying for that in a nutrition program,” Kennedy said. “There are no nutrients in that soda. None. And why are we paying for that? We’re going to pay for that twice. … Now and then we’re going to pay for it with the diabetes bills later on.”

He also thanked President Donald Trump, who he says allowed him to live his dream of “fighting to make America healthy again and doing that effectively.”

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Balin Overstolz-McNair contributed to this story.

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