Donald Trump could be ready to launch one of the biggest crackdowns on unhealthy eating in American history.
Despite being the biggest fast-food lover ever elected president, a doctor poised to play a key advisory role in the incoming administration says that won’t stop him from trying to change American diets for the better.
Dr. Aseem Malhotra is a British cardiologist who has appeared in ppodcasts with Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson and has close ties with Robert F Kennedy Junior.
He was a lifelong vaccine advocate but was shunned by the UK’s medical establishment during the pandemic for promoting the controversial claim that mRNA shots were killing scores of young people.
Like RFK Jr, who has been promised a “big role” in government by Trump, Dr Malhotra believes the growing chronic disease epidemic in the United States can be attributed in part to the overconsumption of ultra-processed foods.
He is in talks to advise the White House in the fight against heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States and is fueled by poor diets and obesity.
In an interview with DailyMail.com setting out what health policy could look like if he joins Trump’s team, Dr Malhotra said he would push to treat processed junk food “like the new tobacco”.
He wants to ban hamburgers, pizza and other high-calorie foods in schools and hospitals and impose a “fat tax” on less healthy snacks such as candy and ice cream.
TRUMP’S NEW HEALTH DISRUPTORS: RFK Jr (left) has been promised a “major role” in the new administration and Dr Aseem Malhotra could also be tapped
EYES ON THE FRIES: Trump could launch one of the biggest crackdowns on unhealthy eating in American history, despite being a fast food lover.
He said: ‘There are three simple strategies in public health, we talk about the ‘three A’s’: the goal is availability, acceptability and affordability.
‘When it comes to affordability, taxes have to be imposed, which will increase the price and reduce consumption.
“This would force the food industry to start developing more minimally processed foods and, at the same time, reduce the purchase of those foods.”
Dr. Malhotra, a former UK government adviser, wants to introduce some of the policies that worked in Britain to the United States.
A sugar tax imposed on soft drinks in the United Kingdom in 2018 caused adults to reduce their consumption of added sugar by about two and a half teaspoons per day.
More importantly, the tax also led more than half of all manufacturers to reformulate their drinks to be less sugary in order to avoid the charge.
Dr Malhotra added: “So in terms of availability, we can look at public smoking bans as (an example of tackling junk food).
‘Why do we allow ultra-processed foods to be sold in schools and hospitals?
‘Seventy percent of food in schools is highly processed, it’s incredible. What this does, effectively, is legitimize the acceptability of these foods.
‘I’m not talking about banning it for everyone, people should still be able to get candy, I’m not against that.
“But certain institutions supposedly beneficial to people’s health should not be allowed to sell ultra-processed foods on their premises.”
Dr. Malhotra also supports more radical plans, such as placing cigarette-like warning labels on junk food that warn buyers of possible links to cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and banning all snack food advertising. ultra-processed.
“These products have been linked to many diseases, including heart disease, cancer, etc., and should therefore be avoided,” he added.
“Therefore, I would put warning labels, as with tobacco, and I would also prohibit the advertising of ultra-processed foods.”
CANCELED FIGURES: Malhotra, who was ousted by mainstream medicine during Covid, on Tucker Carlson’s show in 2023 after FOX News fired him
While Trump’s team has declined to officially comment on Dr. Malhotra’s appointment, he is believed to be under consideration for a possible new position as heart disease czar.
Also known as cardiovascular disease, it describes a variety of conditions that affect the heart, including coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, and heart failure.
Together, these killed 680,000 Americans last year, more than the 618,000 lives lost to cancer. Up to 90 percent of heart disease cases can be prevented through diet, exercise and other lifestyle factors, such as smoking and drinking.
But Dr. Malhotra believes the biggest priority is to decouple the American diet from ultra-processed foods (UPF), which account for 60 percent of the average adult’s daily calories.
Drawing parallels with smoking, he said: ‘In the 1970s, almost half of American adults were smokers.
‘Imagine having a conversation back then and trying to imagine a world without smoking, it would have been unthinkable.
“But it can be done.”
However, unlike tobacco, the link between cancer and other health conditions and junk food is not yet definitive.
Federal health advisers have been reviewing how to regulate UPFs amid growing evidence linking them to several diseases and premature death.
Scientific experts tasked with helping create the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030 said the data was too limited to draw firm conclusions.
The difficulty in regulating UPFs is due to the fact that they do not have a recognized definition nor a sufficiently large body of scientific literature that has studied them.
UPFs are generally thought to mean any food with more than five ingredients, but its loose definition means some studies don’t differentiate between junk treats like soda and candy and products considered healthy like bread, protein bars and granola.
And Dr. Malhotra says 2030 is too late to act.
“If Trump really wants to solve this (chronic disease) pandemic, this is what needs to happen (now).”
Although it has taken decades to reduce smoking rates (about one in five American adults currently uses tobacco), Dr. Malhotra says a Trump term would be enough to reverse decades of rising disease rates.
Dr Malhotra told DailyMail.com: “I think we would start to see the impact of this on people’s health very quickly.”
“So I absolutely believe that if these policies are implemented, within a Donald Trump election term, there is a very, very high probability that you will see significant reductions in the rates of type two diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure in the population. ‘
JOE ROGAN: Dr Malhotra on the Joe Rogan experience earlier this year, which came under fire for promoting controversial theories about Covid vaccines
But it’s also unclear how interested Trump would be in backing the radical plans touted by Dr. Malhotra, given his fondness for McDonald’s and Coca Cola.
In the last campaign, the president-elect’s team posted videos of Trump, 78, eating chicken nuggets and drinking soda days before the election.
He also made French fries and served customers at McDonald’s in a hugely viral campaign.
In addition to his radical ideas on the food supply, Dr. Malhotra also wants to “immediately pause or suspend” the rollout of Covid vaccines in the US due to concerns about their side effects, even though studies show that the injections prevented countless deaths from Covid.
Dr. Malhotra supported vaccination for high-risk patients in the early days of the pandemic and appeared on television urging people to get vaccinated.
But he has since linked vaccines to an increase in excess deaths associated with heart disease among young people, a theory described as “extremely marginal.”
Dr. Malhotra notes that he has promoted vaccines his entire career and believes there is enough “uncertainty” behind excess deaths during Covid to question mRNA injections.
However, Covid vaccines are another topic that Trump, who spearheaded production of the Moderna and Pfizer shots, may be reluctant to investigate.
Referring to a segment of Trump’s interview with Joe Rogan, Dr. Malhotra said: “He (Trump) said that if the pharmaceutical industry is found to have been putting profits before people, they need to be held accountable and investigated thoroughly.” .
‘It has woken up, because the real primary duty of this pharmaceutical industry is to put profits before people.
‘But Trump is saying this is not acceptable. As far as I’m concerned, I think he’s very open and willing to change his mind.
Concerns about vaccine skepticism and conspiracy thinking influencing the White House have some members of the scientific community nervous about a new Trump term.
As part of his ‘Make America Healthy Again’, RFK Jr has hinted at demolishing parts of the FDA, removing fluoride from water, and making some childhood vaccines non-mandatory.