A former environmental lawyer with a history of challenging corporate interests, Kennedy holds fringe views ranging from vaccine scepticism and a mistrust of fluoride in drinking water to a passionate advocacy of drinking raw milk. He believes it is healthier to cook with beef tallow, or rendered fat, than with vegetable oil.

the movement now known as Maha, a tribe of Kennedy-supporting wellness gurus, health podcasters and diet and fitness influencers, many of whom transcend party lines. Some food experts are hopeful that Kennedy’s focus on the links between the American diet and chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes will bring a long-neglected policy area to the top of the political agenda.

"Kennedy has derided the present guidelines as “a 453-page document that looks like it was written by the food processing industry”."

Others are concerned that Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda is being steered not by civil servants or experts, but by an amateur coalition of social media influencers and “Maha moms” whose concerns can stray into the territory of conspiracy theories.

The food industry is coming to grips with the fact that the push for stringent regulation that was once a hallmark of liberal blue states is being embraced in the red ones.

“The soda industry is literally sitting there testifying [to] a legislature that soda is not bad for you. It’s absolutely wild that is still happening,” says Biasiucci.

...From Jordan Peterson, the rightwing psychologist and commentator, and his raw-meat diet advocate daughter, to fitness trainer Jillian Michaels and 18-year-old “citizen scientist” Grace Price...