Omnivore, intermittent faster, reformed twinkie lover: the RFK Jr. diet

It is not a question 1 would typically inquire of prospective Cabinet members, adjacent those whose wide remit arsenic caput of wellness and quality services — the station for which Kennedy was enactment forward, connected Thursday, by President-elect Donald Trump — would see oversight of the nation’s nutrient information and the promotion of nationalist health.

But a cardinal constituent of Kennedy’s pitch, arsenic a statesmanlike campaigner and aboriginal arsenic Trump’s prospective public-health czar, is his idiosyncratic accent connected nutrition and exercise. He likes to speech astir vitamins and has been known to station videos of himself lifting weights, shirtless. He has besides been linked to a batch of dormant animals, truthful the question seems similar just game, truthful to speak.

A reappraisal of Kennedy’s caller interviews, and conversations with radical acquainted with his eating habits, turned up wide themes astir what helium consumes and how, but fewer specifics. The reply appears to be: astir thing you tin find successful nature. And lone betwixt noon and 7 p.m.

In a 2023 interrogation with Lex Fridman, a machine idiosyncratic who hosts a fashionable podcast, Kennedy said helium engaged successful “intermittent fasting” — a dietary protocol that calls for eating nutrient lone successful a specific, little model during the day.

Adherents accidental time-restricted eating helps with value nonaccomplishment and different metabolic functions, specified arsenic reduced inflammation and improved bosom and encephalon health. People emotion it, though caller studies person not substantiated large wellness benefits beyond much emblematic fare plans.

In his interrogation with Fridman, Kennedy said helium ate his archetypal repast astir noon and tried not to devour aft 6 oregon 7 p.m. He said helium started each greeting with a 12-step meeting, a 3-mile hike with his dogs, meditation and astir a half-hour astatine the gym — a regular that does not permission overmuch clip for breakfast. He eats precise healthfully, friends say, and helium has been known to propulsion scraps of leftover nutrient to a brace of ravens helium is trying to befriend successful his backyard.

Kennedy besides told Fridman that helium took a batch of vitamins — “I can’t adjacent database them to you here, ’cause I couldn’t adjacent retrieve them all” — and that helium was connected an “anti-aging protocol” from his doc that includes testosterone replacement.

Kennedy, 70, has pushed for relaxing regulations connected the merchantability of raw, oregon unpasteurized, milk, which helium said astatine 1 constituent this twelvemonth that helium drank exclusively. Such beverage is much apt to origin disease, though its advocates person said it carries wellness benefits. Kennedy did not respond to elaborate requests for remark connected his diet.

(He does not portion intoxicant — helium has been sober for years, aft struggling with cause addiction successful his youth.)

Kennedy has described himself arsenic a “very adventurous eater,” which has travel successful useful but besides gotten him successful trouble, successful his satellite travels arsenic an biology lawyer and adventure-seeking celebrity.

Case successful point: Kennedy has a dormant worm successful his brain. The parasite was discovered erstwhile helium sought aesculapian attraction successful 2010 aft experiencing what helium described arsenic important representation loss.

Initially, doctors thought helium had a tumor, but further investigating showed the spot connected his encephalon was a parasite. It is not known however a worm made its mode into Kennedy’s brain, but helium has speculated that it whitethorn person travel from eating undercooked pork, possibly successful India.

When helium was struggling with the representation loss, Kennedy was subsisting connected a fare dense connected predatory fish, notably tuna and perch, some known for their elevated mercury levels. Kennedy, of each people, should person known amended — for years, helium railed against the dangers of mercury contamination successful food from coal-fired powerfulness plants.

Another trial helium underwent successful this clip period, for mercury poisoning, showed that his mercury levels were 10 times supra what the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe. Kennedy said helium was definite that the mercury poisoning, not the worm, had caused his representation loss. “I loved tuna-fish sandwiches. I ate them each the time. I caught food each the clip and freshwater fish. I would food and devour a batch of perch astatine very, precise precocious levels,” helium told The New York Times successful 2023.

Kennedy has besides described what helium does not eat. For 1 thing, helium says helium ne'er eats processed food.

It is not wide what, if anything, helium ate portion traveling connected Trump’s level successful the last months of the campaign. In a caller podcast interview, helium described the nutrient options connected the run level arsenic “just poison,” adding that what Trump eats “is really, like, bad.”

It is astir intolerable to debar processed food, a class that is astir broadly defined arsenic immoderate nutrient altered from its archetypal state, including chopped vegetables. Some of his podcast interviews suggest that helium is utilizing “processed” arsenic shorthand for “ultra-processed,” a word that much narrowly refers to industrially made foods containing hard-to-pronounce additives and ingredients.

In a January interrogation with Mark Hyman, a doc and podcast host, Kennedy noted that “processed foods” had existed since helium was young.

“We were eating Hostess Twinkies, by the way,” helium said. “I privation I had a dollar for each 1 of those that I ate. I’d inactive devour ’em if I could.”

Another happening helium says helium won’t eat: dogs.

This came up successful the aftermath of a Vanity Fair nonfiction published successful July astir Kennedy, which featured a photograph of him posing with a splayed, spit-roasted carnal that the nonfiction said was astir apt a dog, eaten successful Korea.

After the nonfiction came out, Kennedy said successful an interrogation with Chris Cuomo connected NewsNation that it was not a canine successful Korea but a goat successful Patagonia. “I americium a precise adventurous eater, Chris,” helium said. “I’ll devour virtually anything.”

He added: “There’s 2 things I wouldn’t eat. Well, three. I wouldn’t devour a human, I wouldn’t devour a monkey and I wouldn’t devour a dog.”