60 Minutes Asks Ex-FDA Boss How He Can Trust RFK Jr on Food Additives If ‘You Don’t Trust Him on Vaccines’

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. David Kessler — who took on Big Tobacco in the 1990s — told 60 Minutes on Sunday that he’s an unlikely ally in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s crusade against Big Food’s use of harmful additives.

Kessler told Bill Whitaker that the foods generally referred to as empty calories, “are not just empty. They’re ending up in your liver, and that fat in your liver is gonna migrate into other organs. And it’s the cause of cardiometabolic disease.”

Kessler recently filed a petition demanding the FDA revoke GRAS status for processed refined carbohydrates. GRAS stands for “Generally Recognized as Safe” foods like corn syrup, maltodextrin, xylose, and high-fructose corn syrup.

“And then these ingredients were subjected to industrial processing so that our system can’t handle it,” Kessler said.

Whitaker called out Kennedy’s “credibility” in vowing he’ll use “gold standard science” to review GRAS ingredients, in light of the radical changes he recently made to childhood vaccine schedules.

Whitaker asked Kennedy if he was concerned that his “stance on vaccines might make people reluctant to support” him on ultra-processed foods.

“My stance on vaccines is the same,” Kennedy said. “People should have good science and they should have choice. People who wanna get [childhood] vaccines can get them and they can get them fully insured.”

“The secretary and I, you know, we disagree on a number of issues,” Kessler said. “I mean, in the strongest possible terms, when it comes to vaccines, I disagree. But if he’s willing to take action on these ultra-processed foods, I will be the first to applaud that.”

Whitaker asked, “If you don’t trust him on vaccines, why trust him when it comes to ultra-processed foods?”

“I don’t think it’s a question of trust,” Kessler said. “I mean, this country is ill. I’m a doc. I care about the public health of this country, and if we can make progress on that, let’s do that.”

Watch the clip above via CBS News’s 60 Minutes.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!