RFK Jr. Backs Controversial Meal Service for Medicare and Medicaid Recipients — Are They Really Healthy?

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently praised Mom's Meals, a company delivering $7 meals directly to the homes of Medicaid and Medicare enrollees.

Kennedy expressed gratitude for the taxpayer-funded meals, which he claims contain "without additives" and cater to sick or elderly Americans. The menu features items like chicken bacon ranch pasta and French toast sticks with fruit or ham patties.

"This is really one of the solutions for making our country healthy again," Kennedy stated in a video shared on his official account after touring the company's facility in Oklahoma.

However, an Associated Press review reveals a troubling contradiction. Despite Kennedy's enthusiasm, Mom's Meals offers heat-and-eat options laden with ultraprocessed ingredients, the very type of food he typically criticizes.

Marion Nestle, a nutritionist and food policy expert at New York University, reviewed the menu and pointed out the meals' chemical additives, which make them nearly impossible to replicate at home. Nestle indicated that many of these meals are high in sodium, while others contain excessive sugar or saturated fats.

"It is perfectly possible to make meals like this with real foods and no ultra-processing additives but every one of the meals I looked at is loaded with such additives," Nestle explained. "What's so sad is that they don't have to be this way. Other companies are able to produce much better products, but of course they cost more."

Notably, while Kennedy has pressured companies to eliminate artificial dyes from their products, Mom's Meals does typically not contain these petroleum-based additives.

Teresa Roof, a company spokesperson, asserted in an email that the meals "do not include ingredients that are commonly found in ultra-processed foods" like synthetic food dyes and high fructose corn syrup. However, she did not address the presence of other additives that classify the meals as ultraprocessed.

Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, defended the meals, labeling them a "healthy alternative" to what consumers typically find in grocery stores.

Mom's Meals stands among several U.S. companies providing "medically tailored" meals to those with specific health concerns through Medicaid funding. This service extends to patients recently discharged from hospitals, as well as individuals diagnosed with serious conditions like cancer or diabetes, and select older Americans enrolled in certain Medicare plans.

The cost of providing these meals through federal programs remains ambiguous. An investigation by STAT news last year suggested that some states spent millions on "dietitian approved" meals marketed as healthy, yet many of these options were high in salt, sugar, or fat, thus failing to promote healthier eating habits.

The definition of ultraprocessed foods can be complex. While most U.S. foods undergo some form of processing, the most processed items are those created with industrial methods using ingredients that cannot be replicated at home.

Kennedy, who advocates for healthier diets as part of his "Make America Healthy Again" initiative, has successfully rallied a diverse coalition of supporters, including Trump loyalists and suburban moms, dubbed "MAHA." In a social media post, he lambasted the prevalence of ultraprocessed foods in American diets and urged the public to make healthier choices.

"This country has lost the most basic of all freedoms — the freedom that comes from being healthy," Kennedy said.