“Americans are being poisoned,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeated throughout his presidential campaign. The environmental lawyer and son of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy linked the nation’s poor diet to shorter lifespans and rising health care costs for chronic diseases.
The average life expectancy in the United States is five years shorter than that in other developed nations. This may be because 50 percent to 70 percent of the American diet is ultra-processed foods—the highest consumption rate in the developed world. Additionally, many food additives and ingredients used in the United States are already restricted or banned in Europe.
