LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says President-elect Trump has given him a mandate - to end an epidemic of chronic diseases. NPR's Allison Aubrey tells us it's a tall order.
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: There's no doubt that chronic disease is a leading cause of death and disability. 60% of Americans have at least one, and President-elect Trump says RFK Jr. has a plan to fix this.
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DONALD TRUMP: And he's going to help make America healthy again.
AUBREY: But here's the challenge. Most chronic diseases are caused by risk factors like smoking, lack of physical activity and poor nutrition, and these can be difficult to change. Dr. Dariush Mozaffiaran is a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University in Boston.
DARIUSH MOZAFFARIAN: We're absolutely drowning under a flood of diet-related chronic diseases, including obesity, diabetes and many other metabolic conditions.
AUBREY: Chronic diseases are the leading drivers of health care costs, and RFK Jr. says the goal is to have measurable impacts on reversing diseases within two years. Here's President-elect Trump again.
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TRUMP: And now he's a great guy and he really means it. He wants to do some things, and we're going to let him go to it.
AUBREY: RFK Jr. puts food- and diet-related policy changes at the top of his agenda, getting rid of a host of food additives and dyes and reforming the SNAP food assistance program, formerly known as food stamps. Kennedy says beneficiaries of the program should not be allowed to use their benefits to buy soda or processed foods, and points to the need for change. Dr. Mozaffarian agrees there's plenty of room for innovation in this program.
MOZAFFARIAN: SNAP is one of the biggest handouts to the food industry, including for lots of junk food and unhealthy food. I think it's absolutely critical that states are allowed to innovate and try new approaches and test them.
AUBREY: Mozaffarian's research shows the potential benefit of investing in prevention. For instance, providing people with healthy produce may help improve heart health. He says the U.S. spends nearly $5 trillion on health care each year.
MOZAFFARIAN: And almost half of that is spent by the federal government. And so we need to start leveraging some of that to pay for healthy food, like doctors writing prescriptions for medically tailored meals and groceries and produce.
AUBREY: Though RFK Jr. has controversial views on issues such as vaccines, some other ideas may find broader support. Here's former CDC director Tom Frieden.
TOM FRIEDEN: There are some things that RFK Jr. gets right. We do have a chronic disease crisis in this country. We need to avoid simplistic solutions and stick with the science.
AUBREY: Frieden is now president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. He says turning this epidemic around will take investment and leadership. He points to the importance of holding industries accountable, including the pharmaceutical industry.
FRIEDEN: One thing that he's called for is an end to direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs. The U.S. is one of very few countries that allow that, and it's a bad policy.
AUBREY: But going against the pharmaceutical and the food industry, they're likely to run into fierce opposition.
FRIEDEN: A real litmus test about whether or not they're serious is whether they take on some of the economic interests that are causing our chronic disease epidemic.
AUBREY: And this could be tough. New rules to protect public health may run counter to one of Trump's other campaign goals, which is to eliminate what he calls burdensome regulations. Allison Aubrey, NPR News.
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