Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may have finally picked a fight with the wrong crowd. The health secretary—and noted chemtrails believer—is apparently going after America’s coffee and sugary treats shop, Dunkin’ Donuts.
Last week, at an event celebrating the Trump administration’s “Real Food” campaign in Austin, Texas, Kennedy stated that he would push for tighter regulation of the ingredients commonly used in the country’s food supply, particularly additives. He specifically singled out Dunkin’ and Starbucks as companies that will have to prove their menu items aren’t harming children. RFK Jr.’s messaging on food has been mixed, given that he’s also touted the healthiness of barbecued meat during this same campaign.
“We’re going to ask Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, ‘Show us the safety data that show that it’s OK for a teenage girl to drink an iced coffee with 115 grams of sugar in it,’” Kennedy said at the event. “I don’t think they’re gonna be able to do it.”
The GRAS loophole
Kennedy and the Trump White House have made no secret of their desire to make sweeping changes to the country’s food policies.
One particular plank of that agenda has revolved around the Generally Recognized as Safe, or GRAS, rule maintained by the Food and Drug Administration. This rule has preemptively excluded a growing list of ingredients from standard regulations on additives before they’re included in foods and other consumer products. HHS is planning to close the so-called GRAS loophole, which has allowed companies to self-declare that a new ingredient should be considered GRAS without the FDA’s explicit say-so; instead, companies would have to make a case for each potential entry, which would include safety data.
This isn’t a ludicrous idea on the surface. Many food safety experts and lawmakers, on both sides of the political aisle, have called for a reform of the GRAS process, even prior to RFK Jr.’s ascension to health secretary last year. And researchers have highlighted a large list of additives that seem to have gone through little vetting of their safety before ending up on the GRAS list.
The devil is in the details, however. And with Kennedy’s track record and misleading statements on food, there’s reason to doubt we’ll be seeing many commonsense reforms coming down the pipeline.
Healthy barbecue beef
It’s also true that you shouldn’t be making it a habit to drink iced coffee drinks, or really anything, with 115 grams of sugar in it. That said, only a handful of beverages on Dunkin Donuts’ menu seem close to that level (“Frozen coffee” drinks in particular are big offenders). Your typical large iced coffee with whole milk and sugar has 35 grams of sugar, according to the company’s nutrition labeling.
While RFK Jr. is right to warn against eating foods high in sugar, he’s simultaneously celebrated soft drink makers for introducing products made with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup—a completely meaningless distinction that doesn’t make soda any healthier. He’s also chased after other supposedly unhealthy ingredients in food, such as seed oils, despite next to no evidence supporting any harm.
If that isn’t dumb enough, to kick off his campaign last week, Kennedy visited and praised a local barbeque place for serving “real food.” Leaving aside that your typical BBQ restaurant meal is loaded with calories (and sugar, if you add BBQ sauce), grilling meat adds carcinogens, and eating it regularly will raise your cancer risk.
Now to be clear, I absolutely love both BBQ and Dunkin’ Donuts. Ideally, though, we should make it easier for people to only eat these foods in moderation and to promote the adoption and maintenance of healthier diets.
At the end of the day, there are many real issues in how food is prepared and advertised today, and Americans deserve an evidence-based overhaul of the regulations and incentives that govern our food supply. But RFK Jr. and his MAHA allies hardly inspire any confidence in their ability to do so. And it seems plenty of people aren’t too happy with his latest attack on Dunkin’, including, of course, Massachusetts residents.
https://t.co/Kr4qXdOEBI pic.twitter.com/W6jIA3tkMT
— Governor Maura Healey (@MassGovernor) March 4, 2026
