POLITICS: Trump must wage all-out war on obesity to boost US longevity

Brace yourself for a food fight in Congress as President-elect Trump presents his health nominees and lays out plans to combat America’s plummeting life expectancy.

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker rails that “nearly half the population is pre-diabetic or has type-2 diabetes” and “more than 40% of Americans are obese” — but insists that Trump “has no intention of bringing needed change to our food system.”

Such hyperpartisanship is both counterproductive and dumb.

Fortunately, a growing number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle — including such unlikely bedfellows as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and, on the GOP side, the Senate’s newly formed Make America Healthy Again caucus — are looking at new scientific evidence about eating.  

They’re getting ready for a consequential battle against unhealthy food producers and the lackadaisical federal agencies that pander to them.

Not a day too soon. 

Americans’ life expectancy is stagnating. The United States ranks a disappointing 49th in longevity, even lower than Costa Rica and Chile, and is losing ground every year.  

Drug overdoses account for 10 to 18% of these lives cut short, but the biggest culprit is obesity.

For starters, the new administration is promising a disruptive campaign against ultraprocessed foods, which one Trump adviser, cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra, calls “the new tobacco and should be treated that way.”

Ultraprocessed means foods manufactured using synthetic ingredients and additives — think packaged fish sticks instead of plain frozen fish, or potato puffs instead of a baked potato.

These foods actually encourage overeating: Controlled studies show them to increase levels of hormones associated with hunger, making you crave more. A handy feature for their manufacturers.

Perhaps not surprisingly, then, they make up a staggering 60% of the American diet. 

A 2019 study by National Institutes of Health researcher Kevin Hall gave one group of test subjects a diet of ultraprocessed foods and another group a diet of natural foods. 

The ultraprocessed food eaters overate, adding about 500 calories a day, and put on weight, while the natural-foods group lost weight. After two weeks, Hall switched the groups — and again the consumers of processed foods craved more, ate more, and gained weight.

Hall’s results, which have been duplicated by other scientists, are driving the movement to curtail ultraprocessed foods, though the idea is facing stiff resistance from the food industry and its lobbyists. 

Pathetically, the Food and Drug Administration is dithering, claiming more studies need to be done. 

On Dec. 11, an FDA advisory group reported that the agency would not take a stand against ultraprocessed foods.

“This is a pretty uncourageous report,” nutrition researcher Marion Nestle told The Washington Post. In a Senate hearing, Sanders scolded FDA head Robert M. Califf for his inaction.

The incoming Trump administration can disregard the FDA’s timidity and immediately overhaul the “Dietary Guidelines for America,” which are due to be revised in 2025, to align with the science.  

These guidelines will directly impact the food industry: School lunch programs must follow them, for example, and changing them could lead federal food aid programs such as SNAP to stop paying for such items as sugary sodas. 

A shakeup is also needed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has taken a ho-hum attitude toward obesity — saying it’s still “studying what works” for people to “have a healthier diet.” Ridiculous. 

The public health agencies, including the CDC, “don’t want to take responsibility” for obesity and lives cut short, says Dr. Ravi Sawhney, a former NIH researcher who studied Americans’ shortened life expectancy.

Meanwhile, Trump advisers Elon Musk and Mehmet Oz are pushing for wider insurance coverage of semaglutides such as Wegovy and Ozempic, which in Oz’s words do “massive good.”  

Although incoming Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has expressed skepticism, he needs to consider the evidence. 

Recent research published in the journal Current Cardiology Reports confirmed the benefits of semaglutides to prevent cardiovascular, kidney and other metabolic conditions.

In December, the US obesity rate declined for the first time in more than a decade, reflecting the success of semaglutides.

The House will soon vote on the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act, a bipartisan bill to extend semaglutide coverage under Medicare. The big issue is cost.

The Congressional Budget Office and a study by pharmacy benefit manager Prime Therapeutics both found that semaglutides do not save money. 

No surprise there, though: Almost no form of preventive care — including mammograms and lung scans — saves money over the long term. 

The point of preventive care is to save lives. And reducing obesity in the United States will do just that. 

Let the food fight begin.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and co-founder of the Committee to Save Our City.