Bobby Kennedy, Jr. is right: Carbs are killing us

Alan Joseph Bauer | Jun 03, 2026 | Townhall

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Our food is poisoning us.

It would seem that all of Donald Trump’s Cabinet appointments are unique and qualified. Each seems to have command of his responsibilities, and, as such, the president can let them take care of their business, freeing him to run the whole operation. Whether it be Scott Bessent, Pete Hegseth, or Marco Rubio, each seems to be on top of his department and his national and international activities.

Bobby Kennedy, Jr. is quite a unique fellow. The son of the late attorney general and senator, he is the scion of America’s most famous political dynasty. Yet, the Democratic Party pushed him out with both hands when he had the temerity to run against a wooden president and then went further by joining forces with Donald Trump. He was denied Secret Service protection, in spite of his family’s painful history of assassinations. He was denounced by other Kennedy family members for the chutzpah of speaking his mind. When he was appointed to run the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), he was described as lacking in qualifications. Just as some clowns said that Pete Hegseth was not a Raytheon board member and thus the wrong man to run the Pentagon, environmental lawyer Kennedy was chided for not being a doctor or a habitual medical administrator. It is a good thing that Donald Trump knows how to pick winners and he sticks by his people as long as they are willing to fight.

Kennedy definitely has some non-traditional ideas, but in my limited experience, I have found that he brings the receipts. I read part of his indictment of Tony Fauci, and every claim he brought was well-referenced. Bobby Kennedy, Jr. is on a mission to make Americans healthier, and his efforts are needed desperately today. While spending more per capita than any other country, America cannot boast the healthiest population in the world. Americans tend to be overweight and suffer from many associated illnesses, including heart disease, diabetes, and possibly certain types of cancer. Kennedy wants Americans healthier, via our food and with additional exercise. He apparently holds to a “carnivore diet” and works out seriously.

While many people have concluded that we were heavily hoodwinked with regard to COVID, the pandemic was not the first time medical/health officials led us astray. As to the 2019 virus, we were misled as to the place of virus origin, its being engineered, its overstated level of danger, and the efficacy of spacing, masks, and experimental mRNA vaccines. I actually don’t remember anything that they told us that was true. Being hooked up to a respirator or being given Fauci-approved Remdesivir was a near-death sentence. Other drugs that showed some level of efficacy in halting the virus were pulled from the shelves so as to justify the multi-billion-dollar rollout of the mRNA vaccines. More people were injured and died from these jabs than from all other vaccines combined—by a huge factor. But again, COVID is only the most recent deception sold to us by people in white lab coats and their supposedly distinguished administrators.

It seemed that most Americans back in the 1970s were thin. It didn’t matter if they ate butter, bacon, ice cream, and red meat. Americans were thin. Then came the official “Food Pyramid,” and we were told that grains were the base—the most important food group was based on carbohydrates (carbs). Carbs are complex sugars. There are several sugars we encounter on a daily basis. Free glucose can be found in many sweets. Carbs are generally associated with flour-based products as well as rice, potatoes, and the like. Glucose is the body’s equivalent of the U.S. dollar. Most sugars are converted to glucose, which is then broken down via glycolysis and the Krebs Cycle for energy production. I worked on an enzyme in college that stood at a critical point in glucose breakdown: if the body needed energy, the glucose products were directed toward energy production. If the body did not, those same chemicals were directed toward fat production and storage. After the Pyramid came out, Americans began to become supersized – 64-oz sweet, fizzy drinks with a day’s worth of calories did not help the situation. Clothing sizes kept growing until they ran out of space for XXXXXL on the tags. Americans were getting bigger and not necessarily healthier.

A good rule of thumb in human affairs is that nobody does anything until he believes that he has to. Now everyone has his own definition of when the time comes to do something. I like to get to the airport early. My first question when checking in is whether they have finished painting the plane. Others like to get to the airport so that they get on the plane a second before closing the door and push back. People don’t like to diet because the first three letters of the word are D-I-E. Most people diet when they have a specific need: to get into a specific piece of clothing, say for a wedding, or look good for a class reunion. People tend to lose weight when they have to. Otherwise, why bother?

When I had a pinched nerve in my back, I was told that I needed to lose weight. I had read a lot about “Keto,” which focuses mostly on fats and protein, with a low dose of carbs. I found the Keto Pyramid seemed to include the most number of things that I liked and used that as my starting point. Breakfast became protein in the form of tuna or eggs with vegetables and olives or avocado. Lunch was a good four hours away and included cottage cheese and nuts, with 85 percent chocolate, which is keto-friendly but competes in taste with the sole of my shoe. Dinner was the hardest, as there always seemed to be rice or potatoes with meat or chicken. Anything that wasn’t Keto-friendly was okay, but I tried to keep it in low amounts. I also tried to get 12-13 hours between dinner and breakfast. I avoided, for the most part, free sugar, carbs, and highly processed foods, which seem to cause inflammation in many people. When I went down 25 pounds, I took a 10-kilogram (22 pounds) weight and schlepped it around the weight room: this is what you have been dragging up stairs and around town for all these years. Four inches came off the waist, and many pants were given away, while others, long forgotten, were called back up to the majors.

I don’t see the process as a diet but rather as a lifestyle change. Weight goes down slowly, but as long as it keeps going down and my back feels fantastic, then I am glad and grateful. I enjoy the food I eat and leave some wiggle room, especially on the Sabbath when there are always delicious treats on the table. Our food is poisoning us, with carbs and highly processed foods leading the way. There are those who can eat anything and remain slim and healthy. Many others are expanding like balloons, and the extra weight is no favor for our hearts, backs, and knees. Getting old in good health is the grand slam.

Bobby Kennedy sometimes sounds like he is from outer space, but he is right that our food often contains chemicals or is prepared in a manner that is not good for our health. Various companies and industries have responded by trying to make their products MAHA acceptable. I never really tried to limit my eating beyond kosher restrictions until my back was screaming. I wish that I had done it earlier, but I’m glad that I finally made the switch.

Dr. Alan Joseph Bauer was born and raised in Chicago. After receiving a Bachelor in Biochemistry from Harvard and a Ph.D. in the same from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he took a Fulbright Fellowship to Israel. Bauer lives with his family in Jerusalem and is the Chief Scientist of a local technology company.