by Sharon Rondeau
(Jan. 7, 2026) — On Wednesday the White House press briefing began at approximately 11:20 a.m., nearly two hours earlier than the customary 1:00 p.m., and featured remarks from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins outlining new federal dietary guidelines aimed at reducing chronic illness and concomitant rising healthcare costs.
Rollins said America’s farmers can deliver the change Americans need in their diets to consume more protein, whole grains as opposed to refined grains, “healthy fats,” and fresh fruits and vegetables. “Eat whole foods” is the administration’s message to Americans, she said.
It is projected that lower rates of obesity, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said following Rollins’s remarks, will lower healthcare costs significantly and enable healthier Americans to work longer if they wish and enjoy a better quality of life.
Kennedy echoed Rollins’s recommendation, contrasting whole foods with refined and “ultra-processed” foods which he said is making Americans sick.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary emphasized that “40%” of America’s children have a “chronic health problem” which can be addressed by an improved diet. He also decried the demonization of certain fats by the U.S. public-health complex over many decades.
“This is a historic day in America,” Makary finished his commentary.
At 11:47 a.m., Kennedy answered a journalist’s question about the newly-updated vaccine recommendations issued by the CDC Monday reducing the number of diseases for which vaccines are recommended for healthy children from 16 to 11.
Some disease vaccines are administered multiple times throughout childhood and adolescence, and traditionally, some shots are given in groups such as the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine. Most states issue their requirements for school attendance based on the CDC’s recommendations.
Oz responded to a reporter’s question about alcohol, recommending its consumption only in “small amounts.” He said the longtime recommendation of “two glasses for men, one for women” “was not based on real data.”
The new dietary recommendations will be implemented in federal prisons, Rollins said, Veterans Administration hospitals, in school lunches and neighborhood grocery stores in the form of an increased stock of “healthy” foods.
Kennedy said HHS is developing an “education and information program” in response to a question as to whether eating fresh foods is less or more expensive than the typical processed-food American diet.
A question about the quantity of fat Americans should consume led Makary to say “10%” of a child or adult’s diet should consist of healthy fat gleaned from items such as whole milk.
At 11:57, Leavitt quickly explained that former HUD Secretary and groundbreaking neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson was present as a result of his current role of national dietary advisor, more formally known as “National Advisor for Nutrition, Health, and Housing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).”
Carson did not speak, and the health team filed out.
As the briefing was the first since the January 2 apprehending of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro by U.S. military forces and intelligence personnel under a 2020 warrant for “narco-terrorism, corruption, drug trafficking and other criminal charges,” reporters immediately questioned Leavitt on how the administration will proceed in that country.