Robert F Kennedy Jr. has received accolades for his criticism of medical and pharmaceutical companies profiting from chronic illnesses such as obesity and diabetes.

In a recently uncovered interview with Dr. Phil, the 71-year-old RFK Jr. strongly condemned pharmaceutical giants for reaping profits by ‘keeping people sick’ at a huge expense to the US taxpayer, rather than promoting healthy lifestyle choices.

He linked his complaint to proposed legislation to make weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy available to around a million obese Americans.

Regarding policy changes under the Biden administration, individuals enrolled in Medicare and low-income individuals enrolled in Medicaid would be able to obtain weight-control medications without charge.

RFK Jr. said he would rather provide people with organic food three times a day than hemorrhage trillions of dollars giving every obese American the expensive shots.

The Republican, who Donald Trump has nominated as his secretary for the US Department of Health, instead said that ‘diabetes is treatable with food, with exercise.’

RFK Jr’s Dr Phil interview was recorded last summer, before he was nominated by Trump. The TV host re-shared the clip this week, prompting an outpouring of support for RFK Jr. and his ‘no-nonsense’ approach to health and well-being. 

Many viewers also expressed their excitement for the next four years if Trump does manage to place Kennedy Jr. at the helm of the Department of Health.

‘There are a series of industries that actually make money from keeping us sick,’ RFK Jr. said in the resurfaced clip. 

‘You would think they want us healthy but they actually make more money if we get sicker. 

‘And of course, with the pharmaceutical companies, if you have a chronic illness then you’re a lifetime patient.’

Addressing the proposed weight loss jab legislation, he added: ‘This drug Ozempic costs $1,500 for a week. 

‘There’s now a bill before Congress that would force the insurance companies, Medicare, to pay for it for every American that’s obese. 

‘That’s 74 percent of our population – that’s going to be $3 trillion a year. 

‘For a tiny fraction of that, you could give every American three meals a day of organic food and diabetes would disappear overnight.’

Official figures and projections conflict with those given by RFK Jr.

Roughly 42 percent of all Americans are overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

This means expanded coverage to Medicare is projected to cost the government around $35 billion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. 

Congress will be scrutinizing the proposed obesity bill in the coming months, and it would only go into effect in 2026 if passed by the Trump administration.  

Several people online expressed strong support for RFK Jr’s approach to the obesity crisis. 

‘I can confirm based on personal experience that he’s 100% correct. Real food. Exercise. Diabetes goes away,’ one person wrote. 

Another added: ‘Crazy right. Start with nutrition and when people eat better – they might just get off the couch and go work out.’

While a third added: ‘He’s right. Processed foods and sedentary lifestyles fuel the diabetes epidemic. Meanwhile, Big Pharma lobbies against policies that promote real health solutions because it threatens their profits.’ 

And another wrote: ‘RFK Jr.’s plan to tackle diabetes with organic food challenges the profit-driven pharmaceutical approach.’

But some pushed back, arguing that RFK Jr’s approach also needs the help of big pharma: ‘While lifestyle changes are important, oversimplifying diabetes treatment is dangerous. 

‘Both prevention AND proper medical care need to be part of the solution – it’s not an either/or situation.’ 

Another said that his research wasn’t nuanced enough: ‘Please please in your remarks distinguish between Diabetes type 1 and Diabetes type 2. 

‘People with Diabetes type 1, by definition have a pancreas that has shut down its insulin production. 

‘No amount of weight loss, dietary and nutritional habits, lifestyle changes can bring back the pancreas’ ability to produce insulin. Insulin is like the key that unlocks the cells in our body so that the nutrients we eat can get into each cell.’ 

RFK Jr. is a longstanding critic of weight-loss drugs. He previously slammed America’s ‘addiction’ to Ozempic as ‘stupid’. 

The firebrand Republican is set to appear before the Senate Finance Committee for the first of two confirmation hearings to become the nation’s next health tsar on Wednesday. 

If confirmed, RFK Jr. would gain control over 18 health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The confirmation hearings are expected to be fiery, as RFK Jr. will be grilled over his controversial views, including spreading falsehoods that vaccines are linked to autism.  

In his latest Dr Phil interview, RFK Jr. went on to compare current healthcare costs in America to those of his uncle John F Kennedy’s presidency in the early 1960s, while referring vaguely to health implications from pesticides and chemicals.

‘We have the highest chronic disease burden of any country in the world and it’s destroying us,’ Donald Trump’s US Department of Health boss said.  

‘It’s $4.3 trillion a year. It’s costing our country five times the military budget. 

‘When my uncle was president, the medical expenditures on chronic disease were zero. Today it’s 95 percent of our healthcare expenditures. 

‘It’s sinking our country, and we’re getting sicker and sicker. We’re paying twice what Europeans do with healthcare with the worst healthcare outcomes in the world. 

‘It’s all because we’re being mass poisoned by processed foods, by pesticides, by chemicals, by pharmaceutical drugs.’ 

Ninety percent of the nation’s $4.5 trillion in annual health care expenditures are for people with chronic and mental health conditions, according to the CDC.