A new diet — promoted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — has been sweeping the White House. High in meat and low in carbs, there are two key ingredients to the administration’s new meal plan: sauerkraut and sky-high “consultation” fees.
This is according to a new piece from the Wall Street Journal, which reports, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Vice President JD Vance have all embraced the diet, drawn by the promise of slimmer waistlines and glowing skin. They all apparently have determined the health benefits outweigh the slightly sulfurous odors that have been the cause of some domestic friction.”
“Within 30 days I lost 20 pounds,” Kennedy claimed at an event this week. The Health Secretary’s assertion is is outright alarming from a medical perspective as experts from Harvard and the CDC suggest healthy weight loss can be no faster than 1-2 pounds a week.
According to the Journal, “The diet is the brainchild of Dr. Sean O’Mara, who advises his high-profile patients to eat fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi, alongside grass-fed steak — and to abstain from alcohol and sugary food. O’Mara says the diet leads to a reduction in visceral fat, which wraps around organs, as well as a more robust microbiome, which can help with digestion.”
O’Mara’s consultation fees for optimizing the diet — which looks suspiciously similar to other high-meat, low-carbohydrate diets like Atkins or paleo — start at $8,000 and run up to $18,000. For that extra $10,000, O’Mara accompanies clients to the grocery store “to teach them about picking out fermented foods in the back of the refrigerator section, where there is less light that could degrade the nutrients and the living microbes.”
Kennedy has been on the diet for a year, and he credits it with addressing a range of health issues.
“JD Vance is also on the diet and you can see how different he looks,” said Kennedy. According to the Journal, “Vance has stayed committed to the diet, often eating eggs, sauerkraut, pickles, blackberries and raspberries for lunch, and beef or lamb with sauerkraut for dinner. On Air Force Two, he snacks on grass-fed beef jerky, or eats a hamburger with cheese, no bun, and a side of fermented vegetables.”
Writes the post, “The administration officials who adhere to the diet all have different ways of getting in enough fermented foods. Kennedy often travels with a stash of sauerkraut. Lutnick has started to make fermented vegetables at home in lieu of eating store-bought sauerkraut.”
Kennedy’s wife Cheryl Hines has confirmed his tendency to carry around kraut, saying in an interview, “We’ll be in the car, dressed up. I’ll have my little clutch, right? One of my good bags that I only take out every once in a while, because I want to keep them nice. And he’ll hand me a bag of sauerkraut and say, ‘Can you put this in your bag?’ And I’ll say, ‘I actually cannot.’”
