Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pushed the idea that food can prevent and treat disease as part of the Trump administration’s effort to promote “healthy eating,” but his remarks go further than diet as a supportive tool. In recent public appearances, Kennedy said that diet can “cure” schizophrenia and diabetes and help people get rid of bipolar disorder diagnoses, using language that researchers and health advocates say overstates the current state of medical evidence.

On a February podcast episode with comedian Theo Von, Kennedy said: “Food is medicine, and you can heal yourself with a good diet,” according to the Associated Press reporting. The AP said the messaging aligns with “Make America Healthy Again” allies who argue for more attention to the role of diet in health, an idea that some experts support at least in part.

But public health advocates and clinicians said the leap from diet as potentially helpful to diet as a standalone cure is where the comments break from evidence. Kayla Hancock, director of a public health project at Protect Our Care, said the approach is “incredibly careless and irresponsible” in how it talks about health issues, the AP reported.

Theresa Miskimen Rivera, president of the American Psychiatric Association, said the concern is not only scientific accuracy, but practical risk for patients. Rivera warned that hopeful language could lead people to stop treatment. “The concern always is that people can have hope and they might interpret that as, ‘Well, I don’t need medication. I do not need treatment. I just need to follow the diet,’” Rivera said, according to the AP.

Mental health claims: “cured” schizophrenia, “remission” language contested

Kennedy’s psychiatric claims have included references to scientific case work and research on ketogenic diets. In an early February speech at the Tennessee Capitol, Kennedy cited the work of Dr. Christopher Palmer, a Harvard Medical School researcher who in 2019 wrote about two patients with schizophrenia who experienced remission of symptoms after following a high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet, the AP reported.

Kennedy said Palmer had “cured schizophrenia using keto diets.” Palmer disputed that characterization in his comments to the Associated Press, saying that as much as he wished there were cures, “it is important that we use more precise language.” Palmer said he preferred the term “remission,” according to the AP.

During the same period, Kennedy also described diet-related improvements for bipolar disorder. The AP reported that Kennedy referred to studies “where people lose their bipolar diagnosis by changing their diet,” and said there was “a big paper about to come out.” Kennedy’s spokesman, Andrew Nixon, said those comments referred to a “growing body of research,” including an inquiry by the University of California, Los Angeles.

However, the AP reported that the UCLA study is still recruiting patients and would not be completed until March 2027, meaning any publication would come months after the current remarks. Rivera, responding to the broader set of diet-and-mental-health claims, said the evidence is not sufficient for Kennedy’s kind of conclusions. “At this point, it’s premature. We cannot draw definitive conclusions,” Rivera said. She added: “There is not enough evidence to recommend a specific diet or as a standalone, without medication such as antipsychotics or mood stabilizers,” according to the AP.

Palmer said the research into diets such as keto for psychiatric disorders is accelerating. He said there were 20 controlled clinical trials underway using the keto diet for severe mental illness, and that results of two trials are set for publication within the next year, the AP reported. Even with that optimism, Palmer said patients should not stop their medications without medical guidance. “I want to implore patients: Please do not stop your medications on your own,” Palmer said. “Please do not even try a ketogenic diet on your own as a treatment for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder,” according to the AP.

Diabetes debate: some experts say diet can help, others question “cure” framing

Kennedy’s remarks have also drawn scrutiny regarding diabetes. In the AP report, some experts agreed that diet can influence blood sugar and overall outcomes, but they said it is misleading to describe the approach as curing most cases.

For type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune condition, the AP said Dr. Willa Hsueh, an Ohio State University endocrinologist and researcher, said diet alone cannot be the cure. “The secretary is not wrong that it can work,” Hsueh said. “But it’s not common for people to cure themselves … by diet alone,” she said, according to the AP.

Other experts defended Kennedy’s emphasis on the role of diet in type 2 diabetes. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, said a healthy diet could help “most individuals” with type 2 diabetes lower blood sugar levels, reverse symptoms, and potentially stop taking medications for the condition, the AP reported. Mozaffarian said terminology can vary: “Whether you consider that a cure or remission, that’s medical speak, right?” he said.

Mozaffarian also acknowledged limits to how precisely Kennedy described the science. He said there could be “risks” if Kennedy was not “always perfectly precise in the terminology.” Still, he said he welcomed drawing public attention to diet’s role in managing chronic disease. “I’d rather exaggerate and get some attention and action than keep doing what we’re doing, which is have millions of Americans suffering from diet-related diseases,” Mozaffarian said, according to the AP.

Advocacy groups: diet focus welcomed, but warnings about treatment and timing

Supporters of Kennedy’s broader “food as medicine” agenda said nutrition has been underemphasized. Mark Gorton, president of the Kennedy-aligned MAHA Institute, told the AP he was not familiar with all the specific studies Kennedy referenced, but said nutrition has been “an incredibly overlooked area in our medical system for decades.” Gorton argued that, “to the extent that it is possible, we should be prioritizing focusing on diet and getting back to living healthy rather than taking sick people and medicating them forever,” according to the AP.

Mental health advocates who support healthy eating still warned about the danger of overstated claims for people managing schizophrenia. Kody Green, a mental health advocate who has schizophrenia, said he supports diet changes but needs psychiatric medications. Green said Kennedy’s comments could discourage people from seeking care. “For some people, maybe food can help with the issues they have, but schizophrenia is a very serious mental illness,” Green said. “Until further research is done, making claims like that can be really dangerous to people in my community,” the AP reported.

The AP said the dispute reflects a broader issue in public health messaging: experts can agree that diet may play a role in managing disease, but they differ sharply on whether public claims should treat food as a cure, or instead use more precise terms and emphasize clinician-supervised care.