The real MAHA

RFK Jr isn’t exactly wrong about how Americans need to improve their diets. But vilifying ultraprocessed foods and food dyes won’t do it. The actual problem is that most Americans get too many of their calories from fat, sugar and red meat, when they should get most of their calories from fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and fish.

This isn’t just about obesity and type 2 diabetes. 15-25% Americans carry the APOE4 haplotype, which confers an elevated risk for Alzheimer’s disease and atherosclerosis.

“Adherence to the Mediterranean diet more effectively modulated dementia-related metabolites in APOE4 homozygotes than in people with lower genetic risk, wrote Dong Wang, MD, ScD, of Mass General Brigham in Boston, and colleagues in Nature Medicine.

I’m not a fan of medicalizing food, but the role of diet in health is well-established. While people with the APOE4 haplotype can reduce their risk of dementia and atherosclerosis with statins, diet is an inexpensive way of mitigating risk as well. And, of course, the Mediterranean diet is good for you anyway.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03891-5

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