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The same Robert Kennedy Jr. who sued Monsanto over glyphosate in 2017 is now defending an order to expand its production. What does a functional medicine physician do with that? Shiv K. Goel, an internal medicine and functional medicine physician, argues that the Make America Healthy Again movement correctly names the chronic disease crisis, ultra-processed food, and a broken food system, then prescribes the wrong treatment. This episode is based on his article “Make America Healthy Again fails true functional medicine,” published on KevinMD. You will hear why MAHA’s root-cause language overlaps with functional medicine, why undermining vaccines during a measles outbreak is the contradiction the guest cannot ignore, how silence on Medicaid and SNAP cuts hurts the patients most harmed by chronic disease, and why clinicians must reclaim root-cause language from populist politics. If you have felt torn between agreeing with parts of MAHA and rejecting the rest, this conversation draws the line the guest thinks physicians have to hold.

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Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show. Subscribe at KevinMD.com/podcast. Today we welcome back Shiv K. Goel. He’s an internal medicine and functional medicine physician. Today’s KevinMD article is “Make America Healthy Again fails true functional medicine.” Shiv, welcome back to the show.

Shiv K. Goel: Thank you for having me, Kevin, again.

Kevin Pho: All right, tell us what this latest article is about.

Shiv K. Goel: So this article, which I wrote, it is about the Make America Healthy Again movement through the eyes of a functional medicine physician. I argue that MAHA correctly names America’s chronic disease crisis and some true root causes like ultra-processed food, a broken food system, and decades of policy failure, but then prescribes the wrong treatment for it.

On one hand, MAHA talks about toxins, food as medicine, and chronic disease in ways that sound a lot more like functional medicine. But on the other hand, it undermines vaccines during a record measles outbreak, supports an executive order to expand glyphosate production, and stays largely silent on Medicaid and SNAP cuts that will harm the very communities most burdened by chronic disease.

So my central point is that you cannot claim to make America healthy again while ignoring social determinants of health and bending science to political convenience.

Kevin Pho: So talk to us first about some of that overlap between the Make America Healthy Again movement and functional medicine specifically. What are some areas that overlap?

Shiv K. Goel: So from my functional medicine point of view, I grew up in a family of nine in India. We ate whole foods, we moved all the day, and we didn’t have this luxury of just staying at home and having ultra-processed foods ordered by an app. We lived by the sun, not because it was trendy, but because we were poor. But later now, I see that when they talk about Make America Healthy Again, it is the same thing which they are recommending.

So when MAHA started using the language that I have used for years in functional medicine, like even growing up, like root causes, toxins, the food system, your lifestyle, the basic things which make us, our food, the air we breathe, the water we drink, our sleep, the basic elements of our health.

But then I watched the same coalition undermine vaccines in the middle of a measles outbreak, defending a glyphosate executive order which expands the very pesticide which RFK Jr. had fought in court in 2017, 2019. That contradiction is what pushed me to write this article, because it’s not that their diagnosis is wrong. They’re talking about the right thing, but they’re doing the wrong treatment for it.

Kevin Pho: So let’s talk about glyphosate. Because you said that it is a contradiction. For those who aren’t familiar with that specific issue, just talk more about that.

Shiv K. Goel: Yeah. So let me tell you that glyphosate is an active ingredient in Roundup, which is Monsanto’s flagship herbicide. So after the WHO Cancer Agency labeled it probably carcinogenic, thousands of people with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma sued, and juries in multiple cases found that Monsanto had failed to warn users, awarding large verdicts. Internal Monsanto papers, which they produced at the time, showed ghostwritten safety studies and pressures on regulators. Now, RFK Jr. built a big part of his public identity at that time, helping win those cases against Monsanto and glyphosate.

Then in 2026, now the administration invokes the Defense Production Act to expand glyphosate production and treat it as a critical infrastructure. And the same RFK Jr. now defends it. In that moment, for MAHA Moms who joined the fight against toxins, that felt like a betrayal.

So glyphosate became the perfect symbol because it is the basic thing which the Make America Healthy Again movement is, that this is why we’ve been having the chronic disease, why we’ve been having a lot of toxins in our food. But that is why you thought about it, and that’s why did they reinstate it? Because when initially, there was a study in 2015, the WHO Cancer Agency labeled it probably carcinogenic. They found high amounts of glyphosate in children, in pregnant women, and the incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma has increased, even though they couldn’t find a direct correlation.

But even then, it was proved that this glyphosate has to be stopped. And it was like they have awarded billions of dollars at the time. And RFK Jr. was the one who first sued Monsanto about it. And now, on one hand, he’s saying that we have to make America healthy again, but on the other hand, he’s actually going against the same principle he stood one time for. So that’s what the glyphosate thing is.

Kevin Pho: So I know that they brought a lot of attention specifically to nutrition. They want more medical schools to teach more on nutrition. So there’s a focus on that. From a functional medicine standpoint, what are your thoughts about how they’re approaching nutrition?

Shiv K. Goel: See, the way they’re approaching nutrition, if you ask me, it is not by opening new medical schools, or it is not by telling people what to eat, what not to eat. People are already aware of it. Why are we producing and supporting companies and doing things which are actually making the food poisonous? I would say that are not supporting. Now, the amount of ultra-processed food is so high in America. You go to the market, there’s nothing which is not processed.

So people need not just an education, and for that, you do not have to open and spend billions of dollars in operating new medical schools just to educate the people. I grew up in a family and we were poor, and nobody has taught us what is the basic necessities of life. We ate whole foods. We did everything which they’re talking now about. If you compare like a hundred years ago, there were people, we didn’t have any ultra-processed food. We didn’t have any pesticides. The amount of things people used to move because there is no other way to make an earning if you don’t move.

So the same system which is promoting all of it is recommending against it. You have to fix the system if you want to make America healthy again.

Kevin Pho: Earlier on, you talked about a contradiction. They identify some things that are in need of fixing, but others, like vaccines and social determinants of health, they come up woefully short in. We know about their stance on vaccines, especially with measles outbreaks. Talk more about their perspective on the social determinants of health.

Shiv K. Goel: So I’ll start with the social determinants of health. They are simply the non-medical conditions of people that strongly shape their health. And when I say the social determinants of health, I’m talking about the conditions in which people are born, they grow up, live, work, and age, such as their income, education, their housing, food access, neighborhood safety, their transportation method, and access to health care.

These are the non-medical factors, but they are very important because they impact our health more than anything we do in the clinic. For example, income and poverty, whether a patient can afford a medication or healthy food, or take some time off the work to get the health care. And that’s all linked together. If they don’t go to the work, they’re not going to make the money, and how are they going to afford their medications or the food?

The food environment, or the nutrition. Is there a grocery store with fresh produce, or only convenience stores or fast foods? And those fresh produce, like whole foods and everything, they are very expensive for common people to reach.

Housing and neighborhood, such as safe housing versus overcrowding, pollution exposure, violence, and lack of greenery, lack of education, and work environment. Years of schooling, their education level, job stability, and their ability to understand the same information they’re trying to convey. Because if the people don’t understand, their education level is so low, how is this all going to make sense?

And then their access to care, such as do they have insurance? Do they have a mode of transportation to reach their appointments in the clinics? The availability of the local resources which can support them. Do they have enough local clinics? There are so many places where people have no local clinics or health care systems, and they have to travel two hours, three hours, which limits them, because every time they have to think, they have to plan months in ahead of it.

So when I talk about making America healthy again, and we ignore the Medicaid cuts, food deserts, unsafe housing, and lack of access to care, we are ignoring the social determinants that the WHO and CDC say are the real root causes of so much chronic disease.

Kevin Pho: We’re talking about Shiv K. Goel, internal medicine and functional medicine physician. Today’s KevinMD article is “Make America Healthy Again fails true functional medicine.” Shiv, as always, let’s end with some take-home messages you want to leave with the KevinMD audience.

Shiv K. Goel: So my take-home messages are for the physicians out there. First, don’t dismiss everything because we dislike the politics. Patient concerns about food, toxins, and chronic disease are real. Second, we have to be explicit that evidence outranks ideology, whether that’s on vaccines, pesticides, or chronic diseases. And last but not the least, we need to reclaim the language of root cause and functional from populist movements. Functional medicine belongs in examination rooms and policy conversations, grounded in data, not as a branding for whichever side uses it best.

So I would just say that we can validate the diagnosis that America is sick while refusing to sign off on a treatment plan that leaves our most vulnerable patients worse off. So yes, we also have a role in it, and we have to raise our voice, but we can only do the most we can in our capacity.

Kevin Pho: Shiv, thank you so much for sharing your perspective and insight, and thanks again for coming back on the show.

Shiv K. Goel: Thank you. Thank you, Kevin, for having me.