Kevin Hall

This administration is replacing science with propaganda.

Btw, I mentioned in here how Vought was on tv last weekend listing off zany-sounding NIH grants to make it seem like spending is out of control. This is such a longstanding GOP tactic that it got a whole chapter in my book, which, I guess, still has some relevance.

wwnorton.com/books/Not-a-...

Budget cuts knock down a ‘pillar of public health,’ ending nutrition education A federal education program that helped food stamp beneficiaries find healthy foods and prepare them on a budget is ending.

SNAP-Ed taught people on food benefits about cooking healthy food and organized walking groups — the kinds of efforts that seem in keeping with MAHA's mission. But the program will end under the new tax bill. Great feature from @elizabethcooney.bsky.social

www.statnews.com/2025/07/30/b...

Kevin Hall, uncensored: Top nutrition scientist on clashing with MAHA and what he actually eats 'They’re not interested in the science': Former NIH nutrition scientist Kevin Hall on how his work with MAHA fell apart.

I really enjoyed chatting with @kevinh-phd.bsky.social about his new book, what happened after he left NIH, the problems with MAHA's approach to food dyes, and much more — including which ultra-processed foods he happily eats

www.statnews.com/2025/07/30/k...

I've seen a number of folks talking about grants they/colleagues had cut & lists of those going around - plz share this effort by @brindabee.bsky.social & @realdoctormike.bsky.social to gather stories of cancelled research grants and clip these into a media campaign
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

“Sources inside NIH say that this rigid and sweeping multi-year funding policy did not come from NIH, but instead from political appointees at HHS or the White House.”

“The new policy means that the number of grants that can be funded this year will drop dramatically. And that will decimate US biomedical science labs across the country, and set back medical research and cures for disease by years.”

open.substack.com/pub/donmoyniha…

For the rest of July, folks in the UK get 25% off when they preorder Food Intelligence (my book with @juliabelluz.bsky.social) at @waterstones.bsky.social.

Time is running out. This is unbelievably harmful - to anyone who cares about a better future. The scientific infrastructure of the US, the biggest, most productive and with massive returns on investment, is in a calamitous nose dive.

protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/u...

Recently seen on NIH’s main campus:

Here, Vought doesn’t dispute slow-walking release of NIH grants from congressionally appropriated funds so that they can be cancelled in a couple of months through pocket rescission, thereby bypassing congress to enact huge cuts to NIH research.

NIH would benefit from thoughtful reforms. But it’s hard to fathom how Russ Vought’s quest to dismantle NIH can be squared with the fact that NIH research directly contributed to his daughter’s medical treatment. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Q&A: Nutrition expert discusses pioneering program terminated by USDA Here’s a Q&A with a nutrition expert who created an after-school program for NYC middle-schoolers who take on adult responsibilities, like meal preparation. This spring, the USDA terminated it.

It's exceedingly hard to argue that the administration & MAHA are committed to improving nutrition when they're simultaneously cutting everything from SNAP-Ed to innovative community nutrition work - cements the perception that food dyes are public health theatre.
www.healthbeat.org/newyork/2025...

Kevin Hall Is Still Ultra Processing: On Leaving NIH, On MAHA, On Food in America Podcast Episode · Why Should I Trust You? · 07/24/2025 · 1h 19m

I was happy to join the Why Should I Trust You? podcast this week for a wide ranging discussion about food, nutrition, health, MAHA, and my experiences at the NIH. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

“It’s frustrating to see the enormous political capital of the MAHA movement expended on actions like the proposed product formulation changes that have little chance of reducing prominent diet-related chronic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes,” Hall said.

More or Less - Can drinking one less bottle of coke a day halve obesity? - BBC Sounds Plus, the UK’s expensive electricity, church counts and babies in the City of London.

Happy to have contributed to the recent episode of BBC's More or Less to help clarify the relationship between interventions targeting reduced calorie intake for obesity & the (often much less than) expected weight losses that occur because appetite increases over time. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Thanks for your help Tony!

Food Intelligence by Julia Belluz, Kevin Hall, PhD: 9780593332306 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books The essential guide for understanding what you’re eating, and the forces that are driving you to eat it. Nutrition isn’t rocket science; it’s harder. There are new diet fads, bold...

Many moons ago, @kevinh-phd.bsky.social and I talked about a book we wished existed. No fads, no weight loss hacks, no fear-mongering -- just the science of how food works in your body. Thrilled to share that we wrote it!
Out September 23, pre-oder here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671334...

#FoodIntelligence combines my scientific expertise with Julia’s incisive journalism to help you better understand nutrition science, how our food environment drives metabolic disease, & what to do about it. This book has been years in the making & it’s finally a reality! @avery-books.bsky.social‬

Food Intelligence by Julia Belluz, Kevin Hall, PhD: 9780593332306 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books The essential guide for understanding what you’re eating, and the forces that are driving you to eat it. Nutrition isn’t rocket science; it’s harder. There are new diet fads, bold...

Excited to announce my new book FOOD INTELLIGENCE coauthored with brilliant journalist @juliabelluz.bsky.social‬! Cutting through the confusion about diet & health, #FoodIntelligence describes the fascinating science of how food both nourishes & harms us. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671334...

Exclusive: NIH to dismiss dozens of grant reviewers to align with Trump priorities The move would undo years of work, leaving advisory councils understaffed, and without the full expertise needed for reviews.

This is bad. Very bad. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Given the apparent importance of this issue to MAHA, I would have hoped that there would have been a concerted effort to urgently fund more definitive research on this topic to better inform policy. Alas…

Also, humans are animals. So, no more clinical trials without NAMs? Do LLMs count as NAMs? 😬

NIH describes NAMs broadly as "complementary approaches to the use of animals in research" (see oacu.oir.nih.gov/new-approach... and links therein). So, does the newly announced NIH policy mean that all new projects studying basic biology in animal models must include a NAMs component?

I hope the assumption of @jeremymberg.bsky.social is valid, but the wording of the last bullet when the NIH announced this policy seems quite broad. The worry is that NIH might refuse to fund basic biological research in animal models unless projects the also include NAMs (new approach methodology).

Not food dyes. 😜

Fortunately, @nestauk.bsky.social agreed to work with me to implement our updated model and provide more realistic estimates.

Had a productive meeting with @nestauk.bsky.social on modeling weight loss dynamics. I strongly believe that policy interventions targeting the food environment are exactly the right approach. But when the promised effects of such policies are overstated and fail to materialize, public trust erodes.

Dynamics of childhood growth and obesity: development and validation of a quantitative mathematical model - PubMed Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

We created a couple of mathematical models of childhood growth similar to the 2011 adult model that don’t yet account for how appetite might change with weight loss:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24349967/

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31347776/