Editor's Take: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might be a ‘friend’ the supplement industry doesn’t need

Supplements have no shortage of champions espousing beliefs that would be labeled “fringe” by mainstream consumers, but when such a champion gains political prominence—as seems set to occur if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is named secretary of Health and Human Services—it might be time to question whether such controversial voices pose a risk to the growing acceptance of supplements.

There is a voice-in-the-wilderness quality to an outspoken supplements industry supporter like Joseph Mercola questioning vaccines, but to have Kennedy Jr. overseeing agencies that include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could insert supplements into the culture wars in a way that we have not seen before and push them closer to the realm of fringe beliefs in the eyes of some consumers.

That the incoming administration followed the Kennedy announcement with plans to name Dr. Mehmet Oz to head Medicare and Medicaid may compound the effect. Oz became infamous in the last decade for promoting questionable health strategies including supplements for weight loss that came with little proof of efficacy and was hauled before a skeptical Senate panel in 2014 to testify about false advertising in the weight loss category.

Both names in one headline may not promote confidence in the administration’s intent to regulate supplements. In a text after the Oz announcement, one industry insider joked about “the clown car at HHS.”

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When we see ashwagandha gummies in Walmart, we know that herbs and botanicals have made their way into the mainstream. The soccer mom throwing turmeric in her tea is a world away from the hippie hyping wheat germ in 1978. Social media has fueled much of this migration to wider acceptance and, though there are rogue influencers making outrageous recommendations, the buzz from sidelines does little to erode the widespread acceptance of supplements that blossomed far beyond the letter vitamins that might have been all the mainstream consumer shopped for 30 years ago.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at an October 2023 fundraising event in Bel Air, California, during his campaign to be U.S. president. Credit: Alamy

Having the nominee to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rant about microchips in vaccines while talking about freeing supplements from the FDA’s yoke feels different. For at least some consumers, it might paint supplements as outlandish and aberrant.

There is also risk of supplements descending into the political fray in a way the industry has long escaped. When Cracker Barrel put Impossible Foods sausage on the menu in 2022, the outcry from right wing bloggers against “woke burgers” was loud, but nothing like that has happened yet for supplements, whose believers can include Birkenstock-wearing, co-op shoppers and right-wing militia preppers. It’s not clear that Kennedy could be such a trigger, but in a nation as divided as this one seems to be, we could imagine supplements becoming a matter of tribal politics for some consumers when he takes the microphone.

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There are few clear strategies for the supplement industry, but celebrating positions Kennedy espouses may require caution. For retailers, the alignment with Kennedy’s beliefs is more centered on food and agriculture and could be more easily managed while avoiding mention of his name. 

For any natural products category, it’s important to remember that mainstream consumers once considered many of the values and tenets of natural products to be fringe beliefs. It may require more than Kennedy to drag the industry back there, but he could certainly inch it closer.