HARRISBURG — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was joined by lawmakers from the state House and Senate Wednesday for a rally promoting efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to encourage people to improve their diets.

“We can’t subsidize sickness forever, and we can’t accept a future where chronic disease is the status quo,” Kennedy said in comments from the white marble stairs in the Capitol rotunda. “We already suffer the highest chronic disease burden on earth and our children are getting sicker by the day.”

Kennedy said the nation’s poor eating habits have driven up health care costs due to “largely preventable diet-induced diseases.”

More than 70% of American adults are overweight or obese and about one-third of teens are pre-diabetic.

A key component of the effort involves encouraging people to replace ultra-processed foods with what Kennedy described as “real food,” protein from animal products, fruit and vegetables and grains.

The federal government is conducting reviews of the ingredients in baby formula to identify and remove contaminants, he said.

In addition, the Trump administration has barred the use of three petroleum-based artificial dyes in foods and Kennedy said six others are on the way out. The federal government is in the process of fast-tracking approval for four new vegetable-derived dyes to replace the dyes being banned. The use of artificial dyes in food has been linked to hyperactivity and other behavioral conditions in children.

Kennedy said the changes to the nutritional guidelines will “drive a dramatic change” in the way people eat, particularly as school and military meals are adjusted in light of the changes.

Before Kennedy’s comments, state lawmakers cheered the efforts of the Trump administration and noted that legislation aimed at reducing food additives has been introduced in the state House.

House Bill 1131 would bar the use of petroleum-derived food dyes in school meals.

“As a father, I thought of my children, and the role that food plays in their development every single day,” said Rep. Robert Leadbeter, R-Columbia. “What our children eat matters. It fuels and shapes who they become, and why House Bill 1131 is so important to keep the food that they eat at school from harming their development.”

Leadbeter said that HB 1131 was introduced as part of a Healthy PA legislative package, and that every bill in that package has cosponsors from both sides of the aisle.

Other bills in that package include House Bill 1132, which would bar schools from serving ultra-processed foods. House Bill 1133 would require that any food product containing the preservative butylated hydroxyanisole must carry a warning label, and House Bill 1134 would require warning labels for food products containing synthetic food dyes.

None of those bills have received a committee vote yet.