Legendary boxer Mike Tyson found himself in a new arena on Wednesday as he stood with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, partnering with the Trump administration to fight obesity.
"I had a sister that died at 25 from obesity. And where I come from, Brownsville, Brooklyn, is the most violent, poverty-stricken neighborhood in the city of New York and ultra-processed food was just the norm," Tyson said. "We didn't have much money, but we had food stamps, and food stamps can buy you the candy, the sugar and all that soda and all that rotten stuff."
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Kennedy and Rollins were providing updates on the rollout of the government's new dietary guidelines, which were unveiled in January. During the event on Wednesday, several speakers, including Tyson, spoke about the dangers of ultra-processed food and the need to get Americans to shift their diets toward real food.
"We were able to reduce hundreds of pages of dietary guidelines... to about six pages, but it's just three words: Eat real food," Kennedy said to the crowd as he closed the event. "I ask you all to start doing that today if you're not already doing it."
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Tyson said that when he went to work with a trainer in upstate New York, he was given the tools to keep his health in check. While he admits that he can "fool around" and get "lazy," leading to gaining 20-40 pounds, he says the tools he learned have allowed him to lose weight fast.
"This is the biggest fight of my life," Tyson added. "I want to be a hero in this particular field because it affects my life."
The event comes just days after the airing of an ad during the Super Bowl in which Tyson speaks about the importance of tackling the U.S.'s reliance on processed food. In the ad, Tyson also speaks about his sister, Denise, who died at the age of 25 from an obesity-linked heart attack.
The legendary boxer posted the video on his Facebook page, and said it was "the most important fight of my life."
"The most important fight of my life isn't in the ring. I'm not fighting for a belt. I'm fighting for our health. Processed foods are killing us. We have been lied to, and we need to eat real food again," Tyson wrote.
Kennedy's focus, even during his own 2024 presidential campaign, has been the rise of chronic illness in the U.S., which he believes is linked to an increased consumption of ultra-processed foods. The guidelines that he and Rollins unveiled in January effectively flip the already outdated food pyramid, moving protein, dairy, health fats, fruits and vegetables to the wide top of the inverted triangle, while relegating whole grains to the narrow bottom.
"Better health begins on your plate - not in your medicine cabinet. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 put real, whole, nutrient-dense foods back where they belong: at the center of health," the government website on the guidelines, RealFood.gov, reads.
The protein target in the new guidelines is "1.2-1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day." Additionally, the guidance recommends Americans consume three servings of vegetables and two servings of fruits every day. Meanwhile, it is recommended that Americans eat two to four servings of whole grains daily, although it specifies that refined carbohydrates are not recommended.
