Generally Recognized As Safe; Youngest Survivors | 60 Minutes Full Episodes

Ultra-Processed Foods and GRAS Loophole00:06

There is no way for any American to know if a product is safe if it is ultraprocessed. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former FDA Commissioner David Kessler disagree on health policy but agree on ultraprocessed food as a culprit. How does this compare with tobacco? >> It's as large, if not larger.

Eva Clark, Hana Berger Moran, and Mark Olski are among the youngest survivors of the Holocaust, born in April 1945. >> A woman presented her baby to him. He's now just seen all these dead bodies and there's a baby. >> This one we have to try to save.

GRAS Classification and Health Crisis01:31

Americans across the political spectrum voice concern about health impacts of ultraprocessed foods—boxed, plastic-wrapped, ready-to-eat items. Leading the charge: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. David Kessler, former US Food and Drug Administration commissioner. They target the 67-year-old GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) government classification from 1958, allowing food companies to self-verify ingredient safety without government oversight. Ultraprocessed foods make up 50% of adult calories and 60% of children's diets.

Over the last 40 years, the United States has been exposed to something that our biology was never intended to handle: energy dense, highly palatable, rapidly absorbable, ultraprocessed foods that have altered our metabolism and have resulted in the greatest increase in chronic disease in our history. Type two diabetes, pre-diabetes, hypertension, abnormal lipids, fatty liver, heart attacks, stroke, heart failure, from our food, from our food.