Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday described Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s diet centered on meat and fermented vegetables as “crazy.”
Rubio and his wife Jeanette appeared for an interview on “The Katie Miller Podcast,” hosted by the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. The secretary was asked if he adopted Kennedy’s diet, reportedly intended to reduce visceral fat and support gut health.
“No! This is a crazy diet. This is a diet that consists of eating sauerkraut and meat. Now you understand –– like this is not a sustainable thing,” Rubio said, adding that Kennedy “has to travel with coolers of sauerkraut.”
“I’m not going to travel the world with a cooler full of sauerkraut,” Rubio continued. “It’s ridiculous. I can’t do it.”
The secretary of State asserted he was “in favor” of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda, to which Jeanette interjected, “No, he is not. He is completely not.”
Katie Miller asked what the secretary eats.
“Pop-Tarts,” Jeanette replied, adding that Rubio eats “sweets.” The secretary of State replied back that Pop-Tarts are “one of the great American innovations in the history of the world.”
Rubio said he also once tried the keto diet roughly five years ago and described the withdrawal from carbohydrates and sugars as a “near-psychotic event” for him, prompting laughs from Jeanette and Miller.
“If I did this in this job, I would be, ‘Mr. President, we must bomb, you know –– Paraguay.’ And it’s like, ‘Why?’” Rubio quipped. “‘I don’t know, I’m just really mad. I haven’t had any sugar.’”
“The point is … I’m not against this diet. I’m not asking that we ban it. I encourage people to try it. I’m just saying it’s not for everyone,” he added.
Dr. Sean O’Mara — who advises high-profile patients to go on the diet, sometimes called the “living carnivore diet” — also encourages patients to eat more kimchi and grass-fed steak, in addition to cutting out alcohol and sugar.
Kennedy adopted O’Mara’s diet last year, as did Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. Vice President Vance started the diet during Lent this year.
The HHS secretary told The Wall Street Journal in June that the diet has helped him lose 20 pounds in 30 days and eased his irregular heartbeat. But O’Mara told the Journal that the diet is not a cheap one — noting the “optimization plans” start at $8,000, with direct consultations priced at $18,000.
Rubio was also candid during the interview with Miller about the Trump administration’s efforts to rework U.S. foreign intervention measures, saying there’s no “single typical day” at the State Department.
He also described other Cabinet members, including Kennedy, Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the funniest people working in the Trump administration, and that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is a “cat guy.”
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