brain drain Trump admin accused of censoring NIH’s top expert on ultra-processed foods Kevin Hall claims an aide for Kennedy edited his written responses to a reporter. Beth Mole – Apr 17, 2025 6:18 pm | 7 WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 12: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attends a St. Patrick's Day breakfast for Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the vice president's residence on March 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty | Kevin Dietsch WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 12: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attends a St. Patrick's Day breakfast for Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the vice president's residence on March 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty | Kevin Dietsch Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Kevin Hall, a prominent nutrition expert who led influential studies on ultra-processed foods, has resigned from his long-held position at the National Institutes of Health, alleging censorship of his research by top aides of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In a post on LinkedIn, Hall claimed that he "experienced censorship in the reporting of our research because of agency concerns that it did not appear to fully support preconceived narratives of my agency’s leadership about ultra-processed food addiction." In comments to CBS News, Hall said the censorship was over a study he and his colleagues recently published in the journal Cell Metabolism, which showed that ultra-processed foods did not produce the same large dopamine responses in the brain that are seen with use of addictive drugs. The finding suggests that the mechanism leading people to overconsume ultra-processed foods may be more complex than the studied mechanisms in addiction. This appears to slightly conflict with the beliefs of Kennedy Jr., who has claimed that food companies use additives to make ultra-processed foods addictive. The study "just suggests that they may not be addictive by the typical mechanism that many drugs are addictive," Hall told CBS. "But even this bit of daylight between the preconceived narrative and our study was apparently too much," he said. Hall claims that because of this, aides for Kennedy blocked him from being directly interviewed by New York Times reporters about the study. Instead, Hall was allowed to provide only written responses to the newspaper. However, Hall claims that Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for Kennedy, then downplayed the study's results to the Times and edited Hall's written responses and sent them to the reporter without Hall's consent. Further, Hall claims he was barred from presenting his research on ultra-processed foods at a conference and was forced to either edit a manuscript he had worked on with outside researchers or remove himself as a co-author. An HHS spokesperson denied to CBS that Hall was censored or that his written responses to the Times were edited. "Any attempt to paint this as censorship is a deliberate distortion of the facts," a statement from the HHS said. In response, Hall wrote to CBS, "I wonder how they define censorship?" Hall said he had reached out to NIH leadership about his concerns in hopes it all was an "aberration" but never received a response. "Without any reassurance there wouldn’t be continued censorship or meddling in our research, I felt compelled to accept early retirement to preserve health insurance for my family," he wrote in the LinkedIn post. "Due to very tight deadlines to make this decision, I don’t yet have plans for my future career." Beth Mole Senior Health Reporter Beth Mole Senior Health Reporter Beth is Ars Technica’s Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes. 7 Comments