The National Institutes of Health’s top researcher on ultra-processed foods announced Wednesday he was stepping down from the agency, accusing top aides to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of censorship.
“Unfortunately, recent events have made me question whether NIH continues to be a place where I can freely conduct unbiased science,” the researcher, Dr. Kevin Hall, wrote in a post on social media Wednesday.
Hall told CBS News that he was blocked by the department from being directly interviewed by a reporter from The New York Times, asking about recent research on how ultra-processed foods can be addictive.
The study found that ultra-processed foods did not appear to be addictive in the same way as addictive drugs, which trigger outsized dopamine responses in the brain. That means overconsumption of ultra-processed foods might be happening for more complex reasons.
“It just suggests that they may not be addictive by the typical mechanism that many drugs are addictive. But even this bit of daylight between the preconceived narrative and our study was apparently too much,” Hall said in a message.
Andrew Nixon, a top spokesperson under Kennedy, downplayed the study’s results to the reporter, Hall said. Hall’s written answers were then edited and sent to the reporter without his consent, he said.
“The truth is that it was the largest study of its kind and no previous study had the same level of dietary control, much less admitted them to a hospital to ensure diet adherence,” Hall said.
An HHS spokesperson denied that HHS had edited Hall’s answers. In a statement, another spokesperson for HHS said it was “disappointing that this individual is fabricating false claims.”
“NIH scientists have, and will, continue to conduct interviews regarding their research through written responses or other means. We remain committed to promoting gold-standard research and advancing public health priorities. Any attempt to paint this as censorship is a deliberate distortion of the facts,” the statement said.
In response to the department’s statement, Hall asked: “I wonder how they define censorship?”
Hall said he had also been blocked from presenting his research on ultra-processed foods at a conference and given an ultimatum to either comply with edits demanded by officials on a manuscript he had worked on with outside scientists or remove himself as a co-author.
“I was hoping this was an aberration. So, weeks ago I wrote to my agency’s leadership expressing my concerns and requested time to discuss these issues, but I never received a response,” he said in his post.
Before this week, Hall had been considered as one of NIH’s leading researchers on ultra-processed foods. He was among experts featured in CBS Reports’ investigation on how ultra-processed foods have become so pervasive in the American diet.
“He led a seminal clinical trial demonstrating that ultra-processed foods led to calorie consumption,” Susan Mayne, former head of the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety and nutrition center, said in a message.
Mayne said that more recent work has focused on unpacking Hall’s findings about how ultra-processed food leads to overconsumption.
“This work is critical to understand what it is mechanistically about UPF that may be driving obesity. Few places other than NIH have metabolic wards to even do such research,” Mayne said.
Hall’s early retirement marks the latest high-profile departure from the NIH, which has seen its ranks of top scientists gutted through oustings and layoffs under the Trump administration since February.
It also marks the latest divide between Kennedy and the federal scientists who have found themselves muzzled on his priorities.
Kennedy on Wednesday also touted recent autism research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that experts and advocacy groups say mischaracterized the agency’s findings.
Unlike previous releases from the CDC’s ongoing study on autism spectrum disorder, federal scientists have not been allowed to speak to the media about the latest round of results, CBS News previously reported.
