A diet built around sauerkraut and other fermented foods has spread through senior ranks of the Trump administration, with multiple cabinet members and the vice president reporting significant weight loss after adopting the regimen.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told an audience in Michigan this week that he lost 20 pounds within 30 days after starting the diet developed by Dr. Sean O’Mara, a physician who first advised White House officials during the second Bush administration. “Within 30 days I lost 20 pounds,” Kennedy said. “JD Vance is also on the diet and you can see how different he looks.”
O’Mara’s approach centers on fermented foods — primarily sauerkraut and kimchi — eaten alongside grass-fed steak, with a strict prohibition on alcohol and sugary foods. He told the Wall Street Journal that the diet produces reductions in visceral fat, the fat that wraps around internal organs, and builds a more robust microbiome that aids digestion. For snacking, O’Mara recommends “old world cheese” including blue cheese, gorgonzola, or parmesan.
Kennedy, 72, was the first of the current administration officials to convert to the diet after meeting O’Mara about a year ago. He told the Journal that while he is sometimes put off by the tangy and pungent taste of sauerkraut, he found the diet helped him shed fat, reduced aches and pains, and eliminated the atrial fibrillations he had been experiencing.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, 64, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, 54, have also adopted the regimen. Vance, 41, committed to the diet for Lent earlier this year and has stuck with it, often eating eggs, sauerkraut, pickles, blackberries and raspberries for lunch, and beef or lamb with sauerkraut for dinner. On Air Force Two, he snacks on grass-fed beef jerky or eats a hamburger with cheese, no bun, and a side of fermented vegetables.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, said he bumped into Duffy last year and remarked that his skin was glowing. Duffy recommended he see O’Mara, and McCarthy said he has now lost four inches around his waist. “He told me I was the worst case he’d ever seen but he’s so positive, he said: ‘You’ve got great potential,’” McCarthy recalled of his first meeting with O’Mara. He has talked up the diet to members of Congress.
O’Mara declined to discuss his patients by name, citing privacy concerns, but people familiar with the matter confirmed that Kennedy, Lutnick, and Duffy have all seen the physician. O’Mara’s “optimization plans” start at $8,000, according to his website, with a direct consultation costing $18,000. He said he offers to accompany clients to the grocery store to teach them about selecting fermented foods from the back of the refrigerator section, where less light can degrade nutrients and living microbes.
The new dietary guidelines rolled out last year by Kennedy and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recommend consuming fermented foods such as sauerkraut for the first time — a policy shift that reflects the administration’s embrace of O’Mara’s approach.
President Trump himself has not adopted the diet. At the NBA Finals earlier this month, he ate pizza, french fries, and drank Diet Coke. Trump’s campaign plane frequently stocked McDonald’s cheeseburgers and Chick-fil-A sandwiches.