Chris Krok, filling in for Dan Proft on Chicago’s Morning Answer, kicked off a conversation about health policy with an unlikely icebreaker: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s reported habit of traveling with sauerkraut. The exchange set the tone for a wide-ranging interview with Dan Corrigan, founder of Smidge Small Batch Supplements and author of a book on digestion and nutrition, who recently wrote a column in The Hill outlining three things he believes RFK Jr. gets right about American health.
Corrigan explained that the sauerkraut in question is likely lacto-fermented, eaten cold and often paired with grass-fed red meat. Krok compared it to capusta, the fermented cabbage dish familiar to Chicago’s Polish community, and Corrigan agreed the comparison was apt. The fermentation process, he said, introduces beneficial bacteria that support gut health and digestion. The two also traded jabs about Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s admitted taste for cherry Pop-Tarts, which Corrigan flagged as a clear example of the ultraprocessed food the “Make America Healthy Again” movement targets.
From there, the conversation turned to the substance of Corrigan’s column. He argued that chronic disease, not any single acute outbreak, represents the country’s real ongoing health emergency, noting that more than half of American adults now live with some form of chronic condition, a figure he put at roughly 120 million people. He pointed to rising rates of autoimmune disorders and other immune-related conditions, citing data showing chronic conditions in U.S. children more than doubled between 1994 and 2006. Corrigan credited RFK Jr.’s background as an environmental attorney, including his work on cases tied to glyphosate exposure, for shaping his focus on environmental contributors to chronic illness alongside diet.
Much of the discussion centered on identifying ultraprocessed foods, which Corrigan said are often engineered primarily for shelf life and profit rather than nutrition. He cited store-bought salad dressings as a common but overlooked offender, given their long ingredient lists, and pointed to items like Pop-Tarts as textbook examples. Bread, he said, becomes ultraprocessed largely through industrial flour treatment designed to extend shelf life, and he recommended shopping the perimeter of the grocery store rather than the center aisles, where boxed and packaged goods dominate. On meat, Corrigan noted that most beef sold in stores is grain-fed rather than grass-fed, which alters its nutrient and fatty-acid profile since cattle are naturally suited to a grass-based diet.
Corrigan acknowledged that overhauling one’s diet all at once is the most common mistake people make, often leading them to abandon the effort within a week. Instead, he recommended tackling one change per month, starting with something manageable like replacing store-bought salad dressing with a homemade version using olive oil and apple cider vinegar.
The conversation closed with a discussion of healthy fats, where Corrigan pointed to beef tallow, butter and high-quality olive oil as staples. He referenced Steak ‘n Shake’s recent shift to frying in beef tallow and using grass-fed beef, drawing a parallel to McDonald’s original use of tallow in the 1960s and 1970s before the industry moved toward hydrogenated seed oils in an effort to cut saturated fat, a shift Corrigan said ultimately backfired from a health standpoint.