RFK Jr.'s Terrible Fluoride Flip-Flop!?
Hope everyone is feeling good today! Anyone who’s followed RFK Jr. long enough knows the media loves to dig into his past. Isn’t it interesting how they can’t find any current scandals, lies, or anything of that nature so they need to go back in time? Most recently? A New Yorker piece resurfacing his 1999 bottled water venture, Keeper Springs, which sold fluoridated water—yes, you read that right—despite RFK Jr.’s current fight to want to educate the public on the dangers of fluoridated water and ultimate pursuit of removing fluoride from public water supplies. I haven’t seen anyone else dive in, but at first glance, this looks like a controversial contradiction. But let’s dive deeper here, because it’s not as simple as it seems.
Context: The Flip from 1999 to Now
In 1999, RFK Jr. co-founded Keeper Springs to promote clean water and protect the environment, donating all profits to Waterkeeper Alliance, an organization he founded that works endlessly to protect and preserve clean water. So back then, fluoride was largely seen as a public health win, widely endorsed to prevent cavities. But even so, I found these reports in the late ’90s that discussed the potential health risks tied to the overexposure of fluoride—stiff joints, muscle weakness, and more.
So fast forward to 2024, and Kennedy’s public stance has shifted dramatically. He went from selling water bottles with fluoride, to genuinely leading the charge to remove fluoride from water, he cites concerns about its impact on long-term health, including neurodevelopment risks, osteosarcoma, and much more. So, what happened? Was RFK Jr. unaware of these studies in 1999, or was he prioritizing his business’s environmental mission over these emerging risks?
Here’s something that I want to be made clear: it wasn’t Kennedy adding fluoride to the water like some evil villain. Keeper Springs, like many other bottled water brands of the time, sourced its water through Nestlé. Nestlé obtained its supply from natural springs in the mountains of San Bernardino, California, where the groundwater naturally contained higher concentrations of fluoride.
In fact, the fluoride levels in one of Kennedy’s water bottles had almost double what’s typically found in tap water, but more on this later. So this wasn’t unique to Kennedy—it affected every company using Nestlé as a provider. While it’s unfortunate that this happened, it’s critical to understand this wasn’t RFK Jr. maliciously pouring fluoride into the water supply—it was a byproduct of the natural geology of the region—something that’s way more common than many realize.
If you look at this map you can see clearly the concentrations of fluoride in untreated groundwater. You see that cluster of green, yellow, and red dots at the bottom of California? That tells you that fluoride is naturally occurring in that area, and you know what else is there? The San Bernardino mountains where Nestle sourced their water, including RFK Jr.’s. This graph is from 2020 found on United States Geological Survey’s website.
Another important note is, while legacy media is trying to paint this as something disastrous and unheard of, according to the NIH’s website, “Previously allowable levels ranged from 0.8 to 1.7 mg/L” which means that the chemical analysis that was done on Kennedy’s bottle that contained 1.3 mg/L was still within the appropriate range in 1999. But there’s more, that’s only the allowable range of fluoride being added to bottled water. As of today, according to the FDA, there is unfortunately no limit for fluoride being added to bottled water if it’s naturally occurring.
All this to say, not only was fluoride still widely seen as a huge win for the public, Kennedy’s focus wasn’t on fluoride levels—it was on ensuring that Keeper Springs could support more clean water initiatives through Waterkeeper Alliance. While to some this doesn’t excuse the outcome, to me this adds an important layer of context: this wasn’t an act of villainy, but a reflection of the industry norms, science, and regulations of the time.
Beyond the Fluoride…
If you want some more tea (information), strap in because this is going to get crazy… When I was preparing this story, I unearthed something unbelievably insane. This conversation actually goes beyond the fluoride. Including legal battles, corporate greed, bureaucracy, and the unexpected story of a precious resource that’s robbing the American people, creating billionaires, and what RFK Jr. can actually do about it as the head of HHS. This is going to be in the next issue of this newsletter, so if you don’t want to miss it, be sure to subscribe! But for now, this story still isn’t over.
What This is REALLY About
Let’s zoom out a bit, in the late 90’s RFK Jr. was celebrated as a “Hero for the Planet” by Time magazine for his environmental advocacy and his work on the Hudson River. Kennedy was literally the poster boy for environmental heroism.
So the question becomes why, then, the sudden media shift from hero to, well, a villain? If you were to ask me, it’s because his battles against Big Pharma, Big Food, and other giants have made him a ‘Big Threat’.
And because of that, the stakes are higher than ever, so high that the media has seized this old story to discredit him. So don’t get it twisted, this story isn’t about the water. It’s about the media trying to stop and discredit a leader who’s challenging Big Pharma, Big Food, and the thing they care about the most—their wallets. I know could be wrong, but this is what I’m seeing. This isn’t a “revelation” and this isn’t “journalism” by the media, this is tool they’re using to try to paint a picture of the soon to be head of the HHS, don’t let them win by buying into their story.
I wish I could say that we haven’t seen this pattern before, but it’s way too common. The media digs into RFK Jr.’s past not to because they want to inform the public, but because they want to discredit him and distract you. But if this is the worst dirt they can find, I think it says more about his integrity and his commitment to serving the public, than his flaws.
My Brutally Honest Take On RFK Jr.’s Flip Flop
I’m not going to lie to you, this story did make me pause. I had a lot of questions. And what do you do when you have a lot of questions? You search for answers. You search for meaning. So that’s exactly what I did, I dove deep, and afterwards it became clear that this isn’t the “gotcha” moment the media wants it to be. RFK Jr. isn’t pretending he’s perfect—in fact many times the opposite, as he’s very transparent and real about where he’s come short. My final thought is, if the past 25 years shows the American people anything, it’s that Kennedy’s commitment to public health and the environment has only deepened and stretched.
This is fascinating because they want you to look at a detail of something that happened 25 years ago, but when you zoom out even in that pursuit 25 years ago, the heart and intention was still pure—Kennedy was trying to help people, help the environment, and make a difference. And yes, sometimes things go wrong. But that’s what happens when you try to change the world. Do you want to know why?
Because the world never wants to change. There will be set backs, there will be misses, but I’m a firm believer that a wild stallion trying to do good in this world is better than a dead horse. We should elevate and celebrate the wild stallions, because those are the people that change the world.
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RFK has always said he will change his mind when presented with new evidence. I don’t see see any contradiction
Not necessarily on topic, but this thought just occurred to me (unfortunately it's a bit long for a bumper sticker): The Woke voted for Harris. The Awakened voted for Trump.