Boxing legend Mike Tyson becomes a healthy-eating ambassador, sharing his personal struggle with junk food to promote the Trump administration’s new dietary guidelines
WASHINGTON: Boxing legend Mike Tyson has taken on a new role as a healthy-eating ambassador for the Trump administration.
The former heavyweight champion fronted a Super Bowl ad with the slogan “Eat Real Food,” opposing ultra-processed products.
“This is the biggest fight of my life,” Tyson said at an event with US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
He recounted a childhood battling weight issues, eating junk food and weighing up to 345 pounds.
“I had so much self-hate,” Tyson says in the ad. “I just wanted to kill myself.”
He linked his past diet to his upbringing in Brownsville, Brooklyn, calling ultra-processed food “the norm.”
Americans are among the world’s worst offenders for consuming ultra-processed foods, according to government figures.
Such diets are associated with higher risks of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular problems.
Kennedy last month flipped the traditional American food pyramid to encourage eating meat and whole-milk dairy.
Fiber-rich whole grains like oats are now at the bottom of the new chart.
Critics suggest this change may result from lobbying by the agriculture sector.
Kennedy’s health policy changes also include de-emphasizing vaccines, aligning with his “Make America Healthy Again” slogan.
Tyson’s own life has been a public story of rehabilitation from disgrace.
He became the undisputed heavyweight champion in the 1980s with phenomenal punching power.
His career was marred by a 1992 rape conviction, for which he served three years in prison.
In a notorious 1997 fight, he bit off a piece of opponent Evander Holyfield’s ear.
