4 Facts on Big Food

Following my Tucker interview, Fox invited my True Medicine co-founder Justin to discuss further how our food system is rigged. Watch the segment here. 

I am glad Fox is exposing this topic on two of the three most-watched cable shows in the country. This is a brave move because much of their advertising revenue still comes from processed food. We are eager to take the message to left-of-center outlets like CNN and MSNBC (which have yet to respond). 

This Big Food corruption point seems to be resonating. I hope these blogs have made you more skeptical when you hear conventional wisdom from trusted authorities – this critical thinking and empowerment is the only way we will turn this around.

Here are four facts about food corruption I think about often: 

1. Soda companies spend 11 times more on nutrition than the NIH. Eighty-two percent of independently funded studies show harm from sugar-sweetened beverages, but 93 percent of industry-sponsored studies said no harm (from the excellent book Food Fix).
2. 95% of the panel who created the most recent nutrition guidelines had financial ties to food or pharmaceutical companies.
3. In 1963, the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF) paid Harvard researchers the equivalent of $50k to refute sugar’s role in heart disease, and researchers happily produced the results they were hired to produce. Instead of blaming sugar, Harvard and the SRF blamed cholesterol and saturated fat. Today, after 60 years of fat-is-bad food policy, Americans have never been in worse health, with no shortage of studies vindicating fat — including saturated fat. 
4. As we’ve discussed, 80% of American subsidies go to corn, grains, and soy oil. Amazingly, cigarettes (tobacco) receive four times more government subsidies  (2%) than all fruits and vegetables combined (.45%). Despite current government guidelines recommending that 50% of the American plate be filled with fruits and vegetables, this is all. 

Thanks – and I think we’ll get back to regular programming tomorrow 🙂

Watch Justin’s Segment here. 

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