Transcription
The food industry, uh, and the processed food industry was created by the cigarette industry. This is C. Means on Tucker Carlson's podcast, exposing the dark connections between Big Pharma and the food industry. C was an insider, a former lobbyist for Big Pharma and big-name companies like Coca-Cola. As you'll learn later in this discussion today, he's what we call a whistleblower. Prepare yourself. What you're about to hear will completely change how you see the world of food. Let's get started.
In the 1990s, the two largest food companies in the world were RJ Reynolds and, uh, Philip Morris. What happened is when the Surgeon General, way too late in the 1980s, said cigarettes were maybe problematic. These were some of the largest companies in the world with the largest cash piles of any company in the world. So what they did is they used their cash piles to buy food companies. Uh, you know, we think about the '80s as the Wall Street era, M&A, you know, a lot of deals. The two biggest M&A deals up until 1990 in world history were cigarette companies buying food companies.
This wasn't just any corporate strategy. It was a calculated move by giants like RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris, who were facing growing public backlash and tighter regulations on tobacco. Philip Morris, for instance, acquired Kraft Foods in 1988 for $12.9 billion and later bought Nabisco in 2000 for $14.9 billion, creating one of the world's largest food conglomerates. Similarly, RJ Reynolds merged with Nabisco Brands in 1985. These acquisitions weren't about diversifying. They were about taking the addictive expertise from cigarettes and applying it to food. These companies brought their vast knowledge of addiction science directly into your kitchen, influencing the very fabric of the American diet. It wasn't just about expanding their portfolio. It was about applying the same addictive principles of nicotine to food products, thus ensuring that the same business model, creating lifelong consumers, remained profitable. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Let's listen to C.
So you had in the '90s these two cigarette companies very strategically do two things. They shifted their thousands of scientists who were experts at making cigarettes addictive to the food department. So we had the rise of ultra-processed food, where our food now is a science experiment. The second thing they did is they shifted their lobbying. So the cigarette industry, of course, was the biggest, you know, lobbying spenders and very had a good playbook. They shifted their playbook on lobbying and rigging institutions of trust to food. So they created the food pyramid. So the cigarette industry, through the food they bought, paid off the FDA, the USDA, Harvard to create reports saying sugar doesn't cause obesity. And they lobbied for the food pyramid in the 1990s. We all remember which said, you know, animal-based fats are bad, carbs are good. Remember, carbs and sugar were basically the base of the pyramid. So the American diet, because of that, because we trust our medical institutions, which they know, uh, we shifted our diet significantly to ultra-processed food. It was very intentional. The food pyramid that was an ultra-processed food marketing document that carbs were fine, sugar was fine. And that shifted. And you look at dietary patterns today. Kids, a child's diet is 70% ultra-processed food. Now, what does that mean? Right? Those are literally foods invented by the cigarette industry to addict kids. You know, obviously, we've got sugar, but there's thousands of different ingredients and science concoctions that scientists work in a lab to make it more palatable, to make it more addictive. So food consumption, calorie consumption has skyrocketed. And the byproduct of these toxic ingredients that the cigarette industry, I watched and helped with this, bought off the USDA, bought off the FDA, is they wreck havoc among our cells. The foundation of our diet is ingredients that we aren't biologically made to eat, that didn't exist 100 years ago. The foundation of our diet is three things. When you look at any label, it's added sugar, processed sugar, which basically didn't exist 100 years ago. It's just from natural sources. Ultra-processed grains, which were invented 100 years ago. The processing takes the fiber off. They're basically hidden sugars, devoid of nutritional value. And seed oils. Seed oils are the top source of American calories. And this is actually seed oil, the top source of American soybean oil, canola oil. This is the baseline of American calories right now. And these seed oils were actually created by John D. Rockefeller as a byproduct of oil production. It's basically engine lubricant. And the Rockefeller and, and those aligned with them actually lobbied to have this, uh, suit for human consumption. That's how corn oil came into the American diet. They're much cheaper, but they're highly inflammatory. And just by definition, just at the highest level, these ingredients and all the chemicals we can't name that are in ultra-processed food are not natural ingredients that our bodies are made to handle. So there's, as we talk about in Good Energy, this produces a lot of side effects to ourselves.
The food industry isn't trying to kill Americans. They're trying to make food cheap and addictive. They didn't just stop at manipulating the food itself. They took their lobbying playbook to a whole new level, targeting the institutions that Americans trust the most. The cigarette companies poured millions into lobbying efforts, influencing public health guidelines and dietary recommendations. They paid off prestigious institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and even government agencies like the FDA and USDA to produce favorable research reports. Funded by these companies, they downplayed the dangers of sugar and ultra-processed foods, convincing the public that these harmful ingredients were safe. This wasn't just a shift in policy. It was a deliberate, well-funded campaign to rewrite the science of nutrition, making ultra-processed foods the new normal. They weren't just buying companies. They were buying credibility and trust. What you're about to hear from C will reveal just how deep this manipulation runs. Let's listen in.
And what I learned, you know, in the morning meeting with the food companies trying to lobby and influence, uh, the USDA, uh, being the lifeblood of nutrition research, paying off, you know, nutrition research at Harvard and Stanford. As a junior employee, shocked by that. Um, so you saw that, oh, oh, my first week, you know, as working for these industries, um, it was a list of top professors, um, and, uh, the, the food industry pays 11 times more for foundational nutrition research than the NIH. Um, you go to any nutrition school in the country, the lifeblood of their school, they'll, they'll proudly admit this is from the processed food industry. In the past two years, there's been 1,000 peer-reviewed research studies on nutrition. We're the only animal that has peer-reviewed nutrition studies, and we're the only animals that are systematically obese, diabetic, uh, and being crippled by metabolic dysfunction.
The manipulation of our food system didn't stop with changing guidelines. It went deeper, directly hijacking our biology. The food industry, backed by the same tactics used by cigarette companies, engineered products specifically designed to be addictive, using ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavorings, and other chemical additives. These companies knew exactly how to trigger the brain's reward system, making us crave more and eat beyond our natural needs. This isn't just a change in diet. It's a calculated effort to exploit our natural instincts. In the wild, we evolved to seek out sugary, high-calorie foods when they were rare, like fruit, to ensure our survival. The food industry has hijacked this biological drive, flooding the market with ultra-processed products that override our natural satiation signals, leaving us constantly hungry for more. But how does this actually affect us on a daily basis? C. Means dives into the shocking truth of how this engineered addiction impacts our health and well-being. Let's listen to what he has to say.
The problem, very strategically, and this is well known among the industry, is that ultra-processed food does, because they're able to do this science experiment with their food, it hijacks our biology. It hijacks our satiation signals. You know, high-fructose corn syrup, fructose, it makes us want to eat more. Um, because in the wild, you know, when you see a bunch of fruit out there, you know, you're well advised to eat it. Um, you know, historically, um, we've basically rigged our biology to hijack our signals that, you know, make us satiated. So that's what ultra-processed food does. Today, our grocery aisles are filled with foods designed to keep us hooked, products that are scientifically crafted to make us crave more, from sodas and snacks to frozen meals and even supposedly healthy options. The same addictive ingredients are present: high-fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, MSG, and a cocktail of preservatives. These ingredients are not just additives. They are specifically engineered to hijack our taste buds and keep us reaching for more. High-fructose corn syrup, for example, is a cheaper alternative to sugar that's found in nearly everything: soft drinks, bread, sauces, and even yogurts. It doesn't just add sweetness. It disrupts our metabolism and contributes to obesity, diabetes, and liver disease. Then there's MSG, a flavor enhancer commonly found in chips, canned soups, and fast food, which triggers our brain's pleasure centers, making food taste irresistibly good while masking poor quality ingredients. Another major offender is seed oils like soybean, canola, and corn oil. Originally developed as industrial lubricants, these oils are now a staple in processed foods because they are cheap. However, they are highly inflammatory and linked to chronic health issues like heart disease, obesity, and cancer. Studies have shown that these oils now make up a significant portion of the average American diet, despite being nutritionally devoid and harmful. When you look at any nutrition label today, you'll often see a mix of added sugars, processed grains, and seed oils, ingredients that didn't even exist a century ago. This toxic trio is now the foundation of our diet, leading to widespread metabolic dysfunction, chronic diseases, and a healthcare system overwhelmed with preventable conditions. The food industry's manipulation has not only redefined our palates but also the health of entire generations.
So that's the food industry. Okay. The food industry, actually, with their own self-interest, want to make food addictive and cheaper. It kind of makes sense. The criminal devil's bargain is that it's highly tied to the healthcare industry. And as Casey said, the fastest growing industry in America right now is, uh, AI. It's not tech. It's healthcare. It's the largest and fastest growing industry. And just as a statement of economic fact, the best, best thing for that industry is a child getting sick.
While many people think of AI or technology as the fastest growing sectors in the US, the truth is far more alarming. As C highlights, it's healthcare. The healthcare industry has become the largest and fastest growing sector in America, not because of groundbreaking cures or innovations, but because of the rising tide of chronic illness and disease. From diabetes to heart disease, the explosion of preventable conditions has turned healthcare into a booming business. But here's the harsh economic reality: the system isn't designed to prevent illness. It profits from it. The healthcare industry thrives on chronic diseases where patients require lifelong medications and treatments. The sicker people become, the more profitable it is. From pharmaceutical companies selling expensive drugs to hospitals benefiting from repeated treatments, every stage of a patient's journey through illness is an opportunity for profit. As C suggests, this isn't just about adults. It's about our children too. With childhood obesity, diabetes, and other conditions on the rise, the healthcare system is essentially setting up a new generation of lifelong patients. It's a system that benefits from kids getting sick early, ensuring a steady stream of revenue from treatment, not prevention. This chilling reality reveals a deeper truth: the best economic outcome for the healthcare industry is not a healthy population, but one that remains perpetually unwell. Let's get back to C, as he exposes how this cycle of sickness and profit operates at the expense of our health.
When a child gets sick, or any American gets sick with a chronic condition, with diabetes, obesity, kidney disease, heart disease, whatever, they go on a lifetime medication. They go on the Metformin, they go on the Statin. They have lifetime treatments and they keep racking up more comorbidities. If you're diabetic, you have an average of four other comorbidities. So you keep racking them up, but you don't die. You just suffer. You inevitably get infertility, depression. You start racking them up. So that's very good for the medical system to have these chronic conditions that need to be managed, just from a pure economic standpoint, that's how the system is set up. That's all happening largely because of our food system and other metabolic habits we can talk about, but largely because of our rise of ultra-processed food that's really, really hacking our cells and really hijacking our cells.
As C highlights, the healthcare system's silence on the root causes of our growing health crisis is not just negligence. It's complicity. Research shows that major health organizations, including the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association, receive significant funding from food and pharmaceutical companies whose products contribute to the very diseases these organizations are supposed to fight. This financial influence shapes everything from dietary guidelines to public health messages, creating a conflict of interest that puts profits ahead of public health. For instance, Coca-Cola and other sugary beverage companies have been known to funnel money into research that downplays the link between sugar consumption and obesity. Studies funded by these companies often contradict independent research findings, casting doubt on the true impact of their products. Similarly, the pharmaceutical industry spends billions on lobbying efforts and contributions to health organizations, ensuring that the narrative remains focused on treatment rather than prevention. C's observations are backed by a growing body of evidence showing that these industries have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. The financial entanglements between food companies, pharmaceutical giants, and health organizations create a system where public trust is routinely compromised. This isn't just speculation. It's documented in financial disclosures and research publications. These partnerships have real consequences. Dietary guidelines that emphasize processed foods and overlook the harms of sugar are a direct result of industry influence, contributing to the rise in chronic diseases that keep the healthcare system profitable. As C suggests, this isn't just a failure of the system. It's a deliberate design that puts corporate profits above public health. Let's hear more from C, as he uncovers the depths of this troubling alliance.
The criminal part, the devil's bargain, is that the healthcare system, you'd expect to be speaking out about why we're getting so sick, but they're not only silent on the reasons, they don't only train, Casey, the first day of Stanford Med School, that we're basically taken as a given that people are lazy and going to get sick, we're just going to profit from treating them. They're silent on that. They're actually complicit. Working for Coke, I helped steer money to the American Coca-Cola. Yeah, working for Coca-Cola, um, they actually pay money to the American Diabetes Association. Um, they actually pay money to the American Academy of Pediatrics. If there's one thing the American Diabetes Association, which sets the standard of care for diabetes management, should be doing, they should be saying, we're not going to accept money from Coke, which is diabetes water. They accept money from Coke.
C. Means, along with his sister, Casey Means, a respected doctor, have come together to expose the disturbing connections between Big Pharma, the food industry, and our healthcare system. Their combined experiences, C as a former insider and Casey as a medical professional, bring a unique perspective to this critical issue. They've dedicated themselves to unraveling these hidden truths, sharing their insights on platforms like Tucker Carlson's podcast, which I highly recommend watching. In a world full of misinformation and conflicting narratives, it's more important than ever to seek the truth. C and Casey's revelations are eye-opening, challenging the system that many of us trust without question. But if listening to the podcast episode isn't enough, their book dives even deeper into the facts and stories that they have uncovered. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how these industries influence our health and what we can do to fight back. Grab a copy and start studying. It might just change the way you see the world around you.