It is a travesty that majority of Americans don’t even know they are constantly exposed to thousands of untested ingredients that are banned or regulated in other countries. To put it bluntly, for the last 50 years, we have been running the largest uncontrolled science experiment ever done on humanity without their consent. Why should America be the last developed nation to protect its people? — Jason Karp, CEO and founder of HumanCo

Last month, something historic happened in Washington. Yet most of the public didn’t hear about it.

A recent bipartisan Senate panel of public health leaders, doctors, scientists, and journalists addressed a packed audience of 300 in person (joined by over 100,000 online viewers across multiple streaming platforms) to discuss the state of American health and nutrition. Specifically, how the chronic disease epidemic is a profound threat to the future of humanity. It’s taking lives, pushing our healthcare systems to the brink, and draining communities of their resilience and vitality.

The impact on our children is especially alarming. We recommend watching a powerful 14-min highlight video of this landmark Senate panel.

Even though this topic affects us all in significant ways, there was a media blackout on the event. The only coverage you could find grossly misrepresented the testimonies given by top experts critical of our broken for-profit healthcare and food system. Their legitimate criticisms were nowhere to be found in the coverage. Instead, they spun it into divisive partisan rhetoric, contributing to the larger culture wars poisoning public discourse.

What if we started asking the big questions that mainstream media ignores—the ones that could actually unite us across our deepest divides?

There’s no doubt that modern medicine has saved lives. Yet why is it that the US has spent far more on healthcare ($4.5 trillion) than on defense ($2.4 trillion), but we have the poorest health outcomes among high-income countries?

A survey in Health Affairs found that only 16% of primary care doctors believe the U.S. health system is working well. Graduating medical students have consistently reported that they have insufficient nutrition knowledge and skills, while a report by Commonwealth Fund found that one in four U.S. primary care doctors believe their practices aren’t well prepared to help patients with multiple chronic conditions. Yet chronic diseases now account for seven out of every 10 deaths in the US. Half of all US heart disease deaths—about 900 every day—are directly linked to poor diet, while nearly half of adult cancer deaths are preventable with simple lifestyle changes.

The impact on our children's health is the most devastating. Never before have we witnessed that over half of our youth have a chronic health condition. Almost 50% of adolescents had a mental health disorder. One in six youth ages 10 to 17 have obesity, while close to 30% of our children are pre-diabetic. Colon cancers grew 500% among children ages 10 to 14 and 333% among teenagers aged 15 to 19 years. 77% of young Americans do not quality for military service due to being overweight, using drugs, or having mental and physical health problems.

No US president has addressed the root causes of our health crisis, which aren’t mysterious. Giant corporations control our food and healthcare systems, and they instrumentalize our government agencies to support policies and products that harm human health and the environment.

During the landmark Senate hearing, a powerful testimony was delivered by Dr. Casey Means, a best-selling author and Stanford-trained physician and entrepreneur who graduated top of her class from Stanford Medical School. Here's an excerpt from her poignant testimony:

Over the years, we have gathered an extensive collection of evidence from reliable news sources that sheds light on the state of health in the U.S. and the factors that led us here. Together, our news database on Toxic Chemicals, Food System Corruption, Pharmaceutical Corruption, and Science Corruption contain over a thousand articles that expose the relentless profit-driven machinery fueling our nation's sickness.

DARK SIDE OF BIG FOOD

Ultra-processed foods make up 73% of the US food supply, despite being linked to over 30 significant health problems including cancer, diabetes, brain damage, mental health disorders, obesity, heat disease, premature deaths, and more. The average American gets more than 60% of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods. For children, these foods make up approximately two-thirds of an American child’s diet.  

Tobacco companies hooked people on cigarettes by making their products more addictive. In the 80s, tobacco giants would acquire major food companies and dominate America’s food supply—reaping billions in profits from popular brands such as Oreo cookies, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Lunchables. Many of the ultra-processed foods that we eat today “were engineered by an industry that wrote the playbook on products that are highly-palatable, addictive and appealing to children,” explained food addiction expert and psychology professor Ashley Gearhardt in an article for The Washington Post. While hyper-palatable foods are aggressively marketed, a highly profitable weight-loss industry worth $60 billion a year exploits personal shame. Ironically, many of the companies that promote high-calorie foods also sell weight-loss solutions.

Companies spend $14 billion each year on marketing to children, over 80% of which is for fast food and other ultraprocessed foods like snacks, candy and sodas. 60% of supermarket baby food in the US failed to meet nutritional standards set by the World Health Organization.

DARK SIDE OF BIG AGRICULTURE

Conventional industrial agriculture has given corporate forces immense power over our food system. Big Agriculture relies on government farm subsidies—financial incentives provided by the government to lower production costs, promote certain crops, and stabilize market price. The most heavily subsidized crops (corn, soy, wheat, and rice) are the foundation of many unhealthy foods, with the majority of junk food being made from ultra-processed grains. This system not only harms public health but also funnels taxpayer money into the pockets of the wealthy. Billionaires and large agribusinesses receive millions in farm subsidies from our government.

Wealthy individuals, including Bill Gates, own large farms eligible for these subsidies, allowing them to receive millions of taxpayer dollars from the government. Congress has blocked efforts to disclose the names of these subsidy recipients—leaving the public in the dark about how much taxpayer money is going to the rich.

DARK SIDE OF PESTICIDES AND BIG CHEMICAL

Food isn’t just a source of energy. It’s medicine that can be just as effective as certain drugs in healing diseases and illnesses. However, toxic chemicals in our food are linked to devastating chronic diseases, irreversible consequences for children’s health, and major environmental destruction. Meanwhile, billions of pounds of pesticides are used each year on our food despite their use being identified as a cancer risk comparable to smoking.

The government farm subsidies often support pesticide-intensive crops. Pesticides allow mass food production that’s less labor intensive. Yet they belong to a class of chemicals that wreak havoc on both our environment and our health. Some of these chemicals are even banned on golf courses because of how toxic they are, but they’re approved for use on farms that grow our food.

DARK SIDE OF BIG PHARMA

The sicker we are, the richer the medical industry gets. Goldman Sachs analysts pointed out a troubling issue for biotech companies working on gene therapy: curing patients might hurt their long-term profits. While "one-shot cures" offer great benefits to patients, they can reduce the ongoing revenue that companies rely on from chronic treatments. In a biotech research report, the analysts asked, “Is curing patients a sustainable business model?”

Congress protected Big Pharma when the opioid industry exacerbated the deadly War on Drugs and made billions from opioid prescriptions, only to then sell drugs to treat opioid addiction. Leaked emails reveal how pharmaceutical giant Aspen Pharmacare plotted to destroy their supplies of cancer drugs to justify staggering price hikes of up to 4,000%. Internal communications show employees celebrating these exorbitant increases. Since 2014, drug companies have raked in at least $3.6 billion in global sales from medications that were later found to be ineffective or had most of their uses taken off the market in the U.S.

MANIPULATION OF SCIENCE AND SUPPRESSION OF DISSENT

The corporations controlling our food and medical systems have done everything in their power to prevent us from adopting healthier alternatives to their dangerous products. They’ve corrupted scientists and politicians, manipulated public opinion, and systematically attacked the organic food movement.

A growing number of leaders in the fields of medicine and science are speaking up about the corruption they've witnessed within these fields—warning that mainstream science, as it stands, cannot be fully trusted. Did you know that the FDA has shifted from being an entirely taxpayer-funded entity to being primarily funded by the very pharmaceutical corporations they are supposed to regulate? An in-depth investigation by Project on Government Oversight shows how special interests drive the approval of prescription drugs for industry profit rather than public health safety.

FDA corruption goes beyond just drug regulations—it infiltrates how information is controlled and shared with the public. The FDA offered NPR and a few other media outlets early access to FDA announcements in exchange for giving up their editorial independence, allowing the FDA to control whom they could interview. This kind of "close-hold embargo" is a tactic used by government and scientific agencies to limit independent reporting. We only learned about this deal thanks to a slip in a New York Times article, revealing a system where select reporters get inside information at the cost of their journalistic freedom.

The Lancet's chief editor Richard Horton once stated that “journals have devolved into information laundering operations for the pharmaceutical industry." Big Pharma giant Merck used fake journals, ghostwritten articles, and aggressive PR tactics to defend its anti-inflammatory and arthritis blockbuster drug Vioxx, then recruited prestigious doctors to sign off on the fabricated research studies. FDA analysts estimated that Vioxx caused between 88,000 and 139,000 heart attacks, 30 to 40 percent of which were probably fatal, in the five years the drug was on the market. Merck even made a “hit list” of doctors who criticized Vioxx, which was revealed in a Vioxx class action case in Australia:

It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
— Jiddu Krishnamurti

The mutual recognition of the chronic disease threat facing our nation can bring us together to ask the hard questions that mainstream media often ignores and to take constructive action towards values that are less about politics and more about helping each other thrive.

The challenges of chronic illness in America can feel overwhelming, but the story doesn’t end with the grim statistics. Our recent Substack article explores real, hopeful solutions already underway, like social and green prescriptions, which connect people with nature and each other. We also explore community-driven efforts to heal the deadly loneliness epidemic, as well as the regenerative agriculture and the organic food movements that nurture both our bodies and the planet. When we can think and feel well together, that’s a double win for the common good.

When we can recognize what’s pushing us — in our personal lives and as a society — we already have a degree of freedom from it. Freeing ourselves from harmful systems starts from within, and what we do to grow and evolve as individuals in a world filled with manipulation and propaganda. It starts with what we do to heal our bodies and minds from toxic chemicals, toxic beliefs, and toxic ways of relating with each other. It deepens as we harmonize our choices with the natural world. Challenging information can paradoxically remind us of the greater good. It is the courage of the people and the love for the common good that brings these injustices to light—fueling open dialogue and constructive action.

With faith in a healthy world,
Amber Yang for WantToKnow.info

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