(LifeSiteNews) — Large corporations that manufacture and market highly processed food products are funding a fake “food borne illness advocacy” group to provide quotes to media attacking and undermining Health and Human Service Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promotion of real, organic foods while simultaneously arguing that ultra-processed foods are safer.
HHS advisor Calley Means took to social media over the weekend to call attention to D.C. insider media site Politico’s article that quoted the Stop Foodborne Illness coalition regarding this year’s cyclosporiasis outbreak.
Cyclosporiasis is caused by a parasite that causes debilitating explosive diarrhea, often for an extended period of time.
“We do have the outbreak under control,” Kennedy said during a July press conference. “We’ve identified the source of the outbreak. We and the companies that are involved have implemented a recall.”
The Politico story argued that RFK Jr.’s healthy food messaging is being called into question because of this and other recent outbreaks caused by natural fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products.
The outlet reported:
About 19 million eggs were recalled after the FDA found a potential link to salmonella that sickened nearly 100 people. Salmonella linked to jalapeños in 27 states has hit more than 300 people. A dozen people also fell ill from a separate multistate outbreak linking an E. coli to frozen blueberries. And listeria linked to soft cheese sickened another dozen, and killed one person, according to the CDC. All of that happened in the past two months.
“If we have outbreaks like this one and then a few months later, it’s another one, that totally undermines the message,” said Sandra Eskin, a Biden administration food safety official who is now CEO of the advocacy group Stop Foodborne Illness.
“Whenever you read about the cyclospora outbreak, please know that junk food companies are paying millions of dollars to spur this hysteria to get you to eat less real food,” Means warned in an X post.
“There are cyclospora outbreaks every year,” he explained. “This is the first year there is a media frenzy.”
“These companies are funding a fake ‘food borne illness advocacy’ group to give quotes to media attacking RFK’s ‘real food’ pitch and argue ultra-processed food is safer,” Means said in a separate X post.
“This is the group quoted in (the) article, run by (a) former Biden official,” he noted.
Whenever you read about the cyclospora outbreak, please know that junk food companies are paying millions of dollars to spur this hysteria to get you to eat less real food.
There are cyclospora outbreaks every year.
This is the first year there is a media frenzy. https://t.co/Sx92vaq1rw
— Calley Means (@calleymeans) August 8, 2026
The organization’s partners include multinational food and beverage corporations Hershey, Kellogg, Mars, Nestlé, and PepsiCo and massive retail companies Amazon, Costco, and Wegmans.
“The idea that a few tainted items (raw lettuce and produce) imported from Mexico could derail an entire food movement is silly: in addition, this year line compared to 2024 food borne illnesses are down significantly compared to 2024,” popular online commentator Chef Andrew Gruel said. “Here’s the advice: lettuce is junk, eat real greens, sautéed. If you’re worried about imported produce, cook it.”
Weaponized ultra-processed foods
“Life expectancy has not increased in the past 100 years. We spend 90 to 95% of all medical spending on chronic issues, and it’s done nothing,” Means explained during a Senate panel in 2024.
“When it comes to the chronic conditions that are plaguing our lives, we should distrust almost every institution regarding nutrition or chronic disease advice,” asserted Means, who previously worked as a consultant for food and pharmaceutical companies.
“Heart disease has gone up as more statins are prescribed. Type 2 diabetes has gone up as more metformin is prescribed. ADHD (Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) has gone up as more Adderall is prescribed,” Means said. “Depression and suicide has gone up as more SSRs (antidepressants) are prescribed. Pain has gone up as more opioids are prescribed. Cancer has gone up as we’ve spent more on cancer.”
He continued:
We are getting sick. Nine out of 10 killers of Americans – 90 percent of medical costs – are from a weaponized food system. It’s not that complicated.
When I say weaponized, I mean that literally. Our processed food industry was created by the cigarette industry. In the 1980s, after decades of inaction, the Surgeon General and the U.S. government finally said that smoking might be harmful. And smoking rates plummeted. We listen to doctors in this country. We listened to medical leadership.
And as smoking rates plummeted, cigarette companies with their big balance sheets strategically bought up food companies. And by 1990, the two largest food companies in the world were Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, two cigarette companies.
Making food as addictive as cigarettes, by design
Means explained that cigarette companies transplanted two departments from their cigarette divisions to their newly acquired food divisions.
“They moved the scientists,” Means said. “Cigarette companies were the highest payers of scientists – one of the biggest employers of scientists – to make the cigarettes addictive.”
“The tobacco titans then moved their world-leading addiction specialists to their food divisions “by the thousands.”
“Those scientists weaponized our ultra-processed food,” Means declared. “That is the problem with ultra-processed food. You have the best scientists in the world creating this food to be palatable and to be addictive.”
“They then moved their lobbyists over. They used the same playbook. And their lobbyists co-opted the USDA and created the Food Pyramid,” Means said. “The Food Pyramid was a document created by the cigarette industry through complete corporate capture and was an ultra-processed food marketing document saying that we needed to eat a bunch of carbs and sugar.”
Ultra-processed food consumption creates big profits for the healthcare industry
“The devil’s bargain comes in in that this ultra-processed food consumption has been one of the most profitable dynamics in American history for the healthcare industry as we’ve all just been decimated with chronic conditions. The medical industry has not only been silent on this issue; they’ve actually been complicit,” he added.
“The truth is we need to listen to the medical system if you have an acute issue like a life-threatening infection or broken bone,” Means said, “but when it comes to the chronic conditions that are plaguing our lives, we should distrust almost every institution regarding nutrition or chronic disease advice.”