U.S. citizens: Demand Congress investigate soaring excess death rates
(LifeSiteNews) — In a riveting U.S. Senate roundtable discussion taking aim at the state of America’s health and nutrition, expert panelists spoke truths about Big Pharma and Big Medicine for which they have been routinely “ridiculed, vilified, and canceled,” according to Sen. Ron Johnson, host of the event.
Introducing “American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion,” Sen. Johnson promised the discussion would “seek answers to questions we have been discouraged to even ask.”
“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,” explained Calley Means, the man who helped forge a bond between former President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“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.”
Our weaponized ultra-processed foods
Means 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.”
“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.”
Very important presentation by Calley Means:
“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.If you think about a medical miracle, it’s almost certainly a solution that was invented… pic.twitter.com/eMAIcG41eC
— Camus (@newstart_2024) September 25, 2024
‘We are not simply living longer; we are dying longer’
“Ultra processed foods meet the exact same criteria for addictive substances as tobacco products” noted Max Lugavere, a best-selling author who educates readers on how nutrition impacts cognitive function.
“This is why America is facing an obesity epidemic. (It’s) not about willpower,” Lugavere said. “It’s about the food system.”
Lugavere described most of the items available on the shelves of grocery stores not as food but as “food-like items.”
“Today, we are not simply living longer; We are dying longer,” Lugavere said. “We’re living out our final decades plagued by illnesses that are largely preventable.”
“The food we eat is either the safest form of medicine, or the slowest form of poison,” he warned.
Lugavere ended with a provocative question: “If your grocery store has a health food section, what does that make the rest of the store?”
Watch the entire four-hour panel discussion:
U.S. citizens: Demand Congress investigate soaring excess death rates