I had my first truly viral post a couple of weeks ago. You can check it here.
Over the course of the last two weeks, this post has reached over 4 million people. Reaching this many people has allowed for a lot of interactions that have been eye-opening and informative for me.
One of the most common comments I got on the post was some version of, “who cares, we all know soda is bad for us so just don’t listen to the industry-funded research.”
This is fair. After all, I think we are all in agreement that soda, especially when consumed in excess, is terrible for our health. As individuals, we can definitely choose not to take any advice otherwise. I recommend doing so.
This problem is much bigger than the individual though.
We have to remember that the food industry also funds major health organizations like the American Heart Association, The American Diabetes Association, and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Organizations like this play a major role in nutrition policy. Another way of saying, they help decide what food is provided to the sick in our hospitals. The food that is in our children’s school cafeterias. Even the food that is approved for nutrition resources provided to people with low income.
It seems to me this is a big reason why our sick don’t get better, our children are getting fatter, and low-income families are bearing the most burden of chronic disease.
Another common theme I noticed in the comments is the perceived humanness of this monster we have created. It seems as though many people think there is a lot of this guy out there:
I’ll admit, I am young and naive (and maybe a bit of a romantic), so I don’t believe that there are that many bad people out there. I think there are bad systems. I think corporations are designed to win and when left unchecked, they will always trend toward the quickest and easiest way of doing so. Regardless of the impact it has on society as a whole.
And I think this is good news because that means there is something we can do about it. We can be better. We can fix it. We can come together to improve policies that keep corporations in check while incentivizing them to make money by helping improve the health of our population. Not destroy it.
And you might say, “well that’s hard. It’s really complex. Good luck fixing it.” Well, you’re right but pardon my french, what the fuck else are we going to do? Do nothing? Rely on medications, weight loss shots, and a healthcare system to fix the problem?
I don’t know about you but I look forward to a much brighter future than that.
Thanks for reading,
Chris Irvin
Extra Notes:
If you’re into food policy, I highly recommend checking out Dr. Mark Hyman’s book Food Fix. It is an incredibly well-researched book that lays out the intertwined issues of the modern food system and well-thought-out proposed solutions to many of them. I think this book needs to be in the hands of a lot of people.
Perfect Keto is running a Valentine’s Day promo. I know what you’re thinking, “did he just sponsor his newsletter on the impact of industry-funded research?” Lol yes I did. But it’s an industry I worked in and Perfect Keto is a company I worked for. I can confidently say they are taking every step possible to optimize the health of humans with their dozens of product iterations to ensure the products are made with metabolic health in mind to the thousands of pieces of health education available for free. PK is the real deal. Take advantage of their Valentine’s Day sale where you can get BOGO on some of their best products!