If the current market is rigged, you can’t have an open market

Note: I am writing a book and starting a company to put food and lifestyle habits (not band-aids like pills and surgical interventions) at the center of how we think about healthcare. This article is a copy of an email I sent, analyzing one fact per day from my work. If you find this interesting, please sign up:

My career began when I was a consultant for Coke in order to combat sugar taxes in Pennsylvania. The most powerful African American pastors in Pennsylvania were first identified by us. Coke donated millions of dollars to them then, confidently. Following the press conference, the pastors claimed that sugar taxes were racist. The media covered it, racial tensions flared, and Coke defeated the taxes.

This is the essence of the daily playbook that pharma- and food companies use to preserve this status quo.

“Personal choice” Arguments on health and food used to resonate a lot with me. 

• “People like to drink Coke and eat fast food. We can’t infringe on their freedom.” 
• “Curbing sugar attacks personal choice.” 
• “Patients are going to make bad choices. The Medical system stands ready to clean up the mess.” 
• “People getting fat is a matter of personal responsibility.” 

A crucial fact however changed my outlook: You can’t have a free market when the current market is rigged. Healthcare and food corporations have co-opted free markets thinking. They lobby more than any other industry to rig it and then complain that anyone who questions the system is being unfair. “anti-free market.” This is a trap that even the most intelligent conservatives I have ever met fall into. 

Pre-diabetes in 25% of teens is not due to “personal choice” – it is because of a rigged system that is decimating human capital. The undermining of our brains and bodies on a systemic scale is a first-order issue to almost any other public policy challenge.

The science is clear: if we want to keep people healthy and improve our human capital in America – we need to do three things: 

1. Limit sugar
2. Limit intake of omega-6 fats (seed oil) 
3. Reduce processed grains 

We don’t need to consider bans or taxes. We can begin by removing two of America’s most destructive crony capitalism practices. 

1. These items are subsidized by tens to billions of dollars
2. This is due to the fact that these items are eligible for SNAP benefits. A government nutrition program on which 15% of the country rely. My. TrueMed Justin Mares, co-founder, points out revenue from taxpayer-funded SNAP made up close to 20% Coke’s annual US revenue that year. This is the worst. 

Again, I think a revolution in health will happen and policies will change – but it will happen from the bottom-up: from the hundreds of microdecisions we all make every day. 

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