June 1, 2025 • 31 mins
Newt talks with Calley Means about “The MAHA Report,” released by Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which highlights the declining health of American children and explores dietary, behavioral, medical, and environmental factors contributing to this crisis. The report calls for a transformation of food, health, and scientific systems to improve the health of Americans. Means shares insights into the systemic issues in the healthcare system, emphasizing the need for a focus on metabolic health and the root causes of chronic diseases. Their conversation explores the impact of ultra-processed foods, environmental toxins, and over-medicalization on health, advocating for transparency and informed choices for consumers. Means underscores the importance of a grassroots movement to drive change and improve health outcomes, with a focus on Making America Healthy Again.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
On this episode of News World. On May twenty second,
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Junior,
published the MAHA Report, a call to action to make
Our Children Healthy Again. The report presents a picture of
the declining health of American children, backed by data and
long term trends. More importantly, the report seeks to unpack
(00:27):
the potential dietary, behavioral, medical, and environmental drivers behind this crisis.
After a century of costly and ineffective approaches, the federal
government will lead a coordinated transformation of our food, health,
and scientific systems. This will ensure that all Americans today
and in the future live longer, healthier lives. And I
(00:49):
have to say I had the opportunity to come in
to be at the initial presentation of this report, which
was in the East Room at the White House, and
it was a very very impressive performance both by Secretary Kennedy,
the other members of the Cabinet, and by President Trump.
It was very encouraging to listen to where they're going
and one of the key leaders in helping us get
(01:11):
there is with us today and so Kelly means is remarkable. Kelly,
welcome and thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
On Newsword.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Thank you, dude, And it was so encouraging and just
appropriate for you to be in the front of that
event and to be acknowledged by President Trump because your
ideas and big thinking, I mean, has influenced this MAHA
effort significantly.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You and your.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Sister, Casey Means recently nominated by President Trump to be
the next surgeon General.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
How did the two of you get into all this?
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yeah, it's three big strains, dude.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I grew up in DC and actually met you as
an end I think seventeen years ago. You were gracious
enough to it was an event where it was the
highlight of the summer where White House interns came and
we had an hour and a half policy session with you.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Like many people at EC, I did campaigns.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And was a public affairs and consultant lobbyists and saw
kind of the interworkings of DC. And I don't think
all lobbyists are bad. It's just you saw how the
system works.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
It worked for the.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Food and farm industries. I've been in entrepreneurship for ten years.
But my sister, I mean, I really do think a
lot of the spirit of this movement comes from her.
I think she has a singular ability to connect the dots.
She was top of her class Stanford med School, top
of her residency program, and now as she searched in general,
everyone it's like, well, she left the system. You know
what happened. What happened is she had a moral awakening
and she realized that she joined the medical system for
(02:41):
people to get healthy, and nobody around her, no patients
were getting healthier. She left the system. Started talking about that.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I mean, one of the wraps over is that she
actually is not currently a practicing doctor. She's out doing
all this, which given her background I think is kind
of goofy.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
She clearly knows what she's talking about.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Well, Casey's extraordinary, and she was a practicing doctor. She
left the medical system and saw hundreds of patients, thousands
of patients. She got a functional medicine certification. She actually
helped people, you know, ninety percent of maladies in the
United States medical costs or chronic disease. And she was
doing head of next surgery where she was cutting out
(03:22):
inflammation in the sinus. And she never understood in medical
school why people get inflamation in the first place, and
why somebody needs sin a citis surgery, needs you know,
diabetes medication, and needs heart disease issues, and has all
these other issues. So she worked to put together the
root cause, and then in twenty twenty four she stopped
treating patients because she was working with Bobby Kennedy and
(03:42):
President Trump to coalesce this MAHA movement and wrote Good Energy,
which really resonated. It's the best selling a nonfiction book
in the past year. So I think voters know and
people know that Casey has really, I think, impacted many
more patients than if she stayed cutting in people's faces
all day, not really curing the root cause. But I
(04:04):
do think there's a reckoning in the medical system right now.
I think a lot of people are in that system.
They know Casey's right, they know our system. It's not
about slight Medicare, Medicaid reform. There's really a foundational incentive issue.
Casey is boldly talking about that, and I do think
it's very scary and eliciting a response from the medical system,
(04:27):
which is the largest part of the US economy.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I think that's something very important for people to understand
that one out of every five dollars right now is
in the health system, and that it's really a sick
care system, not a healthcare system, and that you and
your sister are among the real leaders trying to rethink this.
Now you co found a true med to help people
use their funds for proactive health tools like Sauna's wage supplants.
(04:53):
Why do you think it's so important that people are
able to use pre tax dollars for these kind of
health investments.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
So I was idalized by Casey when she left the
medical system. I was like everyone else, I'm like, what
are you doing. You're throwing your life away, and she's like,
I have to do it. It came together with my
mom's death in twenty twenty one. So my mom was
the standard American patient where she had high cholesterol, got
a STAT and had high blood sugar, got met Foreman,
high high blood pressure, got an eights inhibitor. At a
checkup at seventy years old at Stanford Hospital, she was
(05:21):
told that she was a healthy seventy year old because
on five crock to these medications, she was on less
than the average American. Actually the average seven year old's
on more than five. Then she's taking a hike, has
a pain in her stomach, gets a scan, gets a
text the next day of stage four pancreatic cancer, and
the wake up call for me, the lightning bolt was
(05:41):
sitting across in the Stanford oncologist who said, this was
a tough break, but cancer rates are an all time
high and out of two hundred and twelve Stephen Miller
talked about this beautifully at the event. Out of two
hundred and twelve countries that measure cancer rates in the world,
we are the worst. We are the highest cancer rates
of any civilization in human history. This year in the
United States, it's all going up, obviously because of environmental factors, food,
(06:05):
you know, this mix of issues. I immediately after Mom's death,
my sister and I pledged to talk about this issue.
And it's a complicated issue. It's a long term issue,
it's a mature issue. So we wrote the book, We advocated,
We got to know President Trump's team, We got to
know Bobby Kennedy, senators, congressman. On the left and right,
there's real bipartisan animation around this issue. For whatever reason,
the left's given it up and President Trump, to his
(06:27):
amazing credit, has taken it on. It does represent a
microcosm of I think where our world needs to go,
which is we spend almost it's now five trillion on
healthcare and ninety five percent of that as medical interventions.
After we're sick, and I think about my mom and
if a doctor just gave her clinically accurate advice when
she had that high blood sugar, explained what's going on,
explained how some supplementation, if they had more blood tests
(06:50):
of how she has some nutrient deficiencies, better food. There's
incredible research on things like saunas. In Finland, there's one
sona for every person. They live six years longer than us.
So if we actually can steer the medical system not
to mandating broccoli or mandating exercise, but just to assess
what's happening with the American patient. You know, the fact
of the matter is drugs absolutely play a role. And
(07:12):
you know, maybe a seventy five year old person who's
very diabetic set in their ways, I don't know obst
they probably do need some ozimpic and do need some drugs.
But a twelve year old right now, at twelve year old,
if they're a little bit sad, they're getting an SSRI. Now,
the American Academy be theatrics is saying they need ozimpic.
You know, they're on stands now at a higher rate.
So there's been an attack on really medical autonomy, a
(07:35):
doctor assessing what's happening with that patient and often. And
this sounded hippie to me five years ago, but I
think it's just clinically accurate. You know, we need to
see food and supplementation and other root cause interventions as
part of the medical system. Have patients have that flexibility
with their doctor, because that's just clinically what happens. And
(07:56):
our company uses HSAFSA, we unlock HSAFSA spend and I
know we're both fans of that. I do think just
giving patients more flexibility and information is a core part
of the solution.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
For those of us who don't have nearly the knowledge
that you and your sister have good energy. Subtitle is
the Surprising connection between metabolism and limitless health.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
It means that we silo the medical system into forty
two specialties in eighty two subspecialties. But I just cannot
emphasize this enough. Ninety percent of medical costs and nine
out of ten causes of American death are chronic lifestyle
conditions our cells. It's the environment that our cells have
(08:40):
evolutionally grown to exist and to produce metabolism, to produce
energy to power our bodies are under assault and new
A lot of these things that are under assault by
are good things, right. You know, we've had innovation and food.
We've had innovation and conveniences of modern life. We're more
sedentary now. We've had good in many way ways, drug innovation.
(09:01):
We've had these chemicals and industry produce all of these
innovations that power every single aspect of our lives.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
What the book.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Argues is that this industrialization and this modernization, it's not
a judgment, but it's just an arguable that ulti processed
food going from zero percent of our child's diet to
seventy percent in just sixty years, that's a dynamic that
impacts ourselves.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
The fact that seventy seven.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Percent of American youth are ineligible to join the military
because they're so sedentary, and children in public schools that
get less time outside than a.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Maximum security prison, that is a dynamic.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
The fact that there's eighty thousand chemicals that have been
produced that power every aspect of American life and are
absolutely necessary to our civilization. The fact that the US
and justts twenty five percent of the world's pesticides, that's
a dynamic, and that's what the book is about, is
that it's I think really inarguable. Nobody would even argue
this if you really push them, that we have a
(09:58):
holistic metabo health crisis, not a crisis of not enough medication,
not enough medical spending. This event, I was tearing up
during the event with President Trump because I think what
it represents is maturity from the government to both acknowledge
this long term reality we all agree with, which is
(10:19):
that we've lost our way a little bit. We've lost
our way where we have four point nine billion prescriptions
a year in the United States and thirty five percent
of teams run some kind of medication. That's not an
anti drug message. I talked to a bunch of farmer
lobby They don't disagree with that. So what this event
did is build this bridge ten years from now where
a healthcare system acknowledges the interconnectivity of chronic disease and
(10:42):
creates better incentives to where the pharmaceutical industry is thriving
by creating drugs that promote.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Longevity, not just managed disease.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Where hospitals are more incentivized to have empty beds, not
full beds. Where the American farmer is at the center
of health, and the US is creating the best most
nutritious food in the world, and American children are eating
great American grown whole food. That's the vision that's being painted.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Now.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Getting there is going to be a mature and sometimes
probably difficult conversation, but we need to have it.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Walk me through. First of all, what is metabolic function?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Our cells power organs, and when cells malfunction organs, it's function,
and organ dysfunction is disease. When our cells in our
brain dysfunction, that creates brain prompts, it creates depression. When
cells in our liver malfunction, it creates liver issues, clotty
liver disease. You know, when scals in our skin malfunction,
we have dermatology issues. So foundationally, what's happening. And let's
just take one example of what underlies metabol because function
(11:54):
with glucose cells are powered by glucose sugar, and glucose
consumption has gone up eighty times in one.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Hundred and fifty years.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
It's evolutionarily unprecedented, and as cells are overpowered with this
energy source glucose, a lot of bad things happen and
our cells start malfunctioning. Now, based on this nineteen o
nine report, the Flexner Report, it's still an effect today
and it mandates that chronic disease and all diseases are
treated in silos. So fundamentally, we have a system where
(12:25):
if you have high cholesterol, for instance, it's a statin,
no problem. And literally the guidance when you get a
statin is okay, you can keep eating what you want
to eat. But if you take that stat and reduce
the one arbitrary biomarker, but you're still pounding your body
and pounding your cells with that ultraprocessed food, with that glucose.
If you're not getting enough sunlight, which our cells are like,
(12:48):
we need that like around our bodies to power our cells.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
If you're not getting.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Enough movement, which is crucial for proper cellular function, if
you're not addressing the root cause of what's causing that
cellular dysfunction, you keep having whack a mole with what
we argue in the book are branches of the tree,
the base of the tree is that our cells are malfunctioning.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
It's not. You know, we're all, oh the.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
New York Times headlines all the time. There's literally been
headlines diabetes is skyrocketing among kids. Nobody knows why cancer
rates are skyrocketing kids. Nobody knows why autoimmune conditions, autism,
all of these conditions, every chronic disease is an all
time high right now.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
And instead of at the end of.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
The road trying to drug that all the time, if
we literally look at five biomarkers high blood pressure, high
blood sugar, cholesterol, dragostrites, HDL, and BMI, your waistline. If
you get those five biomarkers under control, which are the
definitions of what's metabolic dysfunction, is you almost by definition
(13:48):
don't have many of the leading conditions that are killing
Americans right now, like heart disease and diabetes. Those are
all relatively controllable. And I think, you know, just as
Bobby Kennedy said, we're going to bring the Dietary Guidelines
from four and fifty pages to four, I think we
can bring a lot of medical guidance and medical incentives
to much more simple principles like let's get those metabolic
(14:08):
biomarkers under control. Let's have all hands on deck. Let's inspire,
let's educate, and let's incentivize. Let's get patients more choice
to get to the root cause. But that's the main
thesis new The most chronic diseases are tied to these
foundational factors that are leading ourselves to malfunction, which are
then downstream causing a lot of these maladies that are
(14:29):
impacting American life.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Your first really big step was to do this initial
assessment which got published as Make Our Children Healthy Again,
which you gave me the opportunity to read before was published.
And it is a staggering document, and the scale of
the health crisis for young people is so much greater
than I know. What led you to decide that getting
(14:51):
that assessment done was the first big step.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
We've talked a little bit about this.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
I've talked to honestly, Center Ron Johnson's and Senator Roger
Marshall and some Senators Vince Haley. This has been a
beautiful coalition of people that have really taken to this issue.
And one thing I hear from the Smorlest people a
lot is that in order to drive foundational change. You
need to assess with the American people what the facts are.
This isn't a finger pointing. It's not a partisan issue.
(15:18):
We're a sick country. Kids are sick. It's not because
as Democrats argue that we're not spending enough on healthcare.
We've got some foundational issues in our country where ourselves
are being poisoned. Clearly, there's something wrong, and I think
a lot of voters and Americans are starting to understand that,
and they're frustrated. And I think that frustration has been
positively channeled into this MAJA movement that led millions of moms, independents,
(15:42):
young people to vote for the Republicans, to vote for
President Trump for the first time. And I think we're
still in this phase where we need to have the
baseline conversation about what's happening and my goal, and we've
talked about this. I think we need to win that
argument because if you win the argument that the incentives
of our healthcare system, and this is a core argument
my sister and I make, and a core argument President
(16:04):
Trump and Bobby.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Kennedy made is it's no big judgment.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
This has been decades of decisions from many different people
but our system profits for metabolic dysfunction. Our system profits
when kids are obese, when kids are depressed, when kids
are in fear, when kids are pre diabetic. That just
demonstrably profits the system right now. So we need to
create this baseline of a conversation that there's a problem.
And then I personally think that Republicans and that the
(16:30):
President Trump, we're going to have better solutions. But let's
debate the solutions then if we assess that there's an
existential problem.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
So I'd be very happy.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
New and I think it's happening where we start changing
the conversation around health to really understand the root cause problem.
And I think it can't be understated. How a federal
government document.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
You won't believe this. I couldn't believe that.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
It's the first time ultiprocessed food has ever been mentioned
as a potential problem in a federal government document. It
is the first time that over medicalization has been talked
about in the full federal government document. You know, it's
the first time concerns around environmental toxins have been really
strongly mentioned as a potential contributed health So this is
pretty radical. It's why there was so much frankly lobbying
(17:16):
and discussion around just a simple government report.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
That's no policy.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
But that's what the administration is bravely trying to do
is have that conversation.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I cannot overstate for our listeners if they get a
copy of Make Our Children Healthy, to get the assessment,
and when.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
You look at it, if you're at all like me and.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
You run across things, for example, that more than one
in five children over six is obese. That's a two
hundred and seventy percent increase compared to the seventies one
in less than one and twenty children were It's stagnant.
The rheumatic increase, and the number of children that were
born who are suffering from various mental conditions, and suddenly
(17:57):
we have to deal with things. Historically we're very rare,
and now they're common.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Teenage depression nearly doubled since two thousand and nine. More
than one in four teenage girls in twenty twenty two
reported a major depressive episode. Three million high school students
seriously considered suicide last year. Suicide deaths among teens increased
sixty two percent since two thousand and seven. Suicide is
(18:23):
the second leading cause of death among teens. I'm optimistic.
I'm actually like so in a way energized that the
government's talking about this. It's certainly depressing, but everything's changing, right,
Everything's changed so fast. In this report, it doesn't make
a judgment, really, it just explains what changed again without
(18:44):
pointing fingers. It's like the fact that one hundred percent
of fats in the American diet, or animal based fats
like butter, sixty years ago, and now eighty percent of
fats are a brand new creation, this industrial seed oils.
There's all this discuss Oh, it's anti science to attack
seed dolls. I don't have the science, and there's no
(19:06):
government plan to regulate seed oils. But the fact that
the components of our diet have changed so quickly it's
worth discussing. It's worth discussing that one hundred percent of
our grains fifty years ago were whole grains and now
eighty percent of our grains are refined grains. Refined grains
take the fiber off because it makes it more shelf stable,
but that fiber blunts the glucose impact of the grains,
(19:28):
and that fiber is what contrains all the nutritional values
so these are kind of non political topics. But like
when you look at the change of our metabolic inputs,
food movement, environmental toxins, medicalization.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
You go through the list and.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Then look at the dramatic change and how we're such
an outlier versus almost every other country on health outcomes.
It does beg for a conversation. I can't emphasize this enough.
This is an invitation from the Trump administration for a
mature conversation because this is a big topic.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
As a consumer, how do I go to the grocery
store and know whether I'm getting ultra processed foods or
traditionally process foods.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
The report goes into that. So let's just make it
very simple.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I think at three year old, This is my argument
to people who sometimes you try to make it too complicated.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
You know, a three year old knows.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
What a processed food is versus whole food. A whole
food is something without ingredients. With seventy percent of diets now,
is ultra process food? What I think the areas to
look into, and I look at it from just what
has changed in the American diet, an ultraprocessed food and
the foundation of the American diet right now is refined grains,
and I talked about that that takes the fiber off.
(21:01):
It's been a massive increase of refined grain. So any
type of rich flour, in rich wheat, that's usually the
first thing in the box when you look at something
you're holding in a box. Number two is added sugar.
Sugar consumption has exploded. Added sugar is really a new
phenomenon to the human diet. It's really just in the
past one hundred hundred and fifty years that it even
has existed. So you've added sugar in there. There's forty
different names for sugar on a label. Often there's many
(21:24):
different types of names, and it's to not.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Make it the first ingredient.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
And then industrial process seed oils, and again I don't
want to get into the debate on that, but canola
oil is the top source of American calories right now.
It is an invention of the past one hundred years
and it is a process where you heat up seeds
into a sludge and you douse that sludge in rust,
remover and bleach and literally eighteen other processed steps to
(21:50):
create an oil that's about fifteen times cheaper than olive oil.
So those are the three components of ultra processed food
are essentially like brand new ingredients into the human body.
And then you've got the preservatives and you've got all
the additives, which we're having a really biparson conversation about it.
(22:11):
If there's animation on the right. I mean the Maha
conservative moms are the ones who led the outrage about
the food dies. I mean these food dyes that are
in I think it's sixty percent of children's food are
made of petroleum. And I love oil, and as President
Trup said, baby's not touching the liquid gold. But I
don't know if we should be eating it. It's banned
in every other country, and there's very clear studies showing
(22:34):
that it's linked to developmental.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Issues and things like that.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
So there are preservatives like BHT and tanitanium dioxide that
are really problematic that are banned in almost every other
country in the world. So I think it's very appropriate,
I believe, very conservative for the FDA now to be
running studies on these things, to have transparency. I think
there's in the medical and the food system kind of
(22:57):
a lack of informed consent, and you're inevitably eating these
chemicals that the FDA has.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Really been to sleep at the wheel on. The last
thing I'll.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Say new on ultiprocessed food is I think we always
have to remember that the ultraprocess food industry was created
by the cigarette industry, and in the eighties, you know,
it was not a huge part.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Of our diet. Ultrap process food.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
It's skyrocketed since the eighties. But in the eighties, Philip
Morris and R. J. Reynolds bought food companies RJ, they
bought Nibisco, they bought Craft, they bought US Foods. So
forty percent of the US food supply in nineteen ninety
was controlled by the cigarette industry who started consolidating food companies,
and they very deliberately added all these chemicals and ultra
processed food to make it more palatable and make it
(23:38):
more addictive.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
They shifted literally.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Their cigarette scientists who were focused on addiction to food.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
So again it's not.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Really finger pointing, it's not really a political issue, but
we do have a food system that just factually was
influenced by cigarette industry scientists to put softwagers in the
food to make us chew less, you know, to put
the best R and d re searchers and scientists in
the world to figure out flavors that made us want
to eat more, to very deliberately devoid the food of
(24:05):
nutrients so our body doesn't feel full, but you keep.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Eating like that was very deliberate.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Right now, actually, on earnings calls, large food companies are
saying that they're studying ozimpic because they're trying to figure
out the exact molecules in ozimpic to make us not
want to eat more, so that they can hack those molecules.
So even when you're taking ozimpic, you still want to
keep eating the food like That's the type of research
just demonstrably that processed food industry does. Whereas if you're
(24:33):
eating steak or eating broccoli or whatever, our body has
ingrained systems to know what's enough, which is why there's
no chronic obesio epidemic among wild animals. The humans are
the only animal that have this problem. It's because we
have food that's hijacking our evolutionary biology. So again, long
term conversation, but we have to grapple with this dynamic
(24:56):
where that's seventy percent of our child's diet right now.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Favorite Hamburger and an Altburger. They just announced that they're
taking the pink dye out of their strawberry milkshakes.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Free market Action.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Skittles just removed titanium dioxide yesterday. The thing with the
food and the even pharma, they're all human beings. President
Trump said it at the event. You try to make
these arguments around why we spend ten times more on
some drugs than others, they can't defend that. The food industry,
there's really actually positive conversations, and there's positive conversations around
this report because nobody on a human level disagrees with
(25:32):
the state of human health being unacceptable. Nobody disagrees it
has to do with food and these other factors. So
I actually do think there's some positive discussions happening. And no,
the largest food companies, the largest restaurants in the world
are changing based on consumer demand, and you're going to
see a lot more of that. And I do think,
and I'm optimistic if this movement holds. If the MAHA Coalition,
(25:55):
I'll just be blunt, stays with the Republicans, stays with
President Trump, because that gives them a sword to fight
on these issues. We're going to have a much different
country in four years. I think in ten years we
will have a totally reset incentive structure that helps American
farmers grow whole food and rewards medical companies for promoting longevity,
not just disemagement.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
As I look from my background, as I look at
your report, which I strongly urge people to get the
MAHA Report, and we're going to make sure they can
get it. If we could get to a healthier America,
I think we would take about four percent of the
gross domestic product out of the cost of health care
(26:35):
just because people be healthier, they.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Wouldn't need it.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
I think that is an extraordinary opportunity both to save
lives in a very real sense, and also I cannot
imagine getting back to a balanced budget without having a
truly successful approach to MAHA and a real resetting of
the American system around being healthy and having genuine health
(26:58):
care rather sick care. I think there has to be
a MAHA movement on the outside. It's even more important
than the things the government's going to do on the inside,
because if this becomes much the way I say Mother's
unstrunk driving did, if this becomes an integral part of
how we think about things five or ten years from now,
(27:19):
we're going to be a dramatically healthier country.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
Well, I totally agree with you.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
It just got off the flight from Texas meeting with
Governor Abbott. The most lobbied bill in the Texas legislature
this year, out of all the issues in Texas, the
most lobbied bill by an order of magnitude was a
bill led by Maha Moms to just have some increased
transparency on food labeling. No regulation, increased transparency, which I
consider a conservative principle. Let people do whatever they want.
(27:46):
I'm a libertarian, take drugs, eat whatever you want, drink
whatever you want. But we have I think mass uninformed
consent with the American people when it comes to food
and when it comes to healthcare. This bill was lobbied
the CEOs of international food companies Food to Texas and
at pass.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
We'll see what the governor does.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
But there was an acknowledgment in Texas that there was
more animation from lobbyists on this bill, and there was
more animation from voters than any bill this year. I
agree with you, the Maha coalition doesn't even be an
organized that much, but there's this energy around this frustration
on children's health. This year needs to be about laying
(28:22):
the baseline this report, getting people on board with the thesis,
because if you win the argument, I think of the
inarguable reality that we have a pretty broken incentives, it
necessitates real reform and real discussion of reform. I think
we're doing short term wins like the food dies right now,
like taking the COVID vaccine off the CZ schedule for kids,
(28:43):
which is a no brainer President Trump and Bobby Kennedy
just did with some FDA conflict of interest reform. But
if the movement can stay, I think it was so
notable at the event as you didn't just have the
HTS secretary, you had Russ Voyd from the OMB, you
had representatives of the military, you know, the administration. You
had a whole of government approach. And I think at
(29:05):
least what I'm seeing among the highest ranks the administration
is there's a historic amount of cross collaboration and it
is a growing understanding that the biggest line item there
our budget is sick people. That's what's bankrupt gots more
than anything. And if we could even normalize croc disease,
rights and life expects it to European levels.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
We would save trillions of dollars. I can't emphasize this enough.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
You have much more happy, productive people in the economy.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
You're offering people a chance to live longer, live healthier,
basically be much happier if you, in fact do create
do arouse I think is probably a better way to
put it. A genuine make America Healthy again movement that
gets into the grassroots and the way you described in Texas,
for example, and it gets people so they shop differently.
(29:57):
I mean, the food manufacturers in the end will follow
the customers. I think what you and your sister have accomplished,
the degree to which you have begun at a profound
level to move one of the most important parts of
the American system. It's frankly encouraging as a matter of
citizenship that ideas and people encourage and energy and persistence
(30:18):
really still matter in America, and you two are living
proof that it's going on. I want to thank you
for joining me. I know how amazingly busy you are.
Our listeners can download the Maha Report for free by
visiting White House dot Go slash Maha. That's Maha. I
encourage everyone to take a look at it, read it
and support this new effort to make our children healthy again.
(30:41):
And we're going to put a link to the Maha
Report on our show page at Newtsworld. And Kelly, thank
you so much for taking time out of your amazingly
busy schedule to join us now.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Your big thinking has inspired us more than you know,
and it's an honor to have this conversation with you.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
I guess Kelly means you can get a link to
the Maha Report on our show page at Newtsworld dot com.
Newsworld is produced by Gingrishtreet sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive
producer is Guarnsey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The
artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley. Special
thanks to the team at Gingrishtree sixty. If you're enjoying Newtsworld,
(31:22):
I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and both rate
us with five stars and give us a review so
others can learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners
of Newtsworld consigner for my three free weekly columns at
Ginglishtree sixty dot com slash newsletter.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I'm newt gingrich. This is newtsworld.
On this episode of News World. On May twenty second,
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Junior,
published the MAHA Report, a call to action to make
Our Children Healthy Again. The report presents a picture of
the declining health of American children, backed by data and
long term trends. More importantly, the report seeks to unpack
(00:27):
the potential dietary, behavioral, medical, and environmental drivers behind this crisis.
After a century of costly and ineffective approaches, the federal
government will lead a coordinated transformation of our food, health,
and scientific systems. This will ensure that all Americans today
and in the future live longer, healthier lives. And I
(00:49):
have to say I had the opportunity to come in
to be at the initial presentation of this report, which
was in the East Room at the White House, and
it was a very very impressive performance both by Secretary Kennedy,
the other members of the Cabinet, and by President Trump.
It was very encouraging to listen to where they're going
and one of the key leaders in helping us get
(01:11):
there is with us today and so Kelly means is remarkable. Kelly,
welcome and thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
On Newsword.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Thank you, dude, And it was so encouraging and just
appropriate for you to be in the front of that
event and to be acknowledged by President Trump because your
ideas and big thinking, I mean, has influenced this MAHA
effort significantly.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You and your.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Sister, Casey Means recently nominated by President Trump to be
the next surgeon General.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
How did the two of you get into all this?
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yeah, it's three big strains, dude.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I grew up in DC and actually met you as
an end I think seventeen years ago. You were gracious
enough to it was an event where it was the
highlight of the summer where White House interns came and
we had an hour and a half policy session with you.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Like many people at EC, I did campaigns.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And was a public affairs and consultant lobbyists and saw
kind of the interworkings of DC. And I don't think
all lobbyists are bad. It's just you saw how the
system works.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
It worked for the.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Food and farm industries. I've been in entrepreneurship for ten years.
But my sister, I mean, I really do think a
lot of the spirit of this movement comes from her.
I think she has a singular ability to connect the dots.
She was top of her class Stanford med School, top
of her residency program, and now as she searched in general,
everyone it's like, well, she left the system. You know
what happened. What happened is she had a moral awakening
and she realized that she joined the medical system for
(02:41):
people to get healthy, and nobody around her, no patients
were getting healthier. She left the system. Started talking about that.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I mean, one of the wraps over is that she
actually is not currently a practicing doctor. She's out doing
all this, which given her background I think is kind
of goofy.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
She clearly knows what she's talking about.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Well, Casey's extraordinary, and she was a practicing doctor. She
left the medical system and saw hundreds of patients, thousands
of patients. She got a functional medicine certification. She actually
helped people, you know, ninety percent of maladies in the
United States medical costs or chronic disease. And she was
doing head of next surgery where she was cutting out
(03:22):
inflammation in the sinus. And she never understood in medical
school why people get inflamation in the first place, and
why somebody needs sin a citis surgery, needs you know,
diabetes medication, and needs heart disease issues, and has all
these other issues. So she worked to put together the
root cause, and then in twenty twenty four she stopped
treating patients because she was working with Bobby Kennedy and
(03:42):
President Trump to coalesce this MAHA movement and wrote Good Energy,
which really resonated. It's the best selling a nonfiction book
in the past year. So I think voters know and
people know that Casey has really, I think, impacted many
more patients than if she stayed cutting in people's faces
all day, not really curing the root cause. But I
(04:04):
do think there's a reckoning in the medical system right now.
I think a lot of people are in that system.
They know Casey's right, they know our system. It's not
about slight Medicare, Medicaid reform. There's really a foundational incentive issue.
Casey is boldly talking about that, and I do think
it's very scary and eliciting a response from the medical system,
(04:27):
which is the largest part of the US economy.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I think that's something very important for people to understand
that one out of every five dollars right now is
in the health system, and that it's really a sick
care system, not a healthcare system, and that you and
your sister are among the real leaders trying to rethink this.
Now you co found a true med to help people
use their funds for proactive health tools like Sauna's wage supplants.
(04:53):
Why do you think it's so important that people are
able to use pre tax dollars for these kind of
health investments.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
So I was idalized by Casey when she left the
medical system. I was like everyone else, I'm like, what
are you doing. You're throwing your life away, and she's like,
I have to do it. It came together with my
mom's death in twenty twenty one. So my mom was
the standard American patient where she had high cholesterol, got
a STAT and had high blood sugar, got met Foreman,
high high blood pressure, got an eights inhibitor. At a
checkup at seventy years old at Stanford Hospital, she was
(05:21):
told that she was a healthy seventy year old because
on five crock to these medications, she was on less
than the average American. Actually the average seven year old's
on more than five. Then she's taking a hike, has
a pain in her stomach, gets a scan, gets a
text the next day of stage four pancreatic cancer, and
the wake up call for me, the lightning bolt was
(05:41):
sitting across in the Stanford oncologist who said, this was
a tough break, but cancer rates are an all time
high and out of two hundred and twelve Stephen Miller
talked about this beautifully at the event. Out of two
hundred and twelve countries that measure cancer rates in the world,
we are the worst. We are the highest cancer rates
of any civilization in human history. This year in the
United States, it's all going up, obviously because of environmental factors, food,
(06:05):
you know, this mix of issues. I immediately after Mom's death,
my sister and I pledged to talk about this issue.
And it's a complicated issue. It's a long term issue,
it's a mature issue. So we wrote the book, We advocated,
We got to know President Trump's team, We got to
know Bobby Kennedy, senators, congressman. On the left and right,
there's real bipartisan animation around this issue. For whatever reason,
the left's given it up and President Trump, to his
(06:27):
amazing credit, has taken it on. It does represent a
microcosm of I think where our world needs to go,
which is we spend almost it's now five trillion on
healthcare and ninety five percent of that as medical interventions.
After we're sick, and I think about my mom and
if a doctor just gave her clinically accurate advice when
she had that high blood sugar, explained what's going on,
explained how some supplementation, if they had more blood tests
(06:50):
of how she has some nutrient deficiencies, better food. There's
incredible research on things like saunas. In Finland, there's one
sona for every person. They live six years longer than us.
So if we actually can steer the medical system not
to mandating broccoli or mandating exercise, but just to assess
what's happening with the American patient. You know, the fact
of the matter is drugs absolutely play a role. And
(07:12):
you know, maybe a seventy five year old person who's
very diabetic set in their ways, I don't know obst
they probably do need some ozimpic and do need some drugs.
But a twelve year old right now, at twelve year old,
if they're a little bit sad, they're getting an SSRI. Now,
the American Academy be theatrics is saying they need ozimpic.
You know, they're on stands now at a higher rate.
So there's been an attack on really medical autonomy, a
(07:35):
doctor assessing what's happening with that patient and often. And
this sounded hippie to me five years ago, but I
think it's just clinically accurate. You know, we need to
see food and supplementation and other root cause interventions as
part of the medical system. Have patients have that flexibility
with their doctor, because that's just clinically what happens. And
(07:56):
our company uses HSAFSA, we unlock HSAFSA spend and I
know we're both fans of that. I do think just
giving patients more flexibility and information is a core part
of the solution.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
For those of us who don't have nearly the knowledge
that you and your sister have good energy. Subtitle is
the Surprising connection between metabolism and limitless health.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
It means that we silo the medical system into forty
two specialties in eighty two subspecialties. But I just cannot
emphasize this enough. Ninety percent of medical costs and nine
out of ten causes of American death are chronic lifestyle
conditions our cells. It's the environment that our cells have
(08:40):
evolutionally grown to exist and to produce metabolism, to produce
energy to power our bodies are under assault and new
A lot of these things that are under assault by
are good things, right. You know, we've had innovation and food.
We've had innovation and conveniences of modern life. We're more
sedentary now. We've had good in many way ways, drug innovation.
(09:01):
We've had these chemicals and industry produce all of these
innovations that power every single aspect of our lives.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
What the book.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Argues is that this industrialization and this modernization, it's not
a judgment, but it's just an arguable that ulti processed
food going from zero percent of our child's diet to
seventy percent in just sixty years, that's a dynamic that
impacts ourselves.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
The fact that seventy seven.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Percent of American youth are ineligible to join the military
because they're so sedentary, and children in public schools that
get less time outside than a.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Maximum security prison, that is a dynamic.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
The fact that there's eighty thousand chemicals that have been
produced that power every aspect of American life and are
absolutely necessary to our civilization. The fact that the US
and justts twenty five percent of the world's pesticides, that's
a dynamic, and that's what the book is about, is
that it's I think really inarguable. Nobody would even argue
this if you really push them, that we have a
(09:58):
holistic metabo health crisis, not a crisis of not enough medication,
not enough medical spending. This event, I was tearing up
during the event with President Trump because I think what
it represents is maturity from the government to both acknowledge
this long term reality we all agree with, which is
(10:19):
that we've lost our way a little bit. We've lost
our way where we have four point nine billion prescriptions
a year in the United States and thirty five percent
of teams run some kind of medication. That's not an
anti drug message. I talked to a bunch of farmer
lobby They don't disagree with that. So what this event
did is build this bridge ten years from now where
a healthcare system acknowledges the interconnectivity of chronic disease and
(10:42):
creates better incentives to where the pharmaceutical industry is thriving
by creating drugs that promote.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Longevity, not just managed disease.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Where hospitals are more incentivized to have empty beds, not
full beds. Where the American farmer is at the center
of health, and the US is creating the best most
nutritious food in the world, and American children are eating
great American grown whole food. That's the vision that's being painted.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Now.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Getting there is going to be a mature and sometimes
probably difficult conversation, but we need to have it.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Walk me through. First of all, what is metabolic function?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Our cells power organs, and when cells malfunction organs, it's function,
and organ dysfunction is disease. When our cells in our
brain dysfunction, that creates brain prompts, it creates depression. When
cells in our liver malfunction, it creates liver issues, clotty
liver disease. You know, when scals in our skin malfunction,
we have dermatology issues. So foundationally, what's happening. And let's
just take one example of what underlies metabol because function
(11:54):
with glucose cells are powered by glucose sugar, and glucose
consumption has gone up eighty times in one.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Hundred and fifty years.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
It's evolutionarily unprecedented, and as cells are overpowered with this
energy source glucose, a lot of bad things happen and
our cells start malfunctioning. Now, based on this nineteen o
nine report, the Flexner Report, it's still an effect today
and it mandates that chronic disease and all diseases are
treated in silos. So fundamentally, we have a system where
(12:25):
if you have high cholesterol, for instance, it's a statin,
no problem. And literally the guidance when you get a
statin is okay, you can keep eating what you want
to eat. But if you take that stat and reduce
the one arbitrary biomarker, but you're still pounding your body
and pounding your cells with that ultraprocessed food, with that glucose.
If you're not getting enough sunlight, which our cells are like,
(12:48):
we need that like around our bodies to power our cells.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
If you're not getting.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Enough movement, which is crucial for proper cellular function, if
you're not addressing the root cause of what's causing that
cellular dysfunction, you keep having whack a mole with what
we argue in the book are branches of the tree,
the base of the tree is that our cells are malfunctioning.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
It's not. You know, we're all, oh the.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
New York Times headlines all the time. There's literally been
headlines diabetes is skyrocketing among kids. Nobody knows why cancer
rates are skyrocketing kids. Nobody knows why autoimmune conditions, autism,
all of these conditions, every chronic disease is an all
time high right now.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
And instead of at the end of.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
The road trying to drug that all the time, if
we literally look at five biomarkers high blood pressure, high
blood sugar, cholesterol, dragostrites, HDL, and BMI, your waistline. If
you get those five biomarkers under control, which are the
definitions of what's metabolic dysfunction, is you almost by definition
(13:48):
don't have many of the leading conditions that are killing
Americans right now, like heart disease and diabetes. Those are
all relatively controllable. And I think, you know, just as
Bobby Kennedy said, we're going to bring the Dietary Guidelines
from four and fifty pages to four, I think we
can bring a lot of medical guidance and medical incentives
to much more simple principles like let's get those metabolic
(14:08):
biomarkers under control. Let's have all hands on deck. Let's inspire,
let's educate, and let's incentivize. Let's get patients more choice
to get to the root cause. But that's the main
thesis new The most chronic diseases are tied to these
foundational factors that are leading ourselves to malfunction, which are
then downstream causing a lot of these maladies that are
(14:29):
impacting American life.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Your first really big step was to do this initial
assessment which got published as Make Our Children Healthy Again,
which you gave me the opportunity to read before was published.
And it is a staggering document, and the scale of
the health crisis for young people is so much greater
than I know. What led you to decide that getting
(14:51):
that assessment done was the first big step.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
We've talked a little bit about this.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
I've talked to honestly, Center Ron Johnson's and Senator Roger
Marshall and some Senators Vince Haley. This has been a
beautiful coalition of people that have really taken to this issue.
And one thing I hear from the Smorlest people a
lot is that in order to drive foundational change. You
need to assess with the American people what the facts are.
This isn't a finger pointing. It's not a partisan issue.
(15:18):
We're a sick country. Kids are sick. It's not because
as Democrats argue that we're not spending enough on healthcare.
We've got some foundational issues in our country where ourselves
are being poisoned. Clearly, there's something wrong, and I think
a lot of voters and Americans are starting to understand that,
and they're frustrated. And I think that frustration has been
positively channeled into this MAJA movement that led millions of moms, independents,
(15:42):
young people to vote for the Republicans, to vote for
President Trump for the first time. And I think we're
still in this phase where we need to have the
baseline conversation about what's happening and my goal, and we've
talked about this. I think we need to win that
argument because if you win the argument that the incentives
of our healthcare system, and this is a core argument
my sister and I make, and a core argument President
(16:04):
Trump and Bobby.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Kennedy made is it's no big judgment.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
This has been decades of decisions from many different people
but our system profits for metabolic dysfunction. Our system profits
when kids are obese, when kids are depressed, when kids
are in fear, when kids are pre diabetic. That just
demonstrably profits the system right now. So we need to
create this baseline of a conversation that there's a problem.
And then I personally think that Republicans and that the
(16:30):
President Trump, we're going to have better solutions. But let's
debate the solutions then if we assess that there's an
existential problem.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
So I'd be very happy.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
New and I think it's happening where we start changing
the conversation around health to really understand the root cause problem.
And I think it can't be understated. How a federal
government document.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
You won't believe this. I couldn't believe that.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
It's the first time ultiprocessed food has ever been mentioned
as a potential problem in a federal government document. It
is the first time that over medicalization has been talked
about in the full federal government document. You know, it's
the first time concerns around environmental toxins have been really
strongly mentioned as a potential contributed health So this is
pretty radical. It's why there was so much frankly lobbying
(17:16):
and discussion around just a simple government report.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
That's no policy.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
But that's what the administration is bravely trying to do
is have that conversation.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I cannot overstate for our listeners if they get a
copy of Make Our Children Healthy, to get the assessment,
and when.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
You look at it, if you're at all like me and.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
You run across things, for example, that more than one
in five children over six is obese. That's a two
hundred and seventy percent increase compared to the seventies one
in less than one and twenty children were It's stagnant.
The rheumatic increase, and the number of children that were
born who are suffering from various mental conditions, and suddenly
(17:57):
we have to deal with things. Historically we're very rare,
and now they're common.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Teenage depression nearly doubled since two thousand and nine. More
than one in four teenage girls in twenty twenty two
reported a major depressive episode. Three million high school students
seriously considered suicide last year. Suicide deaths among teens increased
sixty two percent since two thousand and seven. Suicide is
(18:23):
the second leading cause of death among teens. I'm optimistic.
I'm actually like so in a way energized that the
government's talking about this. It's certainly depressing, but everything's changing, right,
Everything's changed so fast. In this report, it doesn't make
a judgment, really, it just explains what changed again without
(18:44):
pointing fingers. It's like the fact that one hundred percent
of fats in the American diet, or animal based fats
like butter, sixty years ago, and now eighty percent of
fats are a brand new creation, this industrial seed oils.
There's all this discuss Oh, it's anti science to attack
seed dolls. I don't have the science, and there's no
(19:06):
government plan to regulate seed oils. But the fact that
the components of our diet have changed so quickly it's
worth discussing. It's worth discussing that one hundred percent of
our grains fifty years ago were whole grains and now
eighty percent of our grains are refined grains. Refined grains
take the fiber off because it makes it more shelf stable,
but that fiber blunts the glucose impact of the grains,
(19:28):
and that fiber is what contrains all the nutritional values
so these are kind of non political topics. But like
when you look at the change of our metabolic inputs,
food movement, environmental toxins, medicalization.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
You go through the list and.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Then look at the dramatic change and how we're such
an outlier versus almost every other country on health outcomes.
It does beg for a conversation. I can't emphasize this enough.
This is an invitation from the Trump administration for a
mature conversation because this is a big topic.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
As a consumer, how do I go to the grocery
store and know whether I'm getting ultra processed foods or
traditionally process foods.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
The report goes into that. So let's just make it
very simple.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I think at three year old, This is my argument
to people who sometimes you try to make it too complicated.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
You know, a three year old knows.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
What a processed food is versus whole food. A whole
food is something without ingredients. With seventy percent of diets now,
is ultra process food? What I think the areas to
look into, and I look at it from just what
has changed in the American diet, an ultraprocessed food and
the foundation of the American diet right now is refined grains,
and I talked about that that takes the fiber off.
(21:01):
It's been a massive increase of refined grain. So any
type of rich flour, in rich wheat, that's usually the
first thing in the box when you look at something
you're holding in a box. Number two is added sugar.
Sugar consumption has exploded. Added sugar is really a new
phenomenon to the human diet. It's really just in the
past one hundred hundred and fifty years that it even
has existed. So you've added sugar in there. There's forty
different names for sugar on a label. Often there's many
(21:24):
different types of names, and it's to not.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Make it the first ingredient.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
And then industrial process seed oils, and again I don't
want to get into the debate on that, but canola
oil is the top source of American calories right now.
It is an invention of the past one hundred years
and it is a process where you heat up seeds
into a sludge and you douse that sludge in rust,
remover and bleach and literally eighteen other processed steps to
(21:50):
create an oil that's about fifteen times cheaper than olive oil.
So those are the three components of ultra processed food
are essentially like brand new ingredients into the human body.
And then you've got the preservatives and you've got all
the additives, which we're having a really biparson conversation about it.
(22:11):
If there's animation on the right. I mean the Maha
conservative moms are the ones who led the outrage about
the food dies. I mean these food dyes that are
in I think it's sixty percent of children's food are
made of petroleum. And I love oil, and as President
Trup said, baby's not touching the liquid gold. But I
don't know if we should be eating it. It's banned
in every other country, and there's very clear studies showing
(22:34):
that it's linked to developmental.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Issues and things like that.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
So there are preservatives like BHT and tanitanium dioxide that
are really problematic that are banned in almost every other
country in the world. So I think it's very appropriate,
I believe, very conservative for the FDA now to be
running studies on these things, to have transparency. I think
there's in the medical and the food system kind of
(22:57):
a lack of informed consent, and you're inevitably eating these
chemicals that the FDA has.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Really been to sleep at the wheel on. The last
thing I'll.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Say new on ultiprocessed food is I think we always
have to remember that the ultraprocess food industry was created
by the cigarette industry, and in the eighties, you know,
it was not a huge part.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Of our diet. Ultrap process food.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
It's skyrocketed since the eighties. But in the eighties, Philip
Morris and R. J. Reynolds bought food companies RJ, they
bought Nibisco, they bought Craft, they bought US Foods. So
forty percent of the US food supply in nineteen ninety
was controlled by the cigarette industry who started consolidating food companies,
and they very deliberately added all these chemicals and ultra
processed food to make it more palatable and make it
(23:38):
more addictive.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
They shifted literally.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Their cigarette scientists who were focused on addiction to food.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
So again it's not.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Really finger pointing, it's not really a political issue, but
we do have a food system that just factually was
influenced by cigarette industry scientists to put softwagers in the
food to make us chew less, you know, to put
the best R and d re searchers and scientists in
the world to figure out flavors that made us want
to eat more, to very deliberately devoid the food of
(24:05):
nutrients so our body doesn't feel full, but you keep.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Eating like that was very deliberate.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Right now, actually, on earnings calls, large food companies are
saying that they're studying ozimpic because they're trying to figure
out the exact molecules in ozimpic to make us not
want to eat more, so that they can hack those molecules.
So even when you're taking ozimpic, you still want to
keep eating the food like That's the type of research
just demonstrably that processed food industry does. Whereas if you're
(24:33):
eating steak or eating broccoli or whatever, our body has
ingrained systems to know what's enough, which is why there's
no chronic obesio epidemic among wild animals. The humans are
the only animal that have this problem. It's because we
have food that's hijacking our evolutionary biology. So again, long
term conversation, but we have to grapple with this dynamic
(24:56):
where that's seventy percent of our child's diet right now.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Favorite Hamburger and an Altburger. They just announced that they're
taking the pink dye out of their strawberry milkshakes.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Free market Action.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Skittles just removed titanium dioxide yesterday. The thing with the
food and the even pharma, they're all human beings. President
Trump said it at the event. You try to make
these arguments around why we spend ten times more on
some drugs than others, they can't defend that. The food industry,
there's really actually positive conversations, and there's positive conversations around
this report because nobody on a human level disagrees with
(25:32):
the state of human health being unacceptable. Nobody disagrees it
has to do with food and these other factors. So
I actually do think there's some positive discussions happening. And no,
the largest food companies, the largest restaurants in the world
are changing based on consumer demand, and you're going to
see a lot more of that. And I do think,
and I'm optimistic if this movement holds. If the MAHA Coalition,
(25:55):
I'll just be blunt, stays with the Republicans, stays with
President Trump, because that gives them a sword to fight
on these issues. We're going to have a much different
country in four years. I think in ten years we
will have a totally reset incentive structure that helps American
farmers grow whole food and rewards medical companies for promoting longevity,
not just disemagement.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
As I look from my background, as I look at
your report, which I strongly urge people to get the
MAHA Report, and we're going to make sure they can
get it. If we could get to a healthier America,
I think we would take about four percent of the
gross domestic product out of the cost of health care
(26:35):
just because people be healthier, they.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Wouldn't need it.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
I think that is an extraordinary opportunity both to save
lives in a very real sense, and also I cannot
imagine getting back to a balanced budget without having a
truly successful approach to MAHA and a real resetting of
the American system around being healthy and having genuine health
(26:58):
care rather sick care. I think there has to be
a MAHA movement on the outside. It's even more important
than the things the government's going to do on the inside,
because if this becomes much the way I say Mother's
unstrunk driving did, if this becomes an integral part of
how we think about things five or ten years from now,
(27:19):
we're going to be a dramatically healthier country.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
Well, I totally agree with you.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
It just got off the flight from Texas meeting with
Governor Abbott. The most lobbied bill in the Texas legislature
this year, out of all the issues in Texas, the
most lobbied bill by an order of magnitude was a
bill led by Maha Moms to just have some increased
transparency on food labeling. No regulation, increased transparency, which I
consider a conservative principle. Let people do whatever they want.
(27:46):
I'm a libertarian, take drugs, eat whatever you want, drink
whatever you want. But we have I think mass uninformed
consent with the American people when it comes to food
and when it comes to healthcare. This bill was lobbied
the CEOs of international food companies Food to Texas and
at pass.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
We'll see what the governor does.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
But there was an acknowledgment in Texas that there was
more animation from lobbyists on this bill, and there was
more animation from voters than any bill this year. I
agree with you, the Maha coalition doesn't even be an
organized that much, but there's this energy around this frustration
on children's health. This year needs to be about laying
(28:22):
the baseline this report, getting people on board with the thesis,
because if you win the argument, I think of the
inarguable reality that we have a pretty broken incentives, it
necessitates real reform and real discussion of reform. I think
we're doing short term wins like the food dies right now,
like taking the COVID vaccine off the CZ schedule for kids,
(28:43):
which is a no brainer President Trump and Bobby Kennedy
just did with some FDA conflict of interest reform. But
if the movement can stay, I think it was so
notable at the event as you didn't just have the
HTS secretary, you had Russ Voyd from the OMB, you
had representatives of the military, you know, the administration. You
had a whole of government approach. And I think at
(29:05):
least what I'm seeing among the highest ranks the administration
is there's a historic amount of cross collaboration and it
is a growing understanding that the biggest line item there
our budget is sick people. That's what's bankrupt gots more
than anything. And if we could even normalize croc disease,
rights and life expects it to European levels.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
We would save trillions of dollars. I can't emphasize this enough.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
You have much more happy, productive people in the economy.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
You're offering people a chance to live longer, live healthier,
basically be much happier if you, in fact do create
do arouse I think is probably a better way to
put it. A genuine make America Healthy again movement that
gets into the grassroots and the way you described in Texas,
for example, and it gets people so they shop differently.
(29:57):
I mean, the food manufacturers in the end will follow
the customers. I think what you and your sister have accomplished,
the degree to which you have begun at a profound
level to move one of the most important parts of
the American system. It's frankly encouraging as a matter of
citizenship that ideas and people encourage and energy and persistence
(30:18):
really still matter in America, and you two are living
proof that it's going on. I want to thank you
for joining me. I know how amazingly busy you are.
Our listeners can download the Maha Report for free by
visiting White House dot Go slash Maha. That's Maha. I
encourage everyone to take a look at it, read it
and support this new effort to make our children healthy again.
(30:41):
And we're going to put a link to the Maha
Report on our show page at Newtsworld. And Kelly, thank
you so much for taking time out of your amazingly
busy schedule to join us now.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Your big thinking has inspired us more than you know,
and it's an honor to have this conversation with you.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
I guess Kelly means you can get a link to
the Maha Report on our show page at Newtsworld dot com.
Newsworld is produced by Gingrishtreet sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive
producer is Guarnsey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The
artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley. Special
thanks to the team at Gingrishtree sixty. If you're enjoying Newtsworld,
(31:22):
I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and both rate
us with five stars and give us a review so
others can learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners
of Newtsworld consigner for my three free weekly columns at
Ginglishtree sixty dot com slash newsletter.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I'm newt gingrich. This is newtsworld.
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