Part 4 of our series on “American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion.” Vani Hari, Jason Karp, and Jillian Michaels discuss safer food practices, regulatory reform, and the battle against corporate food influence.
American Health Nutrition A Second Opinion – Senate Roundtable, 23 Sep 2024: https://vimeo.com/1018782955/fd45027f3f
Welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the American Health and Nutrition Roundtable, where health advocates gather to discuss the impacts of corporate influence and the need for preventative care in healthcare. Opening today’s segment, food activist Vanni Hari, known as the Food Babe, shared insights into food safety and industry practices. Vanni Hari criticized the US food industry’s use of the chemicals that are banned in other countries. My name is Vni Hari, and I only want one thing. I want Americans to be treated the same way as citizens in other countries by our own American companies. She went on to share another incredible statistic. During my investigations, I found an alarming discovery. We use over 10,000 food additives here in the United States and in Europe. There’s only 400 approved. She highlighted the need for the regulatory reform and called for action from Washington. I wanna make an important point here. Ordinary people who rallied for safer food shared this information and signed petitions were able to make these changes. We did this on our own, but isn’t this something that the people in Washington, our elected politicians should be doing? Jason Karp, founder and CEO of Human Co was next to speak. He explained clearly why there is such a difference between what the US allows and what Europe allows when it comes to chemicals and food. America has much looser regulatory approach to approving new ingredients in chemicals than comparable developed countries. Europe, for example, uses a guilty until proven innocent standard for the approval of new chemicals, which mandates that if an ingredient might pose a potential health risk, it should be restricted or banned for up to 10 years until it is proven safe. In complete contrast, our FDA uses an innocent until proven guilty approach for new chemicals or ingredients that’s known as grass or generally recognized as safe. This recklessly allows new chemicals into our food system until they are proven harmful. Shockingly, US food companies can use their own independent experts to bring forth a new chemical without the approval of the FDA. It is a travesty that the majority of Americans don’t even know. They are constantly exposed to thousands of untested ingredients that are actually banned or regulated in other countries. Next, we hear from Jillian Michaels fitness expert, nutritionist and author. She emphasized that the issue at hand is straightforward and one that people should be united in tackling. My name is Jillian Michaels. I am a health advocate, a fitness expert, and a nutritionist. I have no political alliance because health transcends partisanship and ideology. Unlike the majority of issues I imagine people in Washington contend with on a daily basis. This one is not nuanced. It’s black and white. It’s right and wrong. It’s good against evil. Michael shared her personal struggle with obesity as a teenager and how this same struggle has been shared by so many others. But the time I was 13 in 1987, I was already 170 pounds at only five, one officially clinically obese, and from the year I was born of the year I turned 21. Obesity rates had tripled today in 2024. As we’ve said now numerous times, it’s estimated that roughly 75% of our adult population is obese or overweight. The entirety almost of my generation, along with the two generations that followed, have fallen victim to America’s unchecked obesity crisis. She passionately talked about how difficult it is to escape the omnipresent advertising by the food industry And to ensure that you don’t. Added measures are taken to inundate our physical surroundings. We’re literally flooded with food and we are brainwashed by ubiquitous cues to eat. Whether it’s the Taco Bell advertisement on the side of a bus, as you drive to work or the vending machine at your kids’ school, there is no place we spend time that’s left untouched. They’re omnipresent. They commandeer the narrative. With 30 billion worth of advertising dollars, commercials marketed to kids with mega celebrities eating McDonald’s and loving it sponsored dieticians paid to promote junk food on social media, utilizing anti-D diet, body positivity, messaging like derail the shame in relation to fast food consumption. Time magazine brazenly issuing a defense of ultra processed foods on their cover with the title. What if ultra processed foods aren’t as bad as you think? She also talked about how difficult it is for regular people to escape the problem without the help from legislators. Most Americans are simply too financially strained, psychologically drained, and physically addicted. To break free without a systemic intervention, attempting to combat the status quo and the powers that be is beyond swimming upstream. It is like trying to push a rampaging river that’s infested with piranhas. After years of trying to turn the tide, I submit that the powers that be are simply too powerful for us to take on alone. I implore the people here that shape the policy to take a stand. The buck must stop with you while the American people tend to the business of raising children and participating in the workforce to ensure that the wheels of our country go around. They tapped you to stand watch. They tapped you to stand guard. We must hold these bad actors accountable. Advocates in this segment made it clear that their push for safer food and better health isn’t just about personal choices. It’s about systemic reform. Tomorrow we will continue this important discussion. We’ll hear more from speakers challenging the food and healthcare industries.
