Brian Johnson breaks down how the food industry funds nutrition research to skew results in their favor. Americans eat over 150 pounds of sugar per year, fueling diabetes and cancer. Industry-funded studies are 8 to 50 times more likely to report favorable outcomes than independent research.
Questions this episode answers
More than 150 pounds per person every year.
Food industry: more than $12 billion per year; National Institutes of Health: $1 billion per year.
Studies funded by the food industry are 8 to 50 times more likely to find a positive outcome for their products.
You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson. More wisdom in less time.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. In our last plus one, we chatted about the fact that your food label might be lying to you by stuffing a few variations of cancer candy and AKA sugar into your jam. So sugar doesn't make its way to the top slot, which is one of the reasons you and your loved ones might be unknowingly consuming a lot more sugar than you think and unfortunately suffering the significant consequences. Today I want to chat about some more wisdom from Mark Hyman's great book, Food Fix. In our next plus one, we'll focus on his number one tip for optimizing your personal health and a powerful way to collectively pull a lever on systemic change. But first, let's talk about the sugar equals cancer candy theme for another moment. This is a big deal and something we want to really get. So let's go back to Tom Rath's Eat, Move, Sleep. Again. Great book. Check out the note. Tom is a super conservative scientist at Gallup, legit researcher. He also has a rare, I quote, and catastrophic genetic mutation that makes him vulnerable to cancer. So he's been battling multiple cancers all his life, which has forced him to study the subject in depth. Here's what he tells us, and I quote, sugar is a toxin. It fuels diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and cancer. At the current dose, we consume more than 150 pounds per person every year. Sugar and its derivatives kill more people than cocaine, heroin, or any other controlled substance around. He says one report aptly describes sugar as candy for cancer cells. He continues by saying it accelerates aging and inflammation in the body and subsequently fuels tumor growth. It is now clear that if you lower your sugar intake, you reduce your odds of developing cancer. So, yeah, reduce your intake of sugar and reduce your odds of developing cancer. It's really not that complicated. Only you know how some less than virtuous executives thought it was a good idea to confuse us with misleading food labels. We didn't realize sugar was the primary ingredient in our jam. Well, as it turns out, and I hate to break the news to you, but they've also been paying some of their friends to do some junk science to help them sell their junk food. Yeah, researchers are paid to make us think that sugar isn't that bad for us. Did you know that the food industry spends more than $12 billion a year funding nutrition studies, while the National Institute of health spends only $1 billion? Yeah. Pause and reflect on that stat for a moment. The food industry spends more than $12 billion a year funding nutrition studies, while the National Institute of health spends only $1 billion. And not surprisingly, as Mark says, studies funded by the food industry are 8 to 50 times more likely to find a positive outcome for their products. He tells us that all this junk science winds up polluting and diluting independent research and confusing policymakers, the public, and even most doctors and nutritionists. We'll leave it at that for today before this becomes a plus 33 sugar. It does not do a body good. Period. Do you have any sugar laden ultra processed food you might want to throw out and quit buying? Is today a good day to remove the trigger and take the next step in optimizing? Minus 1 minus 1 minus 1 for the +1 +1 +1 win.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optymyze with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me.
Hey guys, this is Brian with a quick little P.S.
I'M really excited to let you know.
About an event we're working on. Plan is to make it the premier self optimizing event of 2020. We're calling it Optimize 2020. You the modern hero. Basic idea. Five days, 101 world class luminaries. One million people. You can learn more and get your tickets to the online and offline event at Optimize Me2020. Again, that's Optimize Me2020. Hope to see you there.
