In this interview, JJ Virgin and an unnamed speaker discuss how society mismanages health through flawed food policy and cultural pressures. The conversation centers on three major policy changes a "benevolent dictator" could enact: (1) overhaul the GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) system, which currently permits thousands of food additives in the U.S. compared to a few hundred in the EU, contributing to rising autism and autoimmune disorders; (2) redirect agricultural subsidies away from monoculture, glyphosate‑sprayed GMO crops such as wheat and soy toward more diverse, less chemically intensive farming; (3) reform the SNAP food assistance program to exclude highly processed junk foods, reducing chronic disease burden. The speakers also argue for removing special‑interest influence from food, health, and pharmaceutical research to allow innovative therapies—peptides, psychedelics, nutrient‑dense foods—to be evaluated openly. The dialogue shifts to personal wellness, contrasting FOMO with JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) and emphasizing psychological “mind‑body meals” like setting boundaries and cultivating stillness to support the nervous, immune, and endocrine systems. The tone blends policy critique, hopeful reform, and practical wellness advice.
Chapters
We want health, we want prosperity, we want freedom, we want diversity of thought and opinion. Uh, these things are essential to human health.
So if you were the benevolent dictator of the world, yeah, and you could change 3 things about the way we approach health, what would they be from a policy standpoint? It can be anything. It could be anything.
Yeah, well, I I think the GRAS laws, generally recognized as safe, is problematic when it comes to— there's thousands of ingredients. I've seen some statistics like 10,000 additives in the American food supply versus in the EU it's 400 different additives. So we have a significant amount, thousands and thousands of additives that are generally recognized as safe. That are— we are seeing the— that's why we have such an epidemic rise of autism, autoimmune problems, all through those grass, uh, you know, something being considered as grass. It's a, it's a loophole in, in the law. So hopefully these are things that these politicians, these doctors that are now in politics, and politicians and food lawyers— and I talked to a lot of them last night— food lawyers and food policy experts that are really going to close these loopholes and make our food safer for our families.
Yeah. Wow. They need to go revisit every single one of those.
Yeah. Yeah. 10,000. Okay. Let's go through all of it.
Yeah. And make a tighter thing for new ones coming in.
Yeah, exactly. So I would say really reform GRASS. I would say, I mean, if we're talking pure policy, I think that we should quit, um, start reform— reforming the subsidies towards these monocrops like the wheat and the, the sort of soy and these genetically modified glyphosate-sprayed crops. I think that removing subsidies for these crops would do tremendous good for the American food supply. I think that looking at the food stamp program, they don't call it now, the stamp program. Yeah, whatever it is. SNAP. Sorry, the SNAP program is sort of the rebranded version of it. But the food assistance program, I think that taking junk food, processed foods out of that, I mean, you are preying on people that there's no informed consent to go for these foods that we We feed chronic disease for these people and then we pay for their chronic disease management. So those are some big policy things that if I would— I don't know if I would say if I was a dictator, but if I was—
I say oy si benevolent.
Benevolent. If I was a benevolent dictator that could just wave a magic wand and change American food policy, those are some ways that we would start. But then look, I think that getting special interests— this is a major one— is getting special interests out of food research, health research, food research, pharmaceutical research, and really having, like, diversity of thought as far as the research is concerned, having an ability for innovative, out-of-the-box ideas to come forward and not subjugate or suppress information when it's inconvenient. So things like peptides and alternative therapies and psychedelics and nutrient density when it comes to food, um, really can run wild and free and people can have true informed consent because to have true informed consent when it comes to somebody's health, we need to know the real evidence-based benefits. What are the relative side effects? If you talk about pharmaceuticals, for example, uh, and the choice to make what's right for you., but we don't have any of that right now. We have cherry-picked data, we have propaganda, we have suppressed information, and then we— how are we supposed to make good information as a citizen on our food and drugs and choices that we make in our life? So those are some things, big things, but I think important things.
Big things. Let's cross our fingers. So last night, I will say, when I was not out at the Maha Inaugural Ball, I was suffering a little bit from FOMO, but literally the person who represents the other side of that and having great boundaries and the whole JOMO, joy of missing out, movement is you.
Yeah, I talk a lot about it.
Yes. So just, I, I've always had big mad respect for you on that. I, a lot of your Instagram posts do that, and I'm like, okay, reminder, JJ, reminder, because it's, it's been a little bit of a internal struggle.
Yeah. Hey, it's— JOMO comes easy for someone like me because I'm more of an introverted homebody type of guy where I have to check myself and push myself out there a little bit because it was very much easy for— like, I was telling my wife as I was ready to fly to DC, I really just want to stay home. I don't really want to go. And I pushed myself to go. But you're right, most of the culture is not like me, where we're hyper-connected, we're super involved, and we're struggling with burnout. And it's that hyper-connectivity on social media, and it's always go, go, go. And I— yeah, all in our own way cultivating some joy of missing out, the antithesis, the antidote of FOMO. It's good for our nervous system, right? It's supportive of that parasympathetic which I can tell you clinically, and you know this, but like a lot of people are dealing with dysregulation of their neuro-immuno-endocrine axis, their nervous system, their immune system, their hormones, their endocrine system. So JOMO is a, I call it a metaphysical meal. Like we do look at food as medicine, we look at biohacks and supplementation on like the physiological side, but that psychological side, these mind-body meals, if you will, that bringing some acts of stillness, some healthy boundaries with ourselves is sometimes the best medicine.
