McCall McPhersonFounder, Modern Thyroid Clinic.

Big Tobacco Controls Our Food Supply? #shorts

13 Mar 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:19

In this YouTube short, the host references the documentary "Breaking Big Food" and highlights how, in the 1980s, major tobacco corporations expanded into the food industry: R.J. Reynolds purchased Nabisco for $5 billion in 1985, and Philip Morris bought Kellogg for $13 billion. By the 1990s, these tobacco giants controlled roughly 40 % of the U.S. food supply. The speakers suggest that this consolidation contributed to today’s widespread metabolic and thyroid disorders, especially among children, by promoting reliance on highly processed, inflammatory foods that tobacco‑owned companies dominate. McCall McPherson emphasizes that these firms own processed‑food producers rather than fresh‑produce farms, underscoring the health concerns tied to the current food landscape.

Chapters

I would say the most disturbing thing that we learned when making Breaking Big Food was what Kali talks about in the first 2 minutes of the film. In the 1980s, specifically 1985, R.J. Reynolds, the makers of Camel cigarettes, bought Nabisco for $5 billion. Philip Morris, the makers of Marlboro cigarettes, bought Kellogg for $13 billion. These were just some of the acquisitions that happened during the 1980s, some of the largest M&A transactions actions in history at that point. And by the 1990s, big tobacco was in charge of about 40% of the American food supply. Is it any wonder 4 decades later we are at where we're at? So many messed up thyroids, so much metabolic dysfunction. Is it maybe the food we're eating?
Right. And that just goes to show too, if they control 40% of the American food supply, how much food people are eating from a box that's inflammatory. Like, these are not— they probably don't own like broccoli farms, you know, spinach and vegetable farms, right? This is like serious, serious stuff that sadly so many of our children especially rely so heavily on now.