Trillions on pills, not prevention: The chronic disease cover-up

For decades, the government’s dietary guidelines have dictated what Americans eat, and surprise, surprise — we’re sicker than ever.

Today, 60% of the American population have at least one chronic disease, and roughly 85% of the nation’s $5.3 trillion annual health care spending goes toward treating chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, heart disease, and cancer.

We know that the number-one factor in chronic disease is poor diet, and yet the government has long pushed the very highly processed foods that make us sick, while promoting pharmaceutical drugs as the magic answer.

For example, it’s not uncommon to hear the government debate how to lower insulin prices.

“You can just eliminate the need for insulin by just getting people off the one macronutrient that causes blood sugar to spike, and that is carbohydrate,” investigative science journalist Nina Teicholz told BlazeTV host Nicole Shanahan on a recent episode of “Back to the People.”

“The current thinking is: Don’t restrain yourself — eat the cake, eat the bread, but then you have to cover it with insulin. How about just don’t eat the bread, don’t eat the cake, and reverse your condition?” she asks.

Nina expresses frustration that such a simple fix — one that would save us “almost a billion dollars a day” and “reverse other chronic conditions” — has been so impossible to push in the public square.

“Nobody discusses this. It’s like a taboo subject,” she laments.

Nicole agrees. “No, we have a president [Joe Biden] and a senator, Bernie Sanders, standing together hugging one another, talking about reducing the cost of drugs. … There’s not a single politician out there that is charting a path for people to get off of drug reliance.”

The duo reflect back on the disappointing White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health hosted by the Biden-Harris administration in 2022, which Nicole helped raise funding for.

Sugar — perhaps the biggest contributor to chronic diseases — wasn’t even mentioned.

“What came out of that [conference] was a huge amount of investment in the fake-food sector. It was fake protein, fake seafood, more fake meats, fake dairy, fake eggs. Those are ultra-processed foods that replace natural whole foods,” says Nina.

The other result of the conference was “a total doubling down on the dietary guidelines, which have been shown to not work.”

Nicole was hopeful that the 2018 Farm Bill, which governs agricultural and food programs, including farm subsidies, crop insurance, nutrition assistance (like SNAP), and rural development, would “[support] farmers who are producing really great, clean food,” but sadly, the Farm Bill has “made virtually no progress” when it comes to health.

“If anything … it’s added protections to the agrochemical businesses,” she laments.

Further, “SNAP has grown so enormously and without any restrictions or caps on how SNAP is spent. Soda remains the largest single item that consumers purchase with their SNAP benefits.”

Why is the government so resistant to moving toward the simple adjustments that would reverse chronic diseases? As Nicole and Nina see it, it’s obvious: “Pretty much every member of Congress is supported by the pharmaceutical industry.”

“They make profits when people are unhealthy, not healthy,” Nina says frankly.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the full interview above.

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