A coalition of activists, doctors, and thought leaders recently gathered at a Senate Roundtable in Washington DC to discuss how ingredients in the food supply are impacting the health of Americans. The event, hosted by Senator Ron Johnson, aimed to raise awareness about the abysmal state of American health, with an in-depth focus on cancer-causing chemicals in agriculture and poisons in the food supply, as well as corruption in the healthcare industry.
The Roundtable, titled “American Health & Nutrition: A Second Opinion,” featured testimonies from prominent figures such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dr. Jordan Peterson, Calley Means, Dr. Chris Palmer, Dr. Marty Makary, Max Lugavere, Dr. Casey Means, Grace Price, Courtney Swan, Alex Clark, Jason Karp, Brigham Buhler, Mikhaila Fuller, Jillian Michaels, and Vani Hari. These speakers shared their experiences of confronting medical orthodoxy and taking on personal health challenges while also discussing the issues within the food industry that intentionally addict consumers to boost corporate profits.
These discussions are critical in shaping the future of children’s health and addressing the chronic disease epidemic currently plaguing the nation. Toxic chemicals are being intentionally added to American products to make them more addictive, causing significant harm to public health while increasing corporate profits.
Vani Hari, a clean food activist for over a decade, shared her personal experiences with overcoming her health challenges and questioning the safety of the American food supply. She called out American food corporations for manufacturing products that are drastically more toxic in the United States compared to Europe, where they sell the same products but with far less toxic ingredients.
These American versions often contain artificial dyes, BHT, and MSG, which have been linked to endocrine disruption, infertility, neurological dysfunction, and cancer. They also have longer shelf lives due to the presence of chemical preservatives, making them more addictive but containing chemicals that are toxic and linked to brain damage.
For example, Gatorade Zero Fruit Punch in the U.S. contains caramel color and Red 40, while the German version doesn’t contain either toxin. The alternative versions sold in Europe use natural pigments from fruits and vegetables for coloring. McDonald’s French fries contain 11 ingredients in the United States but only three ingredients in the UK. One of the ingredients in the U.S. version is dimethylpolysiloxane, a foaming agent preserved with neurotoxic formaldehyde. This ingredient allows McDonald’s workers to use the cooking oil for extended periods without changing it, increasing corporate profits at the expense of consumer health.
To protect Americans’ health and ensure that food corporations are held accountable for their actions, LEGISLATION should be written at the federal level, complete with scientific citations documenting the harms caused by these chemicals. This legislation should mandate that American food products be free of brain-damaging, endocrine-disrupting, and cancer-causing ingredients.
A database of toxic ingredients could easily be compiled, along with a product list that includes these toxins. Future regulatory pressure should incentivize significant changes to the American food supply, providing strict deadlines for food manufacturers to eliminate toxins and reformulate their products. If mass harm can be proven for an individual ingredient, and a corporation refuses to remove it from their products, then they should be prosecuted in a court of law for injuring Americans’ health.
A restructured FDA must be equipped to enforce new regulations on an industry that is causing widespread health problems across generations. This approach could help break up monopolies and allow smaller, clean food companies to compete in the marketplace as well.