Plain English BEST OF: What’s the Matter With America’s Food?
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What are the main issues with America's food policies?
If you're a fan of the inner workings of Hollywood, then check out my podcast, The Town, on the Ringer Podcast Network. My name's Matt Bellany. I'm founding partner at Puck and the writer of the What I'm Hearing newsletter. And with my show, The Town, I bring you the inside conversation about money and power in Hollywood. Every week, we've got three short episodes featuring real Hollywood insiders to tell you what people in town are actually talking about. We'll cover everything from why your favorite show was canceled overnight, which streamer is on the brink of collapse, and which executive is on the hot seat. Disney, Netflix, who's up, down, and who will never eat lunch in this town again. Follow The Town on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi everybody, Derek here. In December, my wife and I welcomed our second baby girl into the world. I'm gonna be taking some time off, but we wanted to keep the pod going through the holidays. So we're gonna be re-airing some of our favorite episodes from the last 12 months, a kind of best of compendium. And this list includes interviews that really stuck with me and others that really stuck with you and you had lots of feedback and thoughts on, including this one. I'll be back in the new year with fresh content, but until then, happy new year. In the last few weeks, we've done several episodes on this show about obesity, GLP-1 drugs and nutrition science. What we haven't talked about as much is the politics of food.
And today's guests say if you really want to understand why Americans are so unhealthy, you have to see that the problem is not just our willpower. It's not just our food itself. It's our food policies. Why, for example, is it so easy for food companies to introduce additives to our food with so little scrutiny? Because our laws make it easy. Why is it so easy to sell supplements and vitamins with vague but big sounding promises in the label despite no evidence that they actually do anything? Well, again, because our laws make it easy. Why can food companies confuse consumers with ingredients or sell junk food to kids or even get tax deductions for advertising in a way that subsidizes junk food marketing to our children?
Again, because of our laws. Now, some of this might sound like it's been ripped from the pages of Maha, the Make America Healthy Again movement that's associated with RFK Jr. and the Trump administration. As I've always said, I think there's a lot that Maha gets right, particularly when it comes to emphasizing the importance of diet, exercise, and a greater awareness of our food systems, what we put into our bodies. But today's guests are not Maha. Kevin Hall was a former top nutrition researcher at the NIH before he resigned after accusing RFK and the Department of Health and Human Services of censoring a report that questioned their description of ultra-processed foods. You'll hear a bit more about why he left RFK's NIH in a few minutes.
Julia Belouz is a longtime nutrition and health journalist. And together, they've written a new book called Food Intelligence, the science of how food both nourishes and harms us. Today, we talk about the policy history of American food, going all the way back to the early 1900s, what it would take to actually fix our food supply, what Maha gets right and wrong about the science of food, and why more than anything, What American food could use more of today is precisely more science. I'm Derek Thompson. This is Plain English.
Kevin Hall, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me.
Julia Beluz, welcome to the show.
Thanks so much for inviting us.
I've been reporting on food and diet for a few years, and one thing that I keep hearing is, we have to fix the food supply. We have to fix the food supply. But I feel like very few people who actually say and repeat this over and over again articulate what they actually mean by this. What is the food supply? Who controls it? Who regulates it? What are the relevant laws and rules that we would have to change to fix it?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What are the main issues with America's food policies?
0:00–6:46
2
How do food additives impact our health?
6:46–12:09
3
What role do laws play in food safety and nutrition?
12:09–26:22
4
How has the history of food regulation shaped our current food environment?
26:22–49:06
5
What are the consequences of ultra-processed foods?
49:06–49:50