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Hello friends.
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Welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. Today's episode is a solo one and.
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We'Re going to dive into all things Obama. Now. The reason why I'm doing this is because I have been seeing a lot of talk online.
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There's a lot of criticism right now.
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Happening for RFK Jr and actually I want to dive a little bit into what RFK Jr has done in his career because I don't think a lot of people know everything that he's done. I've personally been following his work for about eight years now. I've been a huge fan of his because of all of the advocacy and environmental activism work that he has done for us. But I don't think a lot of people know this because I think a lot of people are just seeing the criticism online more recently. So we're going to dive into that. And then also the reason that I'm going to talk about the Obama administration and all the things that went down regarding our food and GMOs and the school lunch program is because I'm seeing a lot of people say online while they're criticizing RFK that the Obamas did a lot for our health. And I know a lot about actually what happened during the the Obama administration, especially when it to GMOs. And I am not trying to single out one president in particular, but I'm talking about him in particular because I know a lot of what went down because I was paying attention during this time. I actually voted for Obama both terms. Oh well, actually I voted for him one term. I had the intention of voting for him for the other term but I was on tour and don't love admitting this, but I didn't vote that time because I was on tour and I was out of town and I didn't, I was young and I didn't know how to do a ballot and vote when I was out of town and not in my city on the day of election. But anyways, this is another story for another day, but just wanted to say if I get any criticisms back, the reason I'm specifically going after Obama is because there are a lot of things that happened. I'm not saying that any other president hasn't also done things and passed certain things into law and reverse certain policies that go against our food and our well being and our health. I'm just specifically going over the Obama administration because I know a lot of what what happened during that time. So let's get into it. The holidays are here and we all.
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Know what that means?
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And all the things that he has done for our health.
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So I think a lot of people.
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Forget that he was once the environmental activist golden child. I mean, in 1999, he was named one of Time magazine's heroes for the planet. He was praised in places like the New Yorker, the Washington Post, Newsweek, the New York Times. And he did a lot of work for our environment. Actually, my favorite part of his story is he was actually part of the legal team in a significant case against Monsanto. You know, the agrochemical company that is literally poisoning us because they're spraying glyphosate on our crops. And they also created something, oh, called Agent Orange. He was a part of the litigation team and he got a $290 million payout for a plaintiff who got cancer from Monsanto's herbicide roundup. He has won significant legal victories against corporations like Dupont for contaminating our water supplies with the chemical C8. C8 is a PFOA. It's a man made chemical that belongs to the group of substances called PFA ss, otherwise known as forever chemicals, which we've talked a lot about on this podcast. These chemicals are called forever chemicals because they are extremely persistent in the environment and they don't break down and they're linked to cancer, developmental delays in children, reduced birth weight, infertility, endocrine disruption and thyroid disease. RFK Jr also took on Smithfield Foods over pollution from hog farms. He was aiming to protect local environments and communities, communities from industrial agricultural runoff. And he's advocated for those people that were getting poisoned by the agricultural runoff, these communities that were living near these hog farms. In fact, he has a history of environmental activism. He was most notably known for fighting against General Electric when they were dumping PCPs, otherwise known as polychlorinated biphenols, into the Hudson river, which ultimately end up ended in its cleanup. RFK Jr. Is pushing back against Big Pharma and Big Agriculture. He's trying to reduce their harmful effects on our health and the environment. He isn't afraid to challenge how things are usually done, especially when big companies have too much to say in health and environmental rules. People have to understand that the reason why he is being attacked right now is because he is going after the very agencies that are profiting off of us being poisoned and staying sick. They have a lot of money. They also own the majority of our publications of our mainstream media. So when you see these hit pieces against him, just remember that Back in the late 90s, he was the golden child and everybody was praising him for all the things that I just talked about. And now they are coming for him because he's coming for their paychecks. It's plain and simple. It's really easy to see. But. And shouldn't we support somebody who calls out this overreach, demanding more honesty and safety and how public health is managed? Like, why are we not all in support of this? He is actively trying to protect us from these corporations that are trying to poison us. And I don't think it's this whole nefarious thing. I don't think everybody's out trying to kill us. But I believe that these corporations are making a lot of money doing the things that they're doing right now. And there's a lot of policies and a lot of lobbyists in Washington that are protecting these companies over their. Protecting the profits of these companies over human health. His fight is for making these industries and government agencies more honest and responsible. How anybody can fight against that, I don't know. I'll leave it at that. But I'm a huge advocate for RFK junior And the work that he's doing and I'm so excited to see what he's going to get done, hopefully as the head of the hhs, so we will find out if he actually gets voted in by the U.S. senate. But on to other things. So again, I am not trying to target Obama. I am just simply laying out the facts because I've been seeing so many people online advocating for Obama and saying Obama did so much for our food and he was, you know, in charge of the school lunch program. And I've been seeing all this stuff. So I wanted to lay out exactly what he did wrong during his presidency.
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That actually did not protect us.
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In fact, he was protecting the very companies that now RFK is trying to protect us from. So Obama had appointed Michael Taylor, who had previously worked for Monsanto, the frickin devil, as the FDA's deputy commissioner for foods in 2009. Taylor had a history with Monsanto. He served as Vice President for public policy, which was absolutely a conflict of interest. And this appointment could and did skew regulatory decisions in favor of GMO crops and genetically engineered organisms since Monsanto is a major player in this field. And we'll see more of this because I'm going to talk more about the GMOs because this was a big part of his, his administration. In fact, I remember voting for him because he was campaigning during, during his 2007 campaign and was pledging to support the mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods. More on that in a second. Obama's administration's approach to GMO regulation was 2 lacks. The U.S. animal and Plant Health Inspection Service under Obama deregulated certain GMO crops like alfalfa, which was favoring the biotech companies over consumer rights and environmental concerns. There was also the Monsanto Protection act signed into law in 2013. It was officially named the Farmer Assurance Provision, and it allowed the sale of genetically modified crops even if their safety was challenged in court, which it was being challenged. And its passage was essentially a handout to Monsanto and other biotech companies. So it was supporting these companies that wanted to profit off of these genetically modified foods, even though there were great concerns and for good reason over the effects of human health of these crops. The effects on human health. There was also the Food Safety Modernization act, also known as fsma, which was intended to improve food safety. But this act was overly favorable to large food companies because the high compliance costs. They disproportionately affected small farmers and producers, ultimately pushing them out of business or into compliance with regulations that were favoring the industrialized agriculture system. Now, GMO labeling is. Labeling is a really big one. I mentioned this a second ago. This is the reason I voted for Obama. I remember in 2011 he was pledging in his campaign to support the mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods because at that time the public was demanding transparency about what is in their food. Throughout much of his presidency, despite the promise, the administration did not actively push for mandatory GMO labeling at the federal level. Instead, the regulatory approach leaned towards voluntary labeling, which those of us who were paying attention to this were not stoked. I remember signing so many petitions, calling so many senators, sending so many emails. I was really upset about this. I was super vocal about it on my blog and my Instagram back in the day. In Real Foodology, this was way back in the day and I felt like I was just screaming into a void because most people didn't even know what GMOs were. Also, I was very frustrated with Obama because he had promised to label GMOs and then he did not support the mandatory GMO labeling until very late in his term. And even then it was in the form of a compromise that favored the biotech companies that we were looking for protection from. The labeling law that was eventually signed did not require traditional label changes and it allowed for these QR codes. And maybe some of y'all listening will remember this. We Were all super upset about it because we wanted transparent labeling. We wanted somebody to pick up a food product, be able to read on the back that it contains GMOs. And what they started doing is they were putting these QR codes on the back. And this lacked transparency for the consumers. Because first of all, who's scanning these? Right? Like people didn't even really know what GMOs were back then. And I don't think people are going to pick up something and scan it. There was also some pushback saying that people didn't have access to phones, couldn't scan in, and so they didn't have the ability to read and to read what was on the label, to figure out what was on the label of their food because they weren't able to scan it. So there was a lot of criticism for this back then. And there was something called, called the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling act of 2015. And critics started calling it the Dark act, which stands for denying Americans the right to know. If y'all remember this, shout out to the real ones. Because we were shouting about the Dark act back in 2015. And this act was later replaced by the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard and it was signed into law in 2016. The bill was introduced to establish a national standard for labeling of bioengineered foods, essentially preempting state laws that required labeling of genetically modified organisms, otherwise known as GMOs. So like I said, it was officially named the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling act, but critics called it the Dark Act. So we were calling it the Dark act because of its impact on consumer transparency. It also overrodes state level GMO labeling laws. So like for example, in Vermont, Vermont mandated clear on package labeling of GMO foods. And when the Dark act came out, this actually overrid that, y'all, when I say that we were fighting for our lives for these freaking labels back in the day, it was, it was almost impossible. If you remember this time period, we were fighting so hard just to get it labeled in. In the eu, for example, it says on all food packaging, if something contains genetically modified organisms or GMOs, it's on the labels. And that's what we were asking for. We were like, please, we just want to know if we're consuming these GMOs. We want people to have transparency to know if they are consuming these foods. And these biotech companies were fighting like hell to not disclose this to the public. What does that tell you? So on one end of the spectrum, they're telling us it's totally safe, it's totally fine to consume. These are great. These are healthy. In fact, they're going to feed the world and they are going to push us forward as a society, and we're going to have more access to safe and affordable foods. But then on the other end, they're fighting us like hell to even label them. So what is it? Are they safe and are they great for us and super healthy, or do we need to hide them and hide from the general public, like, when they're consuming these foods? So it was a huge battle for a long time. Finally, we won with this national bioengineered food disclosure standard. However, as of 2024, this is what the act reads essentially. So food products containing bioengineered ingredients must carry a disclosure. However, the term bioengineered is used instead of gmo. And the reason why they did this is it's so insidious. So bio in the EU actually stands for organic. So if you've ever been to Europe and you go to a grocery store and things are labeled bio, that means that you're buying something that's organic. Now, here in the United States, instead of labeling it GMOs, which is what we call them, everybody knows them as GMOs. Now, this label has required that food companies only need to write on there that it contains bioengineered ingredients. And the reason why they did that is to make it confusing. It's confusing to the general public. So now if a company contains bioengineered food ingredients, it has to say it on the back. You may recognize that if you pick up something like Cheerios and you read the back of the label and it says, like, may contain bioengineered ingredients on there. So Instead of saying GMOs, it says bioengineered. It sounds better because in Europe, bio means organic, but, you know, it's the best we could get. So companies can disclose a couple different ways. They can use text on the label saying bioengineered or contains bioengineered food ingredient. They can also use a symbol that's designated by the USDA for bioengineered foods. Or they can also have a digital link or QR code. I, to be honest, I don't even know if those are still being used because I haven't seen them, but I don't want to say definitively that they're not. But I haven't seen it. I've only seen the labeling on there. So. So these are all the things that happened during the Obama administration. And even though he ran on his campaign saying that he was going to require mandatory labeling of GMO foods, he did not. And it did not happen until much later. And we had to fight like hell just to get this on the label. And it's in really tiny text on the back and it's confusing. It says bioengineered.
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Now let's go into the school lunch program and we're also going to talk about Michelle Obama. If y'all follow me on Instagram, you may remember I I posted this in my stories recently that people like to praise Michelle Obama for her let's Move campaign and for her school lunch program and for making Americans healthier, specifically children. And I'm here to tell you guys, I'm sorry, but she sold the American public out to large food corporations and I brought the receipts. So let's go into the school lunch program first. So under the Obama administration, the Healthy Hunger Free Kids act was championed by Michelle Obama and it all started with good intention. It aimed to improve school lunches, but there were some aspects that were problematic and school lunches have arguably gotten worse. Now my biggest issue with the policies is they didn't go far enough in reducing the use of low quality processed foods in schools. And we're going to go into this further in a second because I'm going to talk about the specific companies that are contracted with the school lunch program and a lot of the foods, these like hyper processed highly palatable food like products that they're using in the school lunches. They often contain ingredients from commodity crops that receive significant federal subsidies, indirectly supporting large agra business agricultural business. As some of y'all might remember the tomato paste debate in 2011. So there was big controversy. Congress effectively blocked this Obama era proposal.
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By the U.S. department of Agriculture to.
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Change how tomato paste was counted in school lunches. So they were counting? Well, they still do. I'll explain this more in a second. But essentially they were counting tomato paste on the pizza as a vegetable in school lunches. So before this, 2 tablespoons of tomato Paste on a pizza slice would count as a vegetable serving. The USDA wanted to increase this amount to align more closely with other vegetable servings. And Congress intervened to keep the existing standard, which allowed pizza with a minimal amount of tomato paste to meet vegetable requirements. Now, currently, while pizza can still be served in school lunches, it must be accompanied with other vegetables. So I'm assuming now maybe they put vegetables on top of the pizza to meet the nutritional guidelines. And the sauce on the pizza contributes to the vegetable requirement, but the pizza alone doesn't fulfill it. But the tomato paste on the pizza. So if kids get a hyper processed pizza that has like 80 ingredients in it, oh, but it has tomato sauce in it, that constitutes as a vegetable serving for these children. The influence of the food industry in shaping these policies have not been health focused, they have been industry focused. So let's dive more into that. When Michelle Obama, maybe some of y'all will remember this. When she first started talking about wanting to clean up our food system, she was talking about additives. She was talking about the harmful ingredients that are in our food supply. And she was saying that we needed to stop eating so much processed food. She was talking about getting the preservatives out and was talking about big food companies. Now, if you guys remember, she changed her tune pretty quickly. And the reason why was because these big food companies came in and they were like, no, no, no, no, we're not going after the food. We can't be going after the food. I don't know if you all remember, but there was also a study that came out around that time that was funded by Coca Cola. And because Coca Cola and other soda companies were coming under heat for the rising obesity rates, specifically in children. And there was a study that came out saying that, no, soda does not contribute to obesity. What? Are you crazy? It's actually that Americans and children are not moving enough. So the let's Move campaign was officially launched by Michelle Obama. And instead of her going after the food companies that do not have human health in mind, but they are actually more concerned about profits now, these companies could continue to sell us these food like products and these crappy foods. And now we can just focus on. Americans are actually just not moving enough. So this is where the let's Move campaign was born. Let's not focus on what we're feeding kids so food companies can continue to prey on them. Let's instead tell them that they're not exercising enough. Sounds great. And it sounds like a great national campaign for Subway Mars Incorporated. Let's pull this up here. So let's see who sponsored. Let's move. Whole Foods Market. That's a great one. Walmart. Walmart sells some, some great products, but they also sell a lot of hyper processed, ultra processed foods. Sodexo. We're going to go more into Sodexo in a minute. Subway. Who thinks that Subway is creating healthy foods for us?
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Us. Dannon.
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Well, Dannon, yogurts are loaded with sugar and other ingredients. And then Mars Food. Oh, what does Mars Food make? Let's look this up. Mars Food makes many brands of food, including chocolate candies and other confectionary. M&M's, Twix, Snickers, Skittles, Orbit chewing gum. Doves. Dove. Oh, Dove. Ben's Original, the rice products. Dolmeo, which is a tomato sauce company, which that's probably what is going on there. Pizzas. Okay, so some of the other sponsors of let's Move. The School Nutrition association, the American Culinary Federation, Cooking Matters, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Culinary Trust, the Partnership for a Healthier America and Cornell University. So let's dive into some of these. Now I could go into all of the sponsors of all of these companies, but I'm just going to talk about some of the more notable ones. So one of the let's Move partners is the School Nutrition association, otherwise known as sna. So let's look at where the SNA gets some of their funding. Oh, Diversified Foods Inc. And JJ Snack Foods. Okay. They also get from the School Nutrition foundation, also known as snf. So let's dive a little more into Diversified Foods and J and JJ Snack Foods. JJ Snack Foods is a corporation that makes a variety of snack foods and drinks, including soft pretzels, frozen beverages, frozen juice treats and desserts. Stuffed sandwiches like burritos and other handheld sandwiches, probably like similar to the uncrustables, churros, funnel cakes, cookies, bakery goods, fruit bars, biscuits and dumplings. Wow, that all sounds like a bunch of really healthy, nutritious foods for growing bodies, doesn't it? Now let's look at Diversified Foods, which is another one of the SNA's funding groups. Diversified Food distributes and licenses a number of brands including Hershey's, Dairypure, Trumoo and Marcel's. Okay, so true. Moo. Let's look, let's look a little more into Trumoo, shall we? The ingredients in Trumoo milk vary by flavor. Now you have to remember that yes, they, they are probably giving them plain milk. But what child in their right Mind if given an opportunity between plain milk and chocolate milk or another flavored milk is going to choose the plain milk. So let's look at the ingredients of the flavored trumia milks, milk, liquid sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, salt, carrageenan, which has very questionable links to stomach upset and possible cancer, natural flavors and vitamin D. Other ingredients may include non fat milk gel and jellyn's gum, vitamin A, palmitate, excuse me, citric acid and red number 40. Red number 40. Now that's an interesting one. That's one that has been banned in places like the UK because they found a direct link to hyperactivity in children. That's interesting. There's also really concerning connections to RED40 and cancer. Gee, I wonder why almost 50% of our children are obese and they're having a hard time focusing. It couldn't possibly be the sugar that we're loading them up with and the, the food dies. Couldn't possibly be that. No way. Now let's talk about the National School Lunch Program. The National School Lunch Program or the NSLP is a federally assisted program that provides free or low cost lunches to children in public and non private schools. Now that's amazing, right? This is great. We, we know that there's a lot of children in this country that their only meals are the meals that they are getting at school. That's absolutely heartbreaking. Honestly, we should do better for these kids. And where do these companies get their food? From big food companies like Tyson and Kraft. In fact, if you guys remember, Heinz, Heinz, Kraft just got lunchables into our school lunch program this year through none other than the nslp. Now I just read an article maybe a week ago that they're actually taking the lunchables out because they did not do well because shortly afterwards there was a consumer report that came out showing really high levels of lead in our lunchables. Now thank God they found the lead because otherwise they would have probably still fed our kids the lunchables despite the fact that their ingredients look like this. Okay, this, I mean, I mean this label is too long for me to read out in its entirety. So I would encourage you all to just go look it up. Go Google it. But let's talk about a couple of these really quickly. Oh my God. This ingredient label is so long may contain bioengineered ingredients. That's an interesting one. We talked about that earlier. I mean this isn't food. Hold on y'all. I'm, I'm struggling with the. So I had a hard Time finding the ingredient label in the first place. I've been googling this and then also the way that it is zooming in, it's. I'm having a hard time reading the whole thing. One of the first ingredients is sugar modified cornstarch. I mean the problem is, is y'all, this just isn't real food. Like these aren't real food ingredients. It has canola oil, shortening. Oh, that's interesting. Shortening. Remember when we replaced butter with shortening and then heart attacks went up. Shortening that's made of canola oil and. Or fractioned palm oil and. Or soybean oil. Oh, soybean oil. The one that a recent study found that it actually reduces oxytocin in the brain. Oxytocin. Oxytocin being our love hormone. Yeah, that's not concerning at all. Contains wheat and soy mostly. Most likely genetically engineered. Also high levels of glyphosate because we know the glyphosate is being sprayed on soy and wheat. So you get the point. So children are getting these lunchables in the school lunch program for lunch. And you have to remember that some of these children, the only meals that they get get are the meals that are being fed at school. So some of these children are not even getting home cooked meals. They're getting all of these hyper processed, highly palatable food like products that, that have insanely long ingredient labels of like 50 to 80 different ingredients. What? We don't even know what, what these, all these ingredients are doing in these little bodies or human adult bodies as well. But all these different additives and preservatives and genetically modified engineered ingredients and glyphosate, we don't even know what all of these different ingredients in our bodies when they're mixed together. But we know it's not good. When you look at the obesity rates, 50% of our children are overweight or obese. 74% of young adults between the ages of 17 and 24 are ineligible for military service. That's terrifying. We are not doing our children right by feeding them these food like products in schools.
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Hydration.
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Okay, so let's go back to the deep diving of the funding. Okay, so I had mentioned earlier Sodexo as one of the sponsors. So let's talk about Sodexo a little bit. I remember Sodexo from my registered dietitian days. I never finished the program and y'all probably know that story by now. I've told it a million times. But I do remember Sodexo from that time period. So Sodexo has many partners including Amazon, KRO, oh PepsiCo. That's interesting. The US government. Sodexo has an eight year contract with the US government to provide food services to 51 Marine Corps mess halls. That's nice. Our government, our military or marine corps are also getting this. They are also funded by AstraZeneca. Sodexo and AstraZeneca have a global partnership to deliver sustainable experiences in the workplace. Okay, so works with SNAP while getting money from PepsiCo. And guess what one of the top purchases made with SNAP is. So SNAP is the federal aid program that helps people with hunger and poverty buy food, otherwise known as food stamps. And do you want to know what one of the number one top items purchased with SNAP is? Is soft drinks, sodas. Soft drinks are one of the top items purchased with food stamps or otherwise known as snap, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant program. In fact, food stamp recipients spend a significant portion of their allotments on junk food. And Sodexo is one of the sponsors of, you guessed it, the let's Move program. So I want to end this with something that somebody who follows me sent me a message who works in a.
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School and they said I love you.
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For sharing all this. They actually used to homemake most of the food. The school had about 2,000 kids and the kids had options. Now they cannot meaning they like the, the lunch ladies cannot make anything from scratch. It's all pre made frozen and are required to take a vegetable that they end up throwing away. So food waste is increased because these kids are not wanting to eat these like gross sauce soggy broccoli florets that they're probably Giving them that were frozen, and they're probably disgusting, so they end up throwing it away. And they get 3 ounces of protein per serving. That is usually soy based. If you guys remember, in New York, Mayor Adams required meatless Mondays to happen in schools. So now these kids are getting less protein, and a lot of them is soy based. And their cafeteria is literally run by a corporation, Sodexo. It's truly a tragedy, and I really hope, hope that RFK will overhaul all of this. So do y'all remember when Jamie Oliver went into our school lunches with the lunch ladies and he was showing them really simple recipes to make because they were all. This was back in. God, when was that? I want to say it was maybe like 2011, 2012. So you can only imagine in 2024 it's gotten so much worse. But back then, they were getting these huge bags of chicken nuggets and french fries and just cutting them open, throwing them in the fryer, and then serving that to children in the school lunch programs. This is horrifying, y'all. We have a public health crisis in this country. More than half of our children are overweight or obese. Kids now have fatty liver disease. This is a disease that like 50 years ago didn't even exist. Fatty liver disease back in the day used to only show up in alcoholics, and now we have to come up with a new term for it.
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And.
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And that's non alcoholic fatty liver disease. Because so many people, including children, are now, now getting fatty liver disease from the food that they're eating, because they're not eating real food anymore. And they're not getting it from the alcohol, they're getting it from the food. So now it's called non alcoholic fatty liver disease. We have a really big problem in this country, and it starts with the children. We know that nutrition starts when you're young. They have young developing bodies. They have young developing immune systems, young developing brains. And we are not even feed them real food. We're feeding them these food like products from packages. And it all comes back to funding large corporations like Tyson and Lunchables, Kraft, Heinz, they have these contracts with these school lunch programs that are federally funded, so that now these large food corporations are getting into our school systems and feeding our children things like Fruit Loops and General Mills cereals and the Lunchables. And it's just completely unacceptable. So I wanted to take the time to outline everything that the Obamas did, unfortunately. I used to be a really big fan of Michelle Obama and Barack Obama, but I was very, very upset with what happened with the let's Move campaign. And I've seen so many people say, oh, Michelle Obama is doing, you know, did amazing things for the American food system. And no, the honest truth is, y'all, Michelle Obama sold us out to large food corporations. And it's. And it shows when we look at who sponsored let's Move as I already outlined in the episode. So that is the truth of what happened with our food industry. And that is why I'm hoping that moving forward, we will have better options and we can hopefully feed our children better food. And also, y'all, this isn't just happening in the food system or in the, in the school lunch program. This is also happening in, in nursing homes. So to our elderly, it's also happening in our hospitals. It's why whenever we go to hospitals, everybody's getting fed these horrible food like products because these food companies have contracts with the hospitals. It's also happening with our military. So everyone, everyone in these federally assisted programs are all getting fed food like products. They're not getting fed real food. And it is absolutely atrocious and something needs to change in this country. Well, that's all for today's episode. I hope you guys enjoyed it. And let me know, Write me on Instagram, send me a message if you want to also tag the episode, tag me at Real Foodology and share with all your friends and family. Thanks. Love you guys.
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Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology podcast. This is a Wellness Loud production produced by Drake Peterson and mixed by Mike Fry. Theme song is by Georgie. You can watch the full video version of this podcast inside this bottom app or on YouTube. As always, you can leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in our bio. And if you like this episode, please rate and review on your podcast app. For more shows by my team, go to wellnessloud.com see you next time.
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The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only.
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It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't.
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Constitute a provider patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist.
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As always, talk to your doctor or.
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Your health team first.
Realfoodology Podcast Summary
Episode: RFK JR, The Obama Administration, School Lunch Programs + GMO Labeling | Solo
Host: Courtney Swan
Release Date: December 17, 2024
In this solo episode of the Realfoodology podcast, host Courtney Swan delves deep into the intertwined narratives of RFK Jr.'s environmental activism and the Obama administration's policies on GMOs and school lunch programs. Swan aims to shed light on the often-overlooked contributions of RFK Jr. while critically examining the actions taken during Obama's presidency that impact America's food system and public health.
Courtney Swan begins by highlighting the significant achievements of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) in environmental advocacy, asserting that his contributions are frequently overshadowed by recent online criticisms.
Courtney Swan [04:33]: "RFK Jr. is pushing back against Big Pharma and Big Agriculture. He's trying to reduce their harmful effects on our health and the environment."
Swan recounts RFK Jr.'s notable legal victories, including his involvement in litigation against Monsanto, which resulted in a $290 million payout for a plaintiff affected by the herbicide Roundup. She also emphasizes his battles against corporations like DuPont for water contamination and Smithfield Foods for pollution from hog farms.
Courtney Swan [04:34]: "RFK Jr. is trying to protect us from these corporations that are trying to poison us."
Swan underscores the importance of supporting RFK Jr. as he challenges powerful industries and government agencies that prioritize profits over public health.
Transitioning to the Obama administration, Swan expresses her disappointment with the policies enacted during this period, particularly concerning genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their regulation.
Courtney Swan [08:49]: "Obama's administration did not protect us; in fact, he was protecting the very companies that now RFK is trying to protect us from."
She criticizes the appointment of Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto Vice President for Public Policy, as the FDA's Deputy Commissioner for Foods in 2009, highlighting the conflict of interest this posed.
Swan discusses the Monsanto Protection Act (officially the Farmer Assurance Provision) signed into law in 2013, which allowed the sale of GMO crops despite safety challenges, effectively handing a victory to biotech giants over consumer and environmental concerns.
A significant portion of the episode focuses on the Obama administration's approach to GMO labeling, which Swan argues fell short of public expectations and transparency.
Courtney Swan [17:52]: "Instead of saying GMOs, it says bioengineered. It sounds better because in Europe, bio means organic, but, you know, it's the best we could get."
She details the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015, dubbed the "Dark Act" by critics, which preempted state-level GMO labeling laws and allowed for ambiguous labeling terms like "bioengineered." Swan expresses frustration that mandatory GMO labeling was not achieved as promised, forcing consumers to navigate confusing labels instead of clear, straightforward information.
Shifting focus to Michelle Obama, Swan critiques the Let's Move campaign, initially praised for its intentions to combat childhood obesity and improve school lunches.
Courtney Swan [25:26]: "Michelle Obama sold the American public out to large food corporations, and I brought the receipts."
Swan argues that despite the campaign's good intentions, it became heavily influenced by corporate sponsors like Subway, Mars Incorporated, and PepsiCo, which have vested interests in promoting processed foods. She highlights the contradiction between the campaign's goals and its corporate backers, suggesting that the initiative prioritized industry interests over genuine public health improvements.
The episode further delves into the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), criticizing its reliance on contracts with large food corporations that supply highly processed and low-nutrient foods to schools.
Courtney Swan [32:47]: "Children are getting these lunchables in the school lunch program, and you have to remember that some of these children, the only meals that they get are the meals that they are getting at school."
Swan points out issues such as the use of hyper-processed ingredients, misleading labeling (e.g., counting minimal tomato paste on pizza as a vegetable serving), and the resultant negative health outcomes like rising obesity rates and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children. She emphasizes that these practices contribute to poor nutrition and long-term health issues among America's youth.
Courtney Swan wraps up the episode by reiterating the need for systemic change in America's food policies and advocating for stronger leadership from figures like RFK Jr. to overhaul harmful practices entrenched in government programs and policies.
Courtney Swan [39:29]: "We have a public health crisis in this country. More than half of our children are overweight or obese."
Swan calls on listeners to stay informed, support advocates who prioritize public health over corporate profits, and push for transparency and accountability in food-related policies.
This episode of Realfoodology provides a critical examination of significant figures and policies that shape America's food system. Courtney Swan effectively combines historical context with current critiques, urging listeners to recognize the complex interplay between activism, government policy, and corporate influence in determining public health outcomes.
For more insights and updates, visit www.realfoodology.com and follow Courtney on Instagram @realfoodology.