The Doctor’s Farmacy: Episode 1 with Michael Moss

We are seeing an ever-increasing burden of chronic disease, primarily driven by our food and food system. This is perpetuated by agricultural, food, and health care policies that don’t support health.

We need to rethink disease and reimagine a food system and a health care system the protects health, unburdens the economy from the weight of obesity and chronic disease, protects the environment, helps reverse climate change, and creates a nation of healthy children and citizens.

How do we achieve this? It starts with conversation. It starts with information. It starts with getting insider perspective on all things food, health, and wellness related.

This is why I am so thrilled about my new podcast, The Doctor’s Farmacy, where I sit down with some of the most influential game-changers in this space to ignite meaningful conversation about things that matter.

My first guest is Michael Moss, a New York Times investigative reporter turned food-focused journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner for Explanatory Reporting, and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us. He also has another book coming out soon called Hooked: Food and Free Will, focused around food and addiction.

In this first episode, Michael and I dive into that concept further, unearthing the addictive mission of Big Food, to hook consumers and keep us coming back from more. The food industry approaches food as “engineering projects,” with the end goal of creating “heavy users”—a disturbing internal term used by food manufacturers that helps them make as much money as possible at the expense of public health.

As the title of Salt Sugar Fat insinuates, these three ingredients are the trillion-dollar food industry’s secret weapons in creating addictive products. Throughout our discussion, Michael shares alarming information about these ingredients that are used to intentionally produce hyper-palatable foods. These foods are so unlike anything found in nature that they shock the brain’s rewards center and hook us the same way drugs do.

The first step towards a healthier diet is being a conscious consumer. Michael’s years of experience investigating the food industry’s tricks and trades provide us with valuable tools for understanding the foods we eat, realizing food addiction is not a matter of willpower, and creating change around food policy.

I hope you’ll tune in for this first episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy, and be sure to subscribe to receive all the latest episodes right away.