How To Fix America's Broken Food System with Senator Cory Booker

Mark Hyman, MD

Full Transcript

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Dr. Mark Hyman
Coming up on this episode of The Doctor's Farmacy.

Senator Cory Booker
The people that are really losing in this country right now are the people that want to make healthy choices. Mhmm. But then they walk into the store. Yeah. Really charged up for looking at, and they find packaging and things that literally are designed confuse them

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah.

Senator Cory Booker
Or lie to them.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Welcome to Doctors Pharmacy. I'm Doctor Mark Hyman. That's pharmacy that have a place for conversations that matter And, oh, boy, did I have a conversation that matters with Senator Cory Booker at the 69 synagogue in Washington DC talking about our food system, how to be young, how to deal with our chronic disease epidemic, and we got really deep into the details of health policy, what wrong with America in terms of his health, what we can actually do about it, what's being done about it, and a lot of the great initiatives.

Dr. Mark Hyman
So I think you're gonna love this conversation. The center Corey Booker has been a center from New Jersey since 2013. He's worked tirelessly to advance economic support for an opportunity for many people in equal justice, including leading efforts to reform our broken food system. So it works for farmers, workers, and consumers alike. He joined the Senate community on agriculture nutrition forestry.

To further drive these efforts from his days as a tenant lawyer, city councilman, mayor, and in the Senate, Corey Booker has spent his life working to bring people together to take on problems we face and deliver real results. I gotta tell you a story about this guy. I was sitting during COVID when I was in Hawaii on the on the porch of my house, And it was a Sunday afternoon, and I got a call from a New Jersey number, and I never answered phone numbers that I don't know, but I decided on better news. So I answered phone. And it was Senator Cory Booker who just read my book, Foodfix, and we spoke for over an hour talking about how enthusiastic he was about what I'd written and why you saw this as one of the central issues of our time, which is our broken food system.

So I think during the 11th conversation that we had at 6 and I, let's dive right into

Dr. Mark Hyman
thank you all so much for coming. It's great to see y'all. Last time I was here was, March 2 2020. It was a great day

Senator Cory Booker
to be here right before the world shut down.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Exactly. It actually was talking about my book Foodfix, which is about our food system and the challenges we have with the increasing burden of chronic illness with the food policies that drive unintended consequences of increasing disease and costs and downstream effects on the environment climate. And, You know, I I I've been, you know, very focused on this. I have a nonprofit called the Futrix Campaign Center, Booker and I work closely together on trying to change food policy. So you're probably wondering center is here and a cookbook book party, basically.

And it's it's because, he deeply cares about the health of our country and the state of our food system and the challenges he's seen as a result. And, we were just chatting earlier before I I, was Strick COVID was sitting in Maui, to escape, America, the mainland of America, and I got this call from this number from New Jersey on a Sunday afternoon And I and I picked up my phone. I normally don't answer numbers that I don't know. And it was sent her Booker, and he's like, Mark, I just read your book, Food Fix, and and blew my mind, and I wanna work with you on this. Let's go.

So it's been it's been an amazing, know, an amazing opportunity to really rethink how we how we deal with our our health and our nation. So we're gonna do kind of a kind of a joint conversations. That'll mean that'll handle talking about.

Senator Cory Booker
But can I advertise that the food fix? This is we'll talk about the cookbook I hope, but it it's one of the most basic primers for anybody that cares about the your family, your food, and your country, and you pull don't you don't pull punches in it by talking about the corrupt that has created the American food system. Right. And I love how you talk about and in fact, you changed some of the things with me with the civil rights organizations, because when people were coming to me and saying, here's our agenda for Black America. Right.

And I would say, how can you have an agenda for black America without talking about the number one killer of African Americans. If black lives matter, we have to talk about food and food systems that people are trapped in. And you laid it out so plain and then give instructions for people if you really wanna fight to change the system, not just your own individual choices, but how do you create a system in in this country, a food system that promotes health, wellness, longevity, here are steps to take. So it's a great primer. And then I bought the book for members of the of the ad committee.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Oh, really? Yeah. I bought the book

Senator Cory Booker
for members of the ad committee. And and what surprised me is a lot of people didn't know some of the basic things I know we'll talk about momentarily but really scary things that are being subsidized with our tax dollars that are creating a system that's creating some of the greatest levels of chronic illness in in in the planet.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. That's true. I mean, and I think it's it's true. I don't think people in Congress really had a deep understanding of the way in which the burden on our country and our population and our economy is because of the food system and the unintended consequences of it.

Senator Cory Booker
Yeah. Well, this is a cookbook. Yes. And I think what's inspiring, I told you last night, I've never really read a cookbook. So whenever I interview friends and their books, I wanna read them, and I'm not the greatest cook in the world.

You've never invited yourself over for 1y meals. But the beginning of it really sets the stage for why you wrote this cookbook and something that you've been this great evangelist of and maybe you can start talking about what you learn or why you were inspired by the blue zones and what they are.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Well, I, you know, I think, I've always been issued the science of creating health. It's I do with functional medicine. And I think, you know, it became really clear to me that, you know, we're we're in a crisis where, you know, we're in the moment of science where we know more and more about the root cause of illness and what to do about it, and yet we're seeing increasing rates product disease, and we're seeing a decline in life expectancy for the first time in human history. And it's been year over year. COVID made it worse than what's happening before COVID.

And so while we have this sort of peace of longevity to living a healthy 100 years, we we haven't really addressed the the reasons why we are so sick and and overweight as a country. And and 93% of Americans are metabolically and healthy, which means they have either high blood sugar, high blood pressure,

Senator Cory Booker
high cholesterol, 90. 3%. So, actually, it's 93.2%. Okay. Or metabolically healthy.

What what exactly does

Dr. Mark Hyman
there's some level of prediabetes or some degree of insulin resistance. So they basically have poor metabolic health, and that's defined as having high blood pressure, high blood sugar, abnormal cholesterol, they're overweight, or they've had a heart attack for stroke. That means only 6% 6.8% of Americans don't have that. That's why we're seeing the decline in life expectancy. And it's because of our food, and the food we eat is the biggest generator of either longevity or chronic illness.

And and in my book, Young Forever, which was a precursor to the cookbook, was really vamping out the size we have around what the root causes of this chronic disease epidemic are and how we can actually extend healthy life years. So our health span is how many years are alive. I mean, you're healthy. And our life span is how many years are alive. But our our health span has gone down dramatically.

And the last 20% of people's life now is spending poor health. And so your your quality of life goes down, but we can have a house fan that equals our lifespan. You know, all our stories of, oh, so and so was a hundred years old, and she went to bed and went to sleep and had a nice dinner with her family before it. She was Great. Right.

And I think we all want that. We all wanna kinda just kinda move them through life and have a great, healthy life and then die suddenly as opposed to thigh slow, long, expensive people deaths, which is why we're seeing the the burden on our health care system and our economies. So, you know, the blue zone's really taught me that it's really about the most basic things. Right? It's It's the basic things of eating real food of not eating all the processed food we're eating now, which is now 60% of our diet is 67% of kids diet These are new to nature foods.

They're deconstructed sized projects that have been well proven to cause a whole host of chronic diseases. It was a big report in the last. It recently had, like, 37 different conditions. That it's been linked to mental health disorders, to fertility issues, to, diabetes, heart disease, cancer. I mean, the list goes on.

So we have to eat from Not the ulcer processed food that we're dealing to a more whole real food diet. They exercise naturally as part of their life. I met a guy. Pietro was ninety five years old was a shepherd who would take 5 miles up a day with a sheep every day. He was, you know, both upright, clear eyes, booming voice, sharper's attack, 95.

We still see that in America, and they had a deep sense of of community. So they as it's a belonging connection and they ate together, they celebrate it together. They've lived together in a beautiful way. Even if people had that a woman named, Julia, she was, a 100 and she said, I'm a 103 months. And, and she, you know, didn't have any kids, but she was living with her niece, and and they were king airbag.

She was still working at a hundred years old. Making doilies and things for weddings. And so they had a deep sense of connection and belonging. So the the elements of longevity are really pretty simple. It's what we eat.

It's how we move. It's our connection community. It's how we deal with stress. I think that, you know, this guy, Silvio, I met, he was a amazing man was family had this mountain top, had a farm and they had sheep and goats and And we then made this beautiful dinner for us. And I said, Sylvia, do you have any stress?

He looked at me like, didn't you really quite know what I meant? I know stress when things are hard or difficult, and He said, oh, yeah. I I said, what? He said, well, sometimes at night, a a goat will get out, and I'll have to go get it. Yeah.

So we live in a in a time of chronic stress, both mental stress and environmental stresses and toxins we're talking about. And and and they don't have that. And we can't reproduce that exactly here, but we can learn a lot from the blues ons about how to create help.

Senator Cory Booker
Well, I don't wanna lose the great stories at the beginning of this because eating cheese with worms, you know, that's you.

Dr. Mark Hyman
That was a good story. You might agree with that.

Senator Cory Booker
Why did you tell that before I ask

Audience Member 1
you my

Senator Cory Booker
next question?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Well, there's a guy, Alinto, who basically was, had its own farm, and he grew all his own vegetables, had animals, raised, you know, pigs, and sheep, and chickens, and rabbits, and grew orchards, and he made us his sort of, beautiful meal. And at the end, he he brought out this kind of big round thing of cheese and and basically said, you know, this is special Sardinian cheese that is made with worms. And he said, it it's supposedly an aphrodisiac and he told the story of his, grandfather who had this and said his grandmother could still, you know, enjoy him even after he died. So I don't know. It was kind of a weird story, but but it was amazing.

And I ate it, and I didn't die. It was kinda weird, but, you know, they they basically have these traditional food ways that we've lost. And so getting back to food in its most basic form is is a pretty simple idea, but it's something we've lost. And it and as a result, of the food industry's efforts to take control of the American Kitchen, to take control of the American farm, and to disenfranchise people from their own health I think it's it's a national emergency, Corey. And I think we we have to face his head on because we're just heading down a road where, you know, the burden of this is going to affect our children by living shorter, synchronizing their parents.

It's going to affect our ability to be competitive in the world because of a burden of illness. I mean, we were 4% of the world's population in COVID, And we were 16% of the cases in deaths, not because we were, bet had worse medical care, but because we had a pre inflamed sick population, that was so susceptible to the virus when they got it. 4% of the population, 16%

Senator Cory Booker
of the cases in deaths, of the cases in deaths. So I I wanna pull back because there's something we're not trying to do that you're not trying to do, which is this isn't about shaming people for their food choices. This isn't about shutting all over people. You should do this. You should do that.

Because I think when people read books, they they start to, feel bad about themselves and the decisions on their to make. What I love about you and why you've been such a great ally and inspiration is you understand that if you we grew up in indigenous cultures. Yeah. You know, the African American health versus black people in Africa, depending on it could be very dramatically different if they're still eating indigenous diet. The China study showed that that Chinese, were living incredibly healthy until they started shifting towards Western diet.

The Western diet So what we're really trying to say is let's take a step back and look at the broken American food system or what they call the standard American diet, the sad system that has created so much illness because we're not morally more lacking because we're sick and unhealthy. More different than our great grandparents who were incredibly healthy. Yeah. I was watching, as one does, soul train, uh-uh, we're gonna do a little filtering line. I think somebody in here knows what I'm talking about.

Yeah. That was

Dr. Mark Hyman
a long time ago, Greg.

Senator Cory Booker
And I would would stunned me when I watched soul train from the 19 sixties seventies was how thin

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah.

Senator Cory Booker
And fit everybody was.

Dr. Mark Hyman
I mean, in the sixties, black Americans were healthier than white Americans.

Senator Cory Booker
Yes. And and because of the because the food systems in which black Americans were stuck in, and and so suddenly we've now shifted to this system. And and what you're talking about is it is not a moral failing to be obese in America now. It's it's it's your you are in a system that is so toxic Yeah. That is so designed for your unhealth And what you are trying to do now leading a leader in America in is to tell the truth about this broken system and say that we collectively, as a country, not only can change it, there is a health emergency going on that we must change it and just some data that you and I were throwing back.

I'm not sure if everybody here knows. That one out of every 3 of your tax dollars that go to the us, the federal government, is spent on health care. And a lot of those $1,800,000,000,000.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yes. And it's it is 40% of our total national spend on health care.

Senator Cory Booker
And and 1 out of every $5 in our entire economy is going on health care. The overwhelming majority of that money is going to chronic diseases, the majority of which are preventable and are food related and are food related. And and so now think about this with the rates of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and what you call type 3 diabetes Alzheimer's. Which is Alzheimer's, if you are tracing these spenditures on those, they're going up and up and up. And the pharma industry is designing really expensive drugs We don't have to change the food system.

We don't have to change the inputs. Just pop this pill not to not to secure this shot. Yes.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Anyway, I haven't watched the South Park episode of obesity. It's funny and also terrifying.

Senator Cory Booker
But they're designing drugs. To that we don't know what the side effects of these are. In fact, we know some of the side effects of the Alzheimer drugs that are really expensive that people are are flocking to, not to stop Alzheimer's or slow just to try and slow all scammers. When we know that access to fresh healthy foods, is is transformative. I was we created it in Newark when I was mayor, a big, turned an entire city block into an urban farm.

Yeah. And I went back there with food ink too, which you saw to film. And while we were filming it, African American women were coming out and wanted to testify. One woman said that her doctor said she had incurable gut problems that she had to be on this medication across $700. She had a $100 co pay.

So she's paying a lot of money, $100 a month to her and $600 a month to us as as taxpayers. And then she started sourcing all of her food, and her doctors, oh, it's a miracle. You're cured after eating all this food. Another woman came to the eighty year old octogenarian who had created a a a of an Instagram account called the Octogenarian vegan because she started eating all food in her diabetes, which she had for years, years years, she suddenly was off. You know, this is a doctor, a functional medicine doctor that these are not incurable problems if we change our input.

So the point I wanna make to you, and I hope that you'll expound upon it is You have been focusing a lot on individual behavior. Yes. You've definitely helped me and my individual journey as a friend, but systemic change you're saying has got to be made in our system, and that's where we found alliances. Can you talk about What are the systemic changes that you're trying to make at our America? Yeah.

Dr. Mark Hyman
I mean, I I think, you know, our effort where the food fix came in is really to educate lawmakers about the problem. Which they had very low awareness of. I mean, you're one of the few really gets it in congress. And and, you know, we're working on a number of different initiatives to help change policies that are driving the production of the wrong food and the the eating of the wrong food. So for example, we we were helpful in the $20,000,000,000 that was in the inflation reduction act that was to support climate smart agriculture.

We've been very, aggressive in trying to work with Medicare to cover medically killer meals, and you've introduced a bill in in the senate, and we'll slow down. Let's take this pieces of the time. Let's go

Senator Cory Booker
to food production in the United States.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Oh, yeah.

Senator Cory Booker
Our great great grandparents had a lot more plant and crop diversity, right? A 100%. Yeah. And and this was before seeds were a patented for their biology to withstand this thing called Roundup. Yeah.

So what is happening to our soil and the foods that we're growing right now, this sort of, what is this mono cropping 5 crops that we're pouring, a of all of

Dr. Mark Hyman
our Yeah. I mean, amazing, we have to fix our food system from the field to the fork. Right. And and starting at the field is a big problem because commodity based agriculture, corn, wheat, and soy, has been a boondoo, big agrochemical and agro seed companies, and big food producers but not to the farmers who were suffering, both in terms of their health and their economic welfare. Right.

And has also been extremely destructive to the ecosystem of a farm, which used to be a multi crop diverse, ecosystem that now is a monocrop system that is fire in ways that destroy the soil, the micro isle fungi, the organic matter, one third of all the carbon in the atmosphere today is from the soil. So driving climate change the runoffs from the nitrogen fertilizer into our river river rivers and lakes is called Utrification. It's it's creating dead zones the size of New Jersey. Nothing against New Jersey. But it's very dense on the size of New Jersey in the gulf of Mexico.

There's 400 of these around the world that feed a half a billion people. That pesticides, herbicides are affecting, you know, farmers and us and and affecting our health. We're seeing the, in inadequacy of the food that that we used to grow, which was nutrient dense. And now even if you're growing eating vegetables and fruit, the the nutrients aren't in the food. Because because the soil is required to extract the nutrients.

When I say so, I mean, not dirt, which is just without life, but I'm talking about a robust soil ecosystem is a symbiotic relationship between the soil, the microorganisms in the soil, the micro retinal fungi, and the plants, and humans. And so we're seeing diff crops in mineral levels and protein levels and vitamin levels in our food. Even if we're eating broccoli today, it's not the broccoli we ate 50 years ago.

Senator Cory Booker
Let me give you your color commentary and go into a few things he said, which to me should sober all of us. The first is American farmers are in a system that does not work. We are losing 1000 and 1000 of American farmers who are going out of business or killing themselves or, their suicide rates are three time higher than ours. I visited with some of these farmers in the Midwest from both parties and saw people that had their homestead act, deed up So 5 generations of farmers, the economics worked. And now it's to them, and the economics no longer work because you have this monopolization in the food system.

Where now all of the input companies are consolidated, Monsanto, now bare, jacking up the prices of the inputs. Yeah. Farmers used to harvest their own seeds and re put them in. Now they've been patented. They're being sold, round up resistance.

So you have to buy these chemicals And this way of farming, which we are subsidizing our our department of agriculture is built around it, is unsustainable for the farmers economic One farmer said to me, all my costs have gone up. I used to have five people to sell the competing for my goods. Now it's 1 or 2 companies because you know, The food is consolidated into a handful of companies, and they're being driven, to their share of the consumer dollar has gone down something like 40 uh-uh-uh percent in in the last, like, a few decades. And so there's there's shrinking abilities to make it. So the farmers are suffering and going out of business at, at, at, at, a tough numbers.

Our soil is a crisis in our country. We are killing our soil. Yeah. Soil runoff is horrible. As you said, it's killing our ecology, seeping into poisoning groundwater of all these chemicals flowing into our rivers and streams down the Mississippi river into the biggest dead zone.

That's the size of 2 Rhode Islands. Why are you picking on New Jersey?

Dr. Mark Hyman
I don't know. I just, 2 Rhode Island. Either one New Jersey.

Senator Cory Booker
So so we are killing our ecology and climate change, which all of these people who are in the climate movement wanna talk about oil and gas companies Not enough people are talking about the food system

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah.

Senator Cory Booker
And the way we're doing it.

Dr. Mark Hyman
But one thing that arguably the biggest contributor to climate change. Yes. Have to deal with fossil fuels and and decarbonize. We also have to deal with our agricultural system.

Senator Cory Booker
And then and that's just for the the commodity crops you're talking about not to meant the perversion of how our grandparents used to raise cattle, used to raise pigs, used to raise chicken, which happened with these small handful of companies, Tyson's JB, you name it. They've started to do these massive factory farming operations which are also creating incredibly horrible runoffs in these cafos with where you go to places like Dupland County, North Carolina and see loos of pick feces, and the health consequences for the people around that are horrible. Like, asthma and rest for diseases, and the kids are affected. It's I've sat with those families in crowded black churches. Off their in low income, minority neighborhoods.

So we could have our cheap bacon, we actually didn't even say that because peeps at places like Smithfield just ship it all to China. But the horrific lives of the people that live in these low income areas that deal with all this runoff especially when storms come through to just pick up all that feces, polluting water. I was in Iowa when a a camping for president, and the people are telling me I can't fish out of my cricket anymore. I can't drink the water under my well. And what most Americans don't realize is we are subsidizing that system as it is.

Yeah. To produce those handful of commodity crops. Again, you may be surprised by this data point, but less than 10% about 7% of our ag subsidies. Go to the foods that functional medicine doctors tell us the majority of of what we should eat.

Dr. Mark Hyman
I mean, 5% of the corn is grown is actually eating this corn. Most of it's turned into highly deconstructed science ingredients that are reassembled into food like substances or that are, you know, used for oil or,

Senator Cory Booker
I mean, soybean oil, corn oil, high fructose corn syrup. This is what we're this is what we're making cheaper. And so you said from farm to fork, what that means for us in our communities is we could go to a DC corner grocery store and find a Twinkie product because all those things we just said are being subsidized in that scientifically engineered product engineer for addiction. They know how our brains work. You're gonna pay less for a tweak more for an apple than you will for a twinkie problem.

Yeah. So now you're a consumer and you're not paying the true cost, We have decided as a society that we're gonna drive down the costs of the foods that make us most sick and drive up the costs for the foods that we need. So you can get a a happy meal or whatever at at McDonald's, these dollar meals. All that is deeply subsidized, then we pay for it again on the Medicaid Medicare costs, and you go down the street and try to get a bucket of salad and it costs 15 bucks. Yeah.

And and so We have created a system where everyone is losing. Environment is losing. Archaeology is losing. Animals are losing in the horrific ways that they're being raised. Farmers are losing and end consumers are losing.

And you all

Dr. Mark Hyman
are Government's losing by having to pay, you know, a third of its tax revenue.

Senator Cory Booker
A third of his

Dr. Mark Hyman
tax revenue going with the chronic disease, the consequences of our food system.

Senator Cory Booker
Right? The only people are winning is these large multinational corporations that are consolidating have near monopolistic power. And then what do they do when we walk in for the consumer that has heard doctor Hayost teasing him that I listen to so many of his podcasts I've gone to bed with him, not in a literal way.

Dr. Mark Hyman
I put him to sleep every night.

Senator Cory Booker
I just lie him next and enthused me off. It's very intimate, my friend. It's very intimate. Listen to his podcast. It is it is you have amazing guests.

Yeah. That are extraordinary, but but but the the the the people that are that are are are really losing in this country right now are the people that want to make healthy choices. But then they walk into the store. Yeah. Really charged up for looking at, and they find packaging and things that literally are designed confuse them or lie to them.

Yeah. First of all, the pictures of the beautiful cows or the beautiful pastoral views don't show what it's like, really. No. K Foes and all of that. You don't know what chemicals that are banned in Europe that are actually in that food.

Yeah. And the package labeling as we were talking, maybe you can expand on that is confusing as how.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. I mean, I think all you said is so important court, because really the whole system know, wasn't originally designed to make us sick and run the environment, but it's the unintended consequences of food policy that were set in place, you know, 50, 7 years ago. And and then haven't been reformed and updated. And that's really, you know, what has to happen. And that's happened because, you know, as you said, we are we're seeing this this national emergency in this crisis across a whole spectrum of society and and government.

And it it's it's it's to me, it's it's such an urgency that we we have to hit it head on. And I don't I don't think the food companies now that they have what they have are willing to easily let go of it. They they need the government to kind of step in. And one of the ways that has been that effective in other countries is food labeling. You know, we don't wanna be the nanny state.

We don't wanna tell people what to do, but we wanna people. We wanna give them choices. We wanna educate them about what's good and not good for them. Now there's a lot of debate about what is good and not good, and the food industry will try to confuse you and say we don't have enough data. Very recently.

I mean, it's it's it's pretty frightening how how the food industry gets in the in the weeds and all this, but we we actually now have the ability to label foods with warning labels like they do in South America, like they do in Europe, like they do in Canada, that are clear and understandable. Unless you have a PhD in nutrition, it's hard to understand a nutrition facts label. I mean, if I said there's 39 grams of of sugar in a food. I I would ask how many of you know how many teaspoons that is? Well, maybe if you listen to me on the podcast, you might know, but let's see.

I have no clue. Like, someone said, I was on the today show this morning, and the woman said, yeah, I was my daughter was having, like, a sports drink and had 50 grams of sugar. I said, yeah, that's that's, like, more than, 12 teaspoons of sugar in a drink and no idea they're eating that. And so the the the food dish is very very active in trying to block any reform on food labeling. But imagine having front of package latency.

This is good for you. This is bad for you. Like, if they have in other countries, like, it's red is bad for you. Yellow, eat with caution. Green is good for you.

Anybody can understand that. But to look at a food label now or an ingredient list, it's it's just very confusing. And so we need to make it simple for people to make the right choices. And when they've done that in these countries, They've seen a dramatic change in the health of the population in what people buy, and and they've actually mailed it to make a dent in the in the obesity and chronic disease crisis Right?

Senator Cory Booker
And what I love about you, and this is how I feel too, is I'm not I don't wanna take away anybody's freedom. I know what it feels like to come home from a really hard day

Dr. Mark Hyman
You don't have any of those in the easy place to work like the US Senate. Yeah. Just. Right. I mean, it gets along.

The party on the throne.

Senator Cory Booker
I know it is like to come home tired dressed after banging your head against implacable walls of resistance. And all I wanna do is get into this central embrace with my 2 best friends, Ben and Jerry, I want that freedom. I want the I don't want somebody to take away that freedom for me.

Dr. Mark Hyman
My friends are hogging and Das.

Senator Cory Booker
Your friends are hogging and Das. You always like those international type.

Dr. Mark Hyman
But

Senator Cory Booker
I want that freedom, but I don't want the government to subsidize. Yeah. My my subsidized that, especially when they're not subsidizing fruits and vegetables. And I'll tell you this. How would we feel if people were subsidizing alcohol?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. Or subsidizing marijuana? Subsidizing acos.

Senator Cory Booker
Or subsidizing tobacco. Yes. Still. Yes. And so what my point is is we believe in freedom, but there's 2 types of freedom.

Freedom of choice. I never wanna be the person taking the person bacon cheeseburger and milkshake out of your hand. I don't wanna be that guy, but I want freedom to know as well. Freedom to know what's in your foods. Yeah.

And their system of food packaging right now is designed to confuse you. For example, I know consumers who look at the ingredients. I do. Let me look at the ingredients. And they're looking for sugar, and it it and it's way down.

Well, it's not really way down on the list. Regularly routinely what companies food companies do, which they don't do overseas. They're not allowed. They they they don't allow it. They take they decide, okay.

Well, we're gonna put 7 different types of sugar into this product or 5 or 4 different types of sugar in this product. So it doesn't show up as the number one ingredient. So consumers will look at it and say, oh, well, the number one ingredient is wheat or what have you. It's that that's not bad for you. They try to intentionally confuse the consumers.

Yep. And you and I have been saying that the FDA, which does so much drug trials, studies, the FDA, the federal food and drug administration, there's a lot on the d but we believe they should put the f back in the FDA and start focusing on foods and what they're doing to us because There are chemicals that we've put, dyes, and more chemicals that are banned in other countries Yep. That that we allow freely into our food system that are having untold and you I've listened to your podcast a lot and read your books about how important we're realizing the microbiome is. Yeah. And some of these things we're pouring into

Dr. Mark Hyman
our guts They really have effect on our mental health, our physical health, as as well as our longevity. And £22 a year of additives are consumed by people who eat the average American diet. £22. So that, like, little micro ingredients we're eating, their their pounds. If you're eating 60% of your diet is ultra processed food, it's £22.

So those have horrible consequences for your gut microbiome, for driving inflammation, for, toxicities around cancer. And there are things like belated hydroxytoluine, which you wouldn't have in your cupboard and sprinkle on your salad. But it's in your food. Right? And if I

Senator Cory Booker
and if we took the the blood of anybody in here, were there anybody that would not have glyphosate in there? No. I mean, I try to eat healthy.

Dr. Mark Hyman
I mean, I don't always have the capacity to choose everything I'm eating because I travel, but, you know, 80% of Americans have glyphosate in their urine. 80%. And I I tested mine as well, and I have it too. And I'm like, you know, we're all and and glyphosate is a known, carcinogen is a microbiome destroyer. It has generational effects on it on our epigenome, which crosses translational changes and and kidney issues and cancer and clean tumors don't No.

Senator Cory Booker
They're not they don't.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Oh, nobody knows. I mean, you know, like, I mean, we're, I think, the only country other than, I think, Syria that doesn't allow GMO labeling. That was a that was an act in congress that was designed to allow for GMO labeling. It was euphemistically called the the Dark Act, denying America is the right to know. And the u the food industry spent a $192,000,000 lobbying congress over this one bill.

Right? And and and Syria and the US are the only countries in Russia and China, which are not known for their openness are actually labeling GMOs. And I'm glad you

Senator Cory Booker
said that because it's the end before I wanna get really quickly and give the good news, because I think we're telling the the dark story right now, but the again, we in in congress, I always say after perhaps the defense industrial complex, the next most powerful lobby

Dr. Mark Hyman
because it bigger. The food nag lobby is bigger than the defense lobby.

Senator Cory Booker
Okay. You later said it, and it gives the both sides of the political aisle protecting a system that is bankrupt because it's hurting all of the people that we went through from the farmers themselves, to the end users.

Dr. Mark Hyman
We're not it. We privatized the profits and socialize the cost Right. So the taxpayers are left holding the bag and the bill. Right. And then it's a change.

Right.

Senator Cory Booker
That the taxpayers are subsidizing the things that make us sick and then paying for the for the incredible medical costs. And many Americans feel lost because they live in communities. We're just finding access to healthy fresh foods. And the very farm system that farmers want when we were able to make some changes and get climate smart farm practices, through Joe Biden and the and congresses, inflation reduction act, 1,000,000,000 of dollars, farmers flocking to that money because they want to raise organic. Yeah.

They wanna do cover crops. They wanna do no till farming. They wanna take on practices because at the end of the day, farmers are good stewards of the land. But if they feel like they're in the system where this is the only thing they know and the only and the incentives are to to to do these practices, they're gonna continue to do those practices. And the good news, which I wanna shift to before we open this up for some questions and other discussion, The good news is we believe that the more number 1, we could educate the public about this, the more pressure we're gonna create because change doesn't come from Washington.

It comes to Washington by an informed public that demands suffrage that demands civil rights that demands Medicare that demands organizing rights. All of these things that changes that we've been able to make, even the EPA and the laws of her clean water and clean air happened because of public awareness be raised in demands. And so you believe, and I've shared this belief that there are shifts that we could be making in our systems to make them more benefit farmers, to break up these big monopolies that are dominating it by actually enforcing antitrust law but starting to put the incentives in the right places to produce the outcomes. So there's more of a flourish and abundance of healthy foods and more informed consumers about the food that aren't healthy for

Dr. Mark Hyman
us. Right.

Senator Cory Booker
You're okay to choose them, but you should see clearly on labels, should not have should have a a transparency as well. Yeah.

Dr. Mark Hyman
I mean, ultra processed food and sugar, they need tobacco. I mean, when you look at the way the tobacco industry was, they were denying the harmful health effect of it. They were denying the addictiveness of it. And, you know, we know from the Yale food addiction scale, the head that's been researched across the globe that 14% of the global population is technically addicted to food and 12% of kids and alcoholism is 14%. So we we we we really in a situation where we we have to we have to hit this head on, and we have to learn how to start to incentivize the right behaviors by educating consumers by providing the right labeling.

Food marketing is another thing. I mean, we we allow marketing to our children and and also targeting African Americans as Hispanics that that is driving their disease rates through the roof. I mean, like childhood obesity is now at 40% over 25% of kids are are mean, Sara, overweight is 40% obesity is around 25%. And and if, you know, if we were, you know, having, a foreign nation due to our kids, what we're doing, We would go to war to protect them, but we're doing it. And and we know that, like, for example, in Chile, where they landed all junk food advertising, on on all medium between 6 AM 10 PM.

So the kids wouldn't see it. They eliminated all the cartoon characters. There's no tony the tiger anymore or the down to the fruit loops guy or whatever that is. Right. Those don't exist.

And the serial packaging, and they have the warning labels. And if that that education of consumers in that.

Senator Cory Booker
So you're telling me that GMO frosted, glyphosate full wheat covered in sugar is just not it's not a healthy, you know?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Well, you know, maybe if you're a martian, I don't know. But definitely not for humans. And it and it's you know, it's it's it's tragic where what's happening to our children. And so at the very least, we should be able to protect our children and have, right, child friendly labeling and has

Senator Cory Booker
we have the military coming to us and tell us that 70% of American youth right now can't qualify for military service. Yeah, I mean, 70% of American youth can't qualify for military.

Dr. Mark Hyman
I mean, the irony is that the the school lunch program was developed because the recruits in World War 2 were malnourished and the federal government put in the school age program. Now that same program is causing our kids to be sick and overweight and 70% don't qualify. What's even scarier is that of the evacuations from Afghanistan and Iraq during those wars? 72% were for obesity related injuries, not for war injuries. Wow.

Like, related to obesity related causes. And it this is not is it on my opinion. This is from military readiness as a group of retired Adewals in general who made these report.

Senator Cory Booker
And so we're spreading out. You and I are for supporting a lot of things. Which I just wanna make people aware. Those women that came to me at that incredible, urban farm, they were benefiting from the Gus SNP program. Which means that if you have, taking what used to be called food stamps, to a, your staff benefits to a farmer's market, you can get twice the double bar.

Everything doubles. And I was blown away what $5 could buy at this farmer's market. We're supporting the climate smart, farming practices and more working in tension with farmers, like the farmers union and others, trying to transform American farmers, bringing it back to our heritage. We're doing a lot to try to, force front of lack label packaging, create targets to lower sugars, and and, and SALT in our industry. There's just a lot

Dr. Mark Hyman
of very good that medically tailored meal and medically tailored education for doctors and changes in Medicare, reimbursement. Yes. Because, you know, for every dollar we spend on food, we're spending $3 in collateral damage. Yes. And and but the price we pay at the checkout counter is not the true cost of the food.

The Rockefeller Foundation had a great report on this, and it was, you know, documenting that not only the harmful health effects, but the effects on on the land and the ecosystems and climate and the social impacts. All these things are quantifiable, and they're they're bankrupting our country and we're not paying the cost, from the the at the at the the true cost at the checkout counter, and maybe a can of coke should be a $100 and an apple should be 10¢.

Senator Cory Booker
Well, I I just want the true cost. All these people who believe in the free market, stop the government subsidies. Yep. And and let's let the free market decide with with with the market itself. Again, if you believe in Adam Smith, it's about having market information.

It's about knowing If we had that, then companies would be rushing to give consumers what they really want because the demand for healthy fresh foods every parent once what's best. I'll give you you were just stuck in Vegas. It's like a movie. You were stuck there for a while, and then he'd be the best of it by going to see the Grateful Dead in this year. But but it was a co hit a conference in Vegas, and I'm gonna use this as an example.

I talked to a, head of a major casino operation, a really great guiding, Jim Murren. And he and I was complaining to him as mayor because it was a recession, and I was cutting the size of my government, finding great ways to create new efficiencies, but the 2 costs I couldn't cover cover were pension costs and health care costs. And so I was complaining to me, it goes Corey. I figured out my health care costs. And I thought, I don't know.

Did you get a new plan? Did you manage this? This is like us during the presidential debate when I ran for president. All these people on the debate stage arguing over how are we going to provide health care in America? Medicare for all.

Oh, we should do this. We should nobody everybody's talking about how to mop up the floor. Nobody was talking enough to turn off the which is real conversation we should be having in our presidential debates and more. But what was amazing about this corporate leader was that he he said, Corey, I couldn't figure out this problem that I went into my cafeteria that fed thousands of my employees, and I see deep fryers and big shenry buns and all of this stuff, and I was kinda horrified. Yeah.

And he ripped it all out, and he said this u union and were, like, ready to to, like, strike on him because they took away all this great food, but he hired the best chefs, come in and cook healthy, nutritious food,

Dr. Mark Hyman
and Best piece for my cookbook.

Senator Cory Booker
If it's, yeah, I'm looking some of this stuff, and I think that he would love this. And it was amazing. Suddenly, people his employees shifted from ready to protest him to just loving it even more and then asking him, well, this single mother who works 2 shifts at the at the blackjack table goes home, like, every pressure that mothers did like my family did and runs through the drive through on the way home. So they said, well, maybe I could take some of this food home. So he let them

Dr. Mark Hyman
And

Senator Cory Booker
he said my cost curve started to bend.

Dr. Mark Hyman
That's right.

Senator Cory Booker
He got the double bottom line. Yeah. He got to save money for his company, but his employees were healthier, had better focus concentration, all these health benefits that made them happier and better and more effective at their workforce, not to mention, at their family. Well, we're America inc right now, and we're supplying all cheap foods that are making us sick and the costs are going up. We should figure out ways to shift.

And so the reason why I enjoyed reading your cookbook is 2 things. 1 is you tell a beautiful story, and you let us as consumers know that these recipes are so easy. Even a senator can make them. And but what's more importantly is it's part to me if I put your books up here of your incredible passion. Which I love and you've helped my life is that you believe that Americans are not born to suffer.

No. That that we're born to be healthy and vibrant and thriving. You've seen this from your examinations of you can take guys at major, prisons in jail. Yeah. Give them access to fresh and healthy food.

And instances of violence go down. And and and and and and and their success rates go up. All the way to our children who give it fresh healthy foods. Their scores go up.

Audience Member 1
Yeah.

Senator Cory Booker
But more importantly, at a time that we're suffering a crisis, not just in physical health, but the anxiety, depression,

Dr. Mark Hyman
and it's something to be able to talk about. Right? I mean, the the obesity, diabetes, people get

Senator Cory Booker
Yeah.

Dr. Mark Hyman
People don't realize that this food that we're producing in America is causing a mental health crisis. And and, you know, when you look at the cost burden of all chronic disease, both the terms of direct health care costs and also indirect costs. Depression and mental illness is number 1. It causes people to be disabled, loss of quality of life years, and the costs are staggering. And and we see the the, disconnect in the brain between the limbic part of the brain and the frontal brain, the old reptile lizard brain, and the adult in the room, which is the frontal lobe, and neuroinflammation is this now well understood phenomena that disconnects the adult in the room from the crazy person and the brain.

Right? And and that neuroinflammation is caused by our ultra processed food and by our diet. And that's that's something that we haven't really talked about is

Senator Cory Booker
Just take it around your yes.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Is it audio good? Yep. You're good. Yeah, I think people have ever realized that the disconnect, in in in the mental health crisis by not talking about food because food is one of the biggest drivers of depression, anxiety, conflict, aggressiveness, divisiveness, that all the things we're seeing there in our society, the polarization, and the food system inadvertently has led to this not only obesity and diabetes crisis, but a crisis of mental health. And and it's something that we we know can be fixed through fixing the metabolic as functions in the brain.

Senator Cory Booker
Alright. They'll never invite me back to 6th and I if I don't And so there's 2 microphones here while you all, whoever questions, maybe you can come up here and ask the question. And what I'm gonna do though is first, is we have a virtual audience watching as well. And I'm gonna answer some of these questions. And, I think that this first one from Susan B in Virginia.

I doesn't say it here, but I imagine Susan B in Virginia wishes she lived in New Jersey.

Dr. Mark Hyman
2 works specifically. Yeah. Yeah.

Senator Cory Booker
Very specific. I could tell. I can send it. Do you it gets the garden state. You would love you that must be Doctor.

Hyman's favorite state.

Dr. Mark Hyman
The garden state.

Senator Cory Booker
The the 4th largest producer of eggplant in America. Top that. Do do you recommend a chewable probiotic to strengthen your oral microbiome? I didn't know there was an oral Yes. Final.

I did not know that. If so, what should I look for when choosing a product?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Well, that's a great, very specific question. And the truth is that, the microbiome, which is the sum total of all the bugs in us and on us, on our skin, in her mouth, in a respiratory tract, in her guts, all has a huge role in our health. And we know that the oral microbiome is highly, influencing our risk of dementia. And our risk of heart disease. Really?

And obesity. Yeah. And then having bad teeth and bad gums is a huge risk factor for inflammation throughout the body, which is one of the biggest drivers of all these conditions. So having bad data is a a real problem. In fact, I was at a conference recently and they were listening from the 1600s.

What were the major causes of death? And one of the major cause of death was bad teeth.

Senator Cory Booker
Wow. I I one of my friends used to say death enters through the gum.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. So so keeping your gums healthy in your mouth oral microbiome healthy is important. And and oral probiotics can be helpful. So I don't have a specific opinion about particular one, but taking probiotics and chewable probiotics are are great. So when

Senator Cory Booker
I go to the store, like, 5 years, they're gonna be like, choose Rigley's, the oral probiotic tromly

Dr. Mark Hyman
with a lot of sugar and yeah. Yeah.

Senator Cory Booker
A lot of sugar stuff.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Alright. What did what did Sarah Palin say? You put a lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. It's still a pig.

Right. And so

Senator Cory Booker
We're gonna get to her one no ball finally. We're she was way first. We're gonna get to her, but I'm I'm gonna before we go to to you out one more of the I wanna make sure the virtual people know that we read their, comments and their questions. This one's a tough one. I face it every day as one of the few on the black sheep of the family, the vegan, amongst us.

What advice do you have to navigate differences food and diet choices within a family. And when some family members see choices as being picky or fancy, rather than health driven.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. I mean, I don't think it should be a choice between healthy eating and delicious eating. I think that's a false dichotomy. Right. The thing that you have to suffer and starve and eat like cardboard in order to actually be healthy is a huge myth.

And it's it's it's unfortunate myth because, you know, it it's promulgated by the food industry that that is encouraging us to indulge and pleasure ourselves In fact, that the the the finisher was just called out for hiring all these nutritionists and dietitians to go online and talk about why people should just indulge their their cravings. They should not restrict their diets and should eat as much as they want and should have all these indulgent foods and it was the expose. It was the Washington Post, and it was it was frightening. Like, 40% of the nutritionists on social media are paid by the food industry to give misinformation about what they're eating.

Senator Cory Booker
And and a lot of these studies that come out that says sugar is the new, whatever, or would are paid for by, by the

Dr. Mark Hyman
by the by the foodists. Yeah. I mean, and and all the recommendations, I mean, the American Diabetes association was just sued by their head nutritionist because they fired her because she wouldn't endorse the foods that they were recommending, and a $134,000,000 of their budget is given by the pharma industry at a huge portion by the food industry. And so they're an unincentivized to actually do the right thing. And and many of these associations have been co opted.

And I I do tell that in my book, But the the the truth is if you have a family, get in the kitchen together, go shopping together, go to the forest parkers, get what people like and make delicious versions of what you like. And a lot of the the the the recipes in the book and the cookbook are indulgent recipes, but they're made with helpful ingredients. Yes. And they can taste good, and they are good for you. So You can love food that loves you back.

Senator Cory Booker
Yes. My gosh. Okay. We're gonna go to the first person. Introduce yourself and tell people what your relationship to New Jersey is.

I mean, I thought, tell people tell people what your question is.

Audience Member 2
Actually, well, first, before I say anything, I think very steep for everyone.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Can you get closer to the mic?

Audience Member 2
Yeah. I think I speak for everyone here. Thank you for your unwavering support for Israel and your fight against anti Semitism. It's really important and off topic, but thank you.

Senator Cory Booker
Thank you.

Audience Member 2
Also

Dr. Mark Hyman
Corey's an honorary Jew.

Audience Member 2
Hey, Mike. He speaks

Dr. Mark Hyman
Hebrew better than I do.

Audience Member 2
Mike can to New Jersey is you were the one who helped me decide to use a wheelchair because on my Amtrak train home in 2008, from New Jersey. I only had a cane, and I fell flat in your lap face first. And I was like, it's time and a wheelchair. So thank you, New Jersey.

Senator Cory Booker
You're the one person that has ever fallen for me.

Audience Member 2
I will fall as many times as you would like for you.

Senator Cory Booker
Thank you very much.

Audience Member 2
My question is is that, it's hard to get a lot of this information. I read last week about a study that came out that the reason there's double colon cancer in young adults is because of what we eat. Yeah. But it's hard to get the information so Thank you, Cleveland Clinic. Thank you, Mayo Hopkins.

But the reason I'm understanding that a lot of the information is public is because all these food subs, studies are funded by big pharma.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah.

Audience Member 2
So they wanna hide it as much as possible. And so between big pharma and food deserts and the rising price of farmland and how people like Bill Gates own it all, well, how is it that we could even attempt to start this fight? Because it looks like we're already starting such a deficit.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah.

Audience Member 2
And my other question is, I can't believe I'm saying this. Could we model things after the soda industry? Like, now they're saying there's a lot of calories by one of our mini ones, and they clearly label, like, 0 calories on the front of it. Like, How much could we learn from Coke and Pepsi?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Oh, I don't know. It's it's a hard one.

Audience Member 2
I know. I feel ridiculous saying that.

Senator Cory Booker
No. No. No. That's good. Go ahead.

Doctor.

Dr. Mark Hyman
I mean, I think I I think the policies that we have to implement are ones that help helps to really hit this straight on. And one of the big challenges is there's been a lack of funding for nutrition at the National Institute of Health. You know, they have all the institutes of diseases. They don't have a National Institutes of Health and that's studying health. And so you study diabetes or heart disease or Alzheimer's because you're all downstream.

And there's no national. I assume nutrition, which we should have. And many other countries have the food industry spends $12,000,000,000 a year, twelve times as much money as the federal government and philanthropy be on research on food. So they're when you look at the data, as a result of these studies, they're 8 to 50 times more likely to show a positive benefit for their particular product. So, for example, there's a study in, I think, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that, artificial sweeteners are fine, and they're not harmful for you.

And, you know, it's funded by American Beverage Association. So, you know, basically, science has been bought and paid for. We think we're gearing independent size. And that's why consumers are so confused. Are hearing all kinds of things that are are not making sense, and and the food industry is attempting to on purpose, confounded and confused the American public.

And through many channels, right, through their efforts on co opting professional associations, like the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, 40% of the Academy Nutrition dietetics budget come from the food industry. You have, social groups like Hispanic Federation or the NAACP funded by Coke and Pepsi and the food industry. So they all not oppose policies like, you know, they'll they'll not support policies like soda tax, for example. They they have social, they have some front groups, like the American Council on sites and health that says pesticides, tobacco, and high fructose corn syrup are all good for you. You know?

And the just one thing after the other, and they they they hijack science and scientific community. They hijacked the government through intensive lobbying. So they've got this covered, and it's not it's not a kind of random bunch of different things that are happening. It's a cohesive strategy And and and I think if if you had Discover, you'd find out. And the American Diabetes Ocean was recently sued, and they settled with the with the the former nutrition director without going to court because they didn't want discovery because if they had discovery, means all their their kind of dealings with the furniture would be exposed.

So I think I think what we have as a government have to hold these professional associations to account. We have to hold sites to account. We have to fund the right sites, and we have to, you know, be be you know, the keepers and the integrity. Right now, we have government by the corporations for the corporations of the corporations no longer by the people, for the people, love the people.

Senator Cory Booker
And then we need to go back to that. Just this gentleman here.

Audience Member 3
Thank you all both for being here. Henry Lewis of Richmond, Virginia. I'm a fan of both of you. As someone with a graduate degree at nutrition and I also work in medical education, one of the things that annoys me the most is going to the doctor and hearing bad nutrition advice. Or bad nutrition advice.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Oh, yeah.

Audience Member 3
As someone who works in med ed and has a nutrition degree.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Getting any nutrition advice is a miracle. But anyway

Audience Member 3
Yeah. So what are we doing to educate the new generation of doctors, whether it's Through who us. Residency, medical school, as well as current

Dr. Mark Hyman
one of the things we're working on. So there's $17,000,000,000 that the federal government spends for graduate medical education to fund residents using your There's no requirements for how those dollars are used or any, you know, med date, for example, for nutrition education as part of that. That changing. So we've been made progress on that front to actually make those residency and fellowship programs include nutrition education. We're also working with the the association of medical schools who are now coming along on your start, including nutrition education.

And and doctors have to learn about this. The number one killer in the world is food. It kills 11,000,000 people conservatively every year, more than tobacco and more than all the wars and weapons and everything else combined. And yet, doctors learn nothing about nutrition, which is the biggest killer of and and the biggest cause of all the diseases that their patients are coming in with. That needs to change.

My daughter's in medical school now, and she's got nothing. I was like, did you learn about nutrition? Yeah. Well, we learned about amino acids and, you know, fatty acids and carbohydrates. Are you gonna tell your patient to have for lunch?

Senator Cory Booker
You know, us. Thank you. So, yes, we're working

Dr. Mark Hyman
on nutrition education bills, and in multiple centers and congressmen are working on on reforming medical education as well. So it's happening. That's part of the initiatives working on with the food

Senator Cory Booker
go to the gentleman behind here. I know they came up early then. I'm gonna go to you if you don't mind.

Audience Member 1
Sir, I thank you both, for your talk. I'm William, based in Maryland. So I have a good friend who's currently dealing with some obesity issues, and he's like a PhD student, which means he's super busy and doesn't have too much, money to buy, like, healthy meals. And every day, it was not every day. Every week, he's complaining to me that I wish I had him buy more broccoli or salad, but the situation is I'm stuck with a frozen pizza every week because It's cheaper and it's faster to make.

So if you are in my situation, what advice would you give to? Yeah.

Dr. Mark Hyman
I think this is a really common belief that it's more expensive. It takes too much time, and it's too difficult to eat real food. And, you know, I was part of a movie movie called fed up 10 years ago, which talked about childhood obesity in the food industry. And as part of that movie, I went to, work with a family in South Carolina. Easily in South Carolina, which one of the worst food deserts in America.

They have something called the retail food environment index. How many fast food and, you know, Bodegas are there to a healthy grocery store. So it's like 10 to 1 there. The family was a family of 5, then trailer on food stamps and disability. This father was 42 already on dialysis from diabetes from kidney failure.

The mother was a 100 plus pounds overweight. The sun was, you know, 50% body fat at 16, practically diabetic, should be like 10 to 20%. And, you know, they lived on a $1000 a month in food stamps, and disability payments. And I I'd rather give them a lecture. I basically went to their house when shopping and got simple ingredients real food that were inexpensive, and it was from a a guide book called good food on a tight budget from the environmental working group.

How to eat food that's good for you, good for the planet, and good for your wallet. And rather than giving a lecture, I just said, let's cook together. And they'd never cooked a real food in their life. They were trying to eat low fat this and you know, healthy that with all the, basically, garbage marketing that's on most of our food that makes it look good, right? Like you said, you know, nice picture of the farms and the pastures where All these animals come from cafos.

Well, my rule is if it has a health claim on the label, it's bad for you. If it's gluten free potato chips, it's bad for you.

Senator Cory Booker
Right? And if it says health food, you're like,

Dr. Mark Hyman
oh, yeah. If it's got a health claim, it's definitely bad if you're low fat, low high fiber, this, it just means they're they're they're kind of tweaking the ingredients make some kind of health claim, and it's generally highly processed food. So we made the simple meal. I told him how to peel garlic. I showed him how to chop vegetable.

I showed him how to stir fry thing. We made turkey chili. We made just simple food, salad, with regular vegetable salad, and and some olive oil vinegar dressing, not that was filled with high fructose corn syrup and refined oils and all kinds of thickeners of mulls. It was really bad for them. And I I I said, look, you know, you you can do this.

Here's here's this guidebook. Here's my, one of my older cookbooks. And I'm like, I don't know if it's gonna work. And, And I they didn't have cutting boards. They didn't have knives.

I said, okay. Well, I flew back on the plane. I I literally went on Amazon. I ordered them cutting board the knife shipped to their house. The week later, the mother texted me, she says, we lost £18 of family.

We're doing it. A year later, they lost £200 of family. The father lost 45 got a new kidney, the mother lost a £100. The sun lost 50 then went to work at Bojangles because the only place to work down in the south, gained it all back because it was like putting an alcoholic to work in a bar. Eventually got his act together called me up and said, I really wanna get healthy again.

I said, okay. Let's do it. And I guided him. He lost a £132. He was the 1st kid in his college to go to I mean, his family to go to college, and he asked me for a letter of recommendation for medical school, and now he's a doctor.

Wow. So I don't believe the propaganda from the food industry that it it takes too much time as difficult and it's expensive. Yeah. You you're not gonna have a $70 grass fed ribeye steak, but there are cheaper cuts of meat, cheaper vegetables, cheaper, you know, beans and grains, and cheaper nuts and seats. And there's things you can get through outlets and Costco's and big, big box stores.

So the trainer, Joe, so you you can actually eat well for less. And the truth is cost to you is is is is such a benefit or the benefit to you is so high. If you if you look at what we were talking about before, you know, Basically, the amount of disability and brain fog and feeling like crap, I call it FLC syndrome when you feel like crap is massive. And Presentism is a huge problem globally. We lose $2,000,000,000,000 a year from people being at the job, but not on the job.

And so we we have to understand that our all well-being, our energy, our focus, our productivity, our happiness, our joy. All it depends on the food we eat. And it it it's good for us, but it's also good for families and for our communities and for our nation. And so I I I feel like I'm a kind of a lone voice in the wilderness, but this is really a national emergency at every level from national security to, you know, our ability to produce the food we need to produce. You our ability to deal with the economic burden of it, the academic crisis in our children.

I mean, it's just one thing after the other, and it's all connected by the food.

Senator Cory Booker
Powerful. Thank you. Powerful. Yes. Please.

Audience Member 4
Yeah. Hi. So I'm actually a physician and nephrologist, and I now work at NIH. We do have an office of nutrition. It's tiny and needs better fun.

It's there. But that wasn't my question. I just had to throw it, put on that in there.

Senator Cory Booker
But I think the

Dr. Mark Hyman
only time that in the the National Institute Health Strategy that was put out by Francis Collins, the only time food was mentioned was as part of the sense that included the food and drug administration So it's not a problem.

Audience Member 4
I will not disagree with you on that. I agree. No, Mike, I was curious you're thinking about these new, the GLP drugs that are out there, the anti obesity drugs. I I didn't I didn't hear you mentioned those. I was just wondering what you're Yeah.

Senator Cory Booker
I am wondering that too. Thank you for the questions. Must be from New Jersey.

Dr. Mark Hyman
What about the drugs? Listen, we're in a crisis and people are desperate. And Yes. And, you know, if you haven't seen the South Park, movie, about obesity. You should watch it.

And it it basically is it an episode, or is it a new movie? Well, it's like an hour long episode. Maybe, I don't know. I don't really want you that often, but somebody said it to me to watch. And it's it basically shows these sort of suburban moms who become terrorists because the supply of Oz Epic goes down, and they literally are robbing pharmacies, and they're, you know, like, it's like that carbon is basically trying to get Ozempic for his pet.

Self, and his friends are having chemistry lab where they're making a kind of a compounded version. And they these, some suburban moms attack them with you know, mass odd and guns, and they're they're midriff showing because they all wanna look how skinny they are. And it's kinda funny, but it's it's it's it's a problem because I I I think for some people, these drugs can be very helpful and very effective. I think, you know, when you look at scaling this up, the entire Medicare Part B, which is our drug benefit program, it's a $145,000,000,000. If just the obese, not the overweight, if just the obese Medicare patients got the drug.

It would cost $245,000,000,000, which would basically dwarf the expenditures of all drugs for old Medicare right now. So it's it's not really a sustainable solution. Yes, the prices can come down and maybe that'll happen. And, yes, in Canada and in Europe and Germany, they're like, instead of $1300 a month, it's like a 100 or 200 And and so these drugs can have a place, but but it it kind of misses the point, which is why are why are we obese in the first place. It's not Ozempic deficiency.

Right? It it's our it's our toxic food system, and we have to deal with the reality of where people are, and some people may benefit from these drugs, we also have to deal with the reality of our food system. So both have to be dealt with. And these can have long term consequences that we're just learning about. So there was a great article that I knew in the journal that came out years ago that said, you sure use new drugs as soon as they come out of the market before the side effects developed.

Right? So just wait a few years. You're gonna see bowel obstruction, pancreatitis, and a bunch of other issues, muscle loss, wasting, regaining weight. So I I think they're they're not a panacea, and they're not risk free. But I think they can be used effectively in some patients.

Senator Cory Booker
I I think this is gonna be that was our last question because I think that's what you're announcing.

Audience Member 5
Oh, I was gonna say, yes, we're running short on time. So if the three people standing, can please keep their questions super brief? And we'll take all three questions and then give you the I'll

Dr. Mark Hyman
be brief. I'll be brief.

Audience Member 5
Thank you.

Audience Member 4
Why don't we get them all out?

Senator Cory Booker
And then we'll answer them all at the end. Oh, I'm

Dr. Mark Hyman
not sure my memory is that good. I have Alzheimer's.

Senator Cory Booker
I I have a pen, and I I will I will take notes as people put the for 1, 2, 3.

Audience Member 1
Hi. My name is Vadim Jitinkoff. I'm from Arlington, Virginia. And right now,

Dr. Mark Hyman
I'm Is that a suburb of New Jersey? Yeah. Yeah.

Audience Member 1
Yeah. Exactly. And right now, I'm getting my NPE degree, and I was wondering how does one become a functional medicine practitioner. Is there a program that you would recommend or things like that? And then kind of a segue of that question, how does one becomes an activist to raise that awareness in the public that we can change the laws and changed the system.

Yeah. And made that awareness.

Senator Cory Booker
Change the gentleman here, sir.

Audience Member 3
My name's Daniel. So this is for Senator Booker. How do you justify, incorporating meat into the diet with the negative health environment and ethical

Dr. Mark Hyman
Ghesking me or doc. He's asking me. Oh, he's asking me. Okay.

Senator Cory Booker
Okay. Okay. Hold on. As as as a vegan, I'm I'm dying to hear his answer. Go ahead.

Audience Member 6
Hi, everyone. I'm Anna Erani. I also work at NIH, and human resources. If if there were 3 things you could get every American to do, like, this week, I'd be curious what those are because

Dr. Mark Hyman
3 things?

Senator Cory Booker
This is

Audience Member 6
such a big problem, and there's so many things to be done, but I was wondering if you would have us focus, as a public. What what would those things be?

Senator Cory Booker
Yeah. Please, well, I'm gonna start I'm gonna start with the first question. How to become a functional medicine? I remember the questions, actually. Oh, you do?

Okay. Good.

Dr. Mark Hyman
See how I do. Okay. I I wish you would ask

Senator Cory Booker
that question for a guy who couldn't pass, organic hemp. We wanted

Dr. Mark Hyman
it to be a dump. It had to be a center. Is that yeah. So, thank you, by the way, for, being in the medical field and caring about these issues and being an advocate for transformation. You know, as a physician, you're well trained in basic science, but we don't learn about the science of health and the Institute for functional medicine, where I've been chairman of the board, I've been to the faculty for 20 years, 25 years, is a great organization that trains practitioners in functional medicine.

And you can go to ifm.org. It's a nonprofit. There's training curriculums. They're online. They're great.

As far as being an advocate goes, I think, you know, we all could do our part where we where we feel called to do it. And it may be something as simple as, you know, composting your food or maybe something as big as, you know, being an activist in Washington. You know, never underestimate market visas. Never estimate, the the power of a small group of highly committed people that change the world. In fact, the only thing that ever has.

So so people can make a difference. If you wanna learn more, go to foodfix.org. There's a guide on there called the foodfix action guide. Or maybe you can go to, foodfix dot, com, oh, foodfixbook.com, and the the action guide is on there. And it's basically a 2030 page guide on what you could do individually.

What you can do professionally, what you can do as a philanthropist, as a business, as a as an advocate, you know, what policy makers can do, what what has to happen across the board to actually drive the changes we

Senator Cory Booker
need to see? And then one thing I would add to that, just on activism, I've learned that one of really important definition of leadership is not how many people you can get to follow you, but how many people you can get to see that they are leaders themselves. So ignite other people There there are a lot of goodwill people that just don't know yet. That's why I gave the your book, food fix, to other people I knew, because I knew it would at the I know they were innately activists, but once they had the information, they would be out there telling the being truth tellers as well. So share the information.

Get other people to join this movement as leaders as well. Yeah.

Dr. Mark Hyman
And the vegan question is an important question. I think, you know, I think about 2% of the American populations being in, 92%. 92%. Very loud. 2%.

Yeah. And I and I'm I'm not opposed to it. I think there's many ways to eat healthily. I think it's hard to do it to get the nutritional density you need. But but you can't.

And I I think, You have to do it smartly, and you have to not rely on a lot of what I call vegan junk food, which is also highly processed for fine carbohydrates and starches. Which is kind of often the go to. In terms of the issue of animal and and plant in humans and the whole ecosystem, a 100% how we're raising animals now is is criminal. It's criminal for the animals, for the earth, the ecosystem and the climate and for human health. So there's no argument, though.

There should be banned and they should be stopped. Period. That doesn't mean that animals integrated into a regenerative agriculture system are bad. In fact, they can be extremely effective even if you don't eat them. And and I recently visited a, farm ranch, actually in Texas, which, is called Rome Ranch, And basically, a a young couple bought a 1000 acres right next to all the other cattle ranches, and they decided to raise bison.

And they did it in a regenerative way with no tell with allowing just the animals to do their thing and not really put adding feed or, you know, they had water. And they found that, they were able to restore the ecosystem in such a way that they were at at at 6% organic matter into the soil in just a few years. For every 1% organic manner, the soil has 25,000 gallons of water. They're farmers. I mean, the ranchers right next to them.

You can see this because they were how the fences were suffering a drought. They had to sell off all their cattle. They couldn't raise animals anymore. And meanwhile, this bison ranch was thriving. While the animals were coming back, while the animals were coming back in multi species on the on the farm, the soil matter was increasing organic matter.

All all these things were happening and they are creating an incredibly helpful source of food, which is very nutrient dense. And, you know, I think, you know, eating a regenerative raised bison versus a kfo cow steer is a completely different thing. And we're learning a lot about, you know, all these animals are such an integral part of the ecosystem. And one of the key aspects of regenerative agriculture is to include animals as part of the ecosystem to recycle nutrients and the soil and the earth immune in, I think of that movie food ink that you're in, there was a great scene with this guy who was a regular farmer and he couldn't make it and he had to sell agrochemicals and agricultural seeds from, you know, big seed companies. And he kinda got sick of it all and decided to create a model of of regenerative farming where he, you know, had sheep and pigs and things in this And this kind of weird thing, I don't know what he called it, but basically moved it through his farm to fertilize the soil and still grow with crops, but do it in a way that restored ecosystem had less inputs, save money and made him more money and created a healthier environment.

So I think, you know, being being an ethical vegan is fine. From a health perspective, I think you know, there's there's there's a way to do it well, but there's also a way to not do it well.

Senator Cory Booker
And I well, let's use me as an example. He's a good friend. I don't mind putting myself back on his table. First of all, he took my blood. I don't know why he had to stab me so hard to get it.

Yeah. But, but but, but you took my blood and you said Corey, you're a junk food vegan. Yeah. And, you're, you're, you're lacking in, be be 12. I think you told me.

Dr. Mark Hyman
12. I'll make a 3. So I didn't even do you.

Senator Cory Booker
You don't have to put it all out there, man. I I didn't wanna give them my whole I have a whole

Dr. Mark Hyman
profile. Sorry.

Senator Cory Booker
Yes. Yes.

Dr. Mark Hyman
I just broke my hip of violation. Yeah.

Senator Cory Booker
But, yes, b 12 iron omega threes. Which are things that I think begins have to be short. Learn about. Yeah. But not that everybody doesn't need to be smart about their nutrients because I'm sure most Americans are are low in things.

But as a guy who's very health conscious and tries to eat well, there's certain things that you said to me, hey, Corey, you've gotta figure out how to source this. And even just right now, you were telling me that I'm old, and that I needed to get more protein. Yeah.

Dr. Mark Hyman
So you're gonna need to eat sort of like, you know, concentrated proteins like pea protein and that ones that are supplemented with immunoass Yeah. That'll help build muscle as you get older.

Senator Cory Booker
Yeah. Right. So I think that that that choices are are fine. The diversions and diets are fine. Even though you keep pushing eggs on me.

If they're blessed by a Buddhist monk, Corey, can't you eat them and, you know, whatever, trying. But the reality is you can make choices, but you should make smart choices. And the truth is and because I was, as you said, I was in that documentary that you talked about, they're the more we're returning to the century's old agricultural practices that human beings thrived on where there were soil being, re regenerative soil practices that often involve animals.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Mass too. Right? Yeah. Think about the were a 168,000,000 ruminants in America. They were grazing all across that created the incredible breadvest that we have in the Midwest with 50 feet of Topso was like, I think when the movie called it, what he called it, Iowa, mother load or something.

Yes.

Senator Cory Booker
Like, but we're losing that soil now because of our current prac this is at a very alarming rate.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. And so so it's actually animals are essential for the ecosystem to thrive. Okay. So before

Senator Cory Booker
I give my sort closing.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Was there one more question? Yeah. That's what I'm saying.

Senator Cory Booker
You gotta get this last question about they're asking specifics. 33 things for every American to do you could get every American to do three things this week, what would you get them

Dr. Mark Hyman
to do? First, I would I would get them to give up liquid sugar calories. Yes. Which is a huge driver of obesity. The second would be to give up ultra processed food.

Senator Cory Booker
And the third would be to add a lot of colorful fruits and vegetables to your diet. That's amazing. Okay. Before I go, I try to be the only big black boy that could give a Jewish man Jewish guilt so my favorite, Parsha, is, is

Dr. Mark Hyman
a part of a tour reading for those non Jews in the Yes.

Senator Cory Booker
My favorite part. My favorite Like

Dr. Mark Hyman
I said, he knows more Hebrew than I do.

Senator Cory Booker
Is, this extraordinary story about the father of 3 of our great human faiths. Islam, Judaism, and and Christianity, Abraham. And, Abraham was said to be favored by god, because he kept his tent open on all four sides, and people were welcome. And one day, after, Abraham had joined the covenant, he had done something you don't recommend, but circumcise himself. We will move quickly past that.

He he was he was sitting in pain by his tent. And the Torah says, that that strangers that were different than him. I've talked to some, rabbinical scholars that were different race, very different strangers. We're approaching his tent, and he stands up and he runs to them. He doesn't just greet them.

Hey. Come over. By tense open, oh, he runs with him with joy in his heart to welcome the stranger. Yeah. And then what you'll love about this story is he brings them into the tent and he gives him his best food.

Yeah. His best food. Yeah. And and and this idea in cultures going back a millennium all across the the globe. This idea of food being a place that brings us together.

That creates what you said at the very beginning in your blue zone. Yeah. Community talks about community. And this idea, the American family sitting around inner table, which is becoming less and less the reality, especially the reality without a TV screen on. The fact that you're re celebrating the power and the magic of food, I think, gets us back to the Abrahamic ideals.

And the fact that you're trying to create community in country around activism to reclaim our health. It it is a celebration of the the song sung during the high holidays, Key Bay T Bay the little Ho ho meme in my house, the house of prayer for all nations. Thank you, a doctor hyman, for being someone who is seeking again to bring us all together around one tent, around one metaphorical table, to have great food for everyone. Thank you. Thank you, Lori.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Thanks for listening today. If you love this podcast, please share it with your friends and family. Leave a comment on your own best pack on how you upgrade your health and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And follow me on all social media channels at Doctor Mark Hyman and we'll see you next time on The Doctor's Farmacy.

Dr. Mark Hyman
I'm always getting questions about my favorite books, podcasts, gadgets, supplements, recipes, and Morin.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Now, you can have access to all of this information by signing up for my free Mark's picks newsletter at doctor hyman.comforward/marks pick I promise I'll only email you once a week on Fridays, and I'll never share your email address or send you anything else besides my recommendations. These are things that helped me on my health journey, and I hope they'll help you too. Again, that's doctor hyman.com forward slash marks picks. Thank you again, and we'll see you next time on The Doctor's Farmacy. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at Delta Wellness Center and my work at Cleveland Clinic And Function Health, where I'm the chief medical officer sir.

This podcast represents my opinions and my guest opinions, and neither myself nor the podcast endorsements of views or statements of my This podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. Now, if you're looking for your help in your journey, seek out a qualified practitioner. You can come see us at the Ultra Wellness Center in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Just go to ultrawellnesscenter.com. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner near you, you can visit ifmdot org, the search find a practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who is trained, who's a licensed health care practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health.