Country Roads Take Me to the Hospital (3/13/25)

*The is the FREE archive, which includes advertisements. If you want an ad-free experience, you can subscribe below underneath the show description.West Virginia is the first state to begin the process of banning a wide range of food dyes and other synthetic food preservatives, something strictly contrasted by their leading the nation in obesity and being overweight, not to mention the state having the highest of the former for children, the highest rate of high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes, and being a leader in obesity-related death, and hypertension. But you have to start somewhere. Other states are following, from Oklahoma to New York. This comes immediately after a meeting between RFK Jr and the CEOs of PepsiCo North America, Kraft Heinz, General Mills, Tyson Foods, W.K. Kellogg and J.M. Smucker. Some proposed laws would also require food companies to disclose “secret” food ingredients to the public that have been allowed into the marketplace under a federal standard known as “generally recognized as safe”, or GRAS, a term that acts like a rubber stamp for fraud.  The National Confectioners Association (NCA) said that the measures “will make food significantly more expensive for, and significantly less accessible to, people in the states that pass them.” The association also said the federal government – in the form of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – should be the final arbiter for food additives. But this is not food, and the FDA cannot be the final arbiter of food additives when it is essentially run by the industry it is supposed to regulate. Men’s Health magazine goes on to parrot the same NCA talking points: “Processed foods are safe, inexpensive, and capable of delivering nutrition—especially to people of lower-income and/or living in food deserts, where fresh food is hard to find. In fact, healthy food prices are increasing at a rate almost double that of unhealthy foods.”This argument is similar to the one used by biotech, claiming for decades that their products and patents would lower the cost of food. They haven’t. In a write up for the same Men’s Health magazine, Abby Langer, R.D., MH nutrition advisor, repeats another talking point: “Banning dyes stirs up unnecessary anxiety around the food system, which is the safest it has ever been.” When a recent laboratory report was published on Girl Scout cookies, demonstrating the high levels of heavy metals and chemicals, the FDA said naturally-occurring heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury are just a “reality about our food supply.” Abby then goes on to parrot the NCA by opposing bans over the issue of cost: the banning of these dyes may drive up food prices as companies scramble to find alternatives, furthering the issue of food security, Langer says. "Nobody thinks that Fruity Pebbles and candy are health foods; however, when ultra-processed foods are the cheapest and most accessible option, that's where the problem lies," Langer says. "I consider the entire food dye conversation a distraction from what we really should be focusing on: access to healthy foods, access to healthcare, nutrition education in schools, grocery prices, and food deserts."But food deserts only affect 13% of the...