Food for Thought: An Open Letter to Our Next President

Buongiorno, Mafia!

I don’t know what it is about Friday mornings, but I have been waking up caffeinated and concerned recently, and I need you (my friends) to bear with me while I rant a bit. So here we go…

An Open Letter to Our Next President

Mr. President, we are in the midst of a metabolic crisis…

Unlike financial crises, which seemingly break overnight, health crises get inherited from generation to generation.

At this point it’s hard to ignore the facts.

The more I read about the current state of the health in the United States, the more I am dumbfounded by it.

I don’t say this to instill fear.

I don’t say this to be conspiratorial.

I don’t say this to speak in hyperbole.

I say this because we have a problem that needs to be addressed.

I say this because while we have leaders who speak, we have very few people in positions of power taking meaningful action. It’s easy to point fingers, but I am more of a “do something about it” type of guy.

Here’s the bottom line (and why we should be concerned):

Every $1 out of $4 spent towards healthcare in the United States goes towards diabetes management.

If we don’t address this problem soon, we’re looking at a physically and financially unhealthy populous in the United States. We can not continue to fund the large-scale growth of illness and disease any longer.

This is not a new problem - just a growing one. Our healthcare expenditures have gone from ~5% of our GDP to ~19% in just 50 years. In the same period, we’ve seen diabetes rise from 1.5 million documented accounts in 1957 to 38 million in 2021, or 11.6% of the population. Now, part of me wants to get into the weeds about how we’ve gotten here, but I’m not going to go there. While the details certainly matter, the simplest question we need to ask ourselves is this: how has the food system changed from the 1950s to today?

Here’s what I can come up with:

1. Large-scale adoption of vegetable oils: a 21x increase in highly processed vegetable oils.

2. The introduction of high fructose corn syrup: consumption has grown from 0g per capita per day to 90g per capita per day.

3. The rise of processed sugar: consumption of sugar has increased from 70 lbs of sugar per capita per year to nearly 100 lbs.

4. Beef protein has been replaced: consumption of beef has remained more or less the same, or moderately declined, while chicken and alternative proteins have increased.

5. A meteoric rise in the use of glyphosate: all of these food ingredients have been able to grow to their existing scale through the agrochemical technological revolution that brought us NPK fertilizer and glyphosate. These chemicals underpin the production of these toxic ingredients, which also means they underpin the meteoric rise in disease.

These changes highlight the rise of ultra-processed foods in the United States, where these relatively new food ingredients have fueled the creation of more processed foods, more obesity, and more disease. As I see it these changes have been created and upheld by 5 core culprits:

1. Broken monetary and fiscal policy

2. Aggressive food lobbying by Big Food

3. Medical research funded by Big Food

4. The advent of food scientists

5. A chemical technological revolution

I can spend all day addressing each one of these culprits, but I want to cut straight to the point. We have created a fly-wheel in this country that’s currently driving our physical and financial health off a cliff. The axis on which this fly-wheel spins rests in the hands of one seemingly “innocent” bureaucratic entity: the Federal Reserve. Since the 1950s, the Federal Reserve has enabled the explosive growth of Big Food conglomerates through printing money and mismanaging (or simply just managing) interest rates. Our ability to print money out of thin air has let countless decisions go unchecked for decades and decades without any real system of accountability. Since we can print money out of thin air, and raise the debt ceiling in perpetuity, market forces can no longer correct ill-informed decision-making, making way for policies like endless subsidies.

So, Mr. President, I am here to ask you to act. I am asking you to address the root cause of the problem. We must work to unwind the current dilemma we’re facing, and that cannot happen unless accountability is restored within the monetary system. We will continue down this desolate path if the Federal Reserve can continue to indirectly fund Big Food, Big Ag, and Big Pharma’s unrelenting power over our lives. My proposition is simple - end the Federal Reserve and make way for a new monetary system built on the back of the greatest technological breakthrough in our lifetime: Bitcoin.

⚡️ Weekly Challenge: Sleep Challenge

I have been hitting on the topic of sleep a few times since we relaunched the newsletter, but it’s truly that important. Personally, after my “summer of sleeplessness” and only getting 5-6 hours of sleep per night, I decided to take some radical changes to get more sleep. The biggest shift for me came after interviewing Kyle Lasota, when he told me “if you can’t go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time, you’re never going to be successful”. When he said that, I heard him loud and clear. From that day forward, I have been hyper-fixated on getting to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time.

With that said, our challenge to you this week is to get to bed at the exact same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. If you don’t see a slight shift in your overall sleep quality, I’ll be completely shocked!

⏱ The Mafia Week in Review

Vinnie Tortorich: Cutting Through the Noise of Modern Health

A fun and light-hearted conversation with one of the OG health and wellness icons. We had the chance to chat with Vinnie about the current state of the health in the United States, and how he thinks about addressing problems like the rise in obesity and chronic disease.

Kareem El-Ghayesh: From 9-5 Job in Egypt to Texas BBQ Pitmaster

An inspiring and gritty story of how our friend Kareem went from working in corporate finance in Egypt to launching the hottest BBQ joint in Austin. His story is truly a tale of the artistic journey and obsessive passion it takes to make your dreams come to reality.

 🔥 Weekly Favorites

We aren’t affiliated with this company, but Brett and I are both stoked about the product as consumers. Superpower is a start-up that’s disrupting the healthcare space by creating a white glove service for blood work and screenings. The service not only includes blood work, but it also provides a range of tests as well as a dashboard that enables you to integrate all of your health metrics into an actionable tool. Highly recommend checking it out and getting on the waitlist if you’re interested in learning more!