Video Transcript: How the FDA Supports Big Food Companies in Selling More Junk Food
Ty Bollinger: I’m here with Rob Verkerk with the Alliance for National Health International [ANH]. Rob, thank you for being with us tonight.
Dr. Robert Verkerk: Hey, it’s fantastic to be with you too.
Ty Bollinger: And what I want to do is get you, first of all, to tell our listeners exactly who you are and what you’re doing with the ANH and then I’ve got a couple other questions for you. So first of all, just kind of give us a background on you.
Dr. Robert Verkerk: ANH is all about working very hard to protect sovereignty over our bodies in order to be able to manage our health, have freedom of choice, ensure that there is informed choice to make those choices, and allow people to manage their health in the way that we have already been doing for many hundreds of thousands of years.
And of course, modern science comes along now and, coupled with what we already know from traditional systems, most of the solutions to most of the big diseases that are out there that are creating a huge burden on healthcare systems around the world, the information is available.
But it’s not getting to people. There’s a whole regulatory movement that is being developed by very large corporations in cahoots with governments, that is increasingly impinging our ability to choose products that can really transform lives, transform the quality of lives, and eliminate the burden of disease that is really crippling society today.
Ty Bollinger: So you mentioned regulatory agencies. Now here in the United States we think of the FDA. But you’re working with ANH International. Is the FDA the only regulatory agency that we need to worry about?
Dr. Robert Verkerk: Not at all. The FDA exists in different forms in all other countries.
In some cases you have authorities like the FDA that deal both with food and with drugs. In other parts of the world you’ve got specific food authorities and other drug authorities that are somewhat separated.
The difficulty when you have the same people dealing both with food and drugs or sharing offices within similar buildings, is that they inevitably develop a system of regulation that works for the corporations that supply the largest amount of money to those governments.
These people are bureaucrats so they’re not necessarily looking at the big picture. They’re certainly not looking at how they can resolve the disease burden in any particular country or part of the world. And the system, the intricate system that is being developed by these authorities working globally, these groups and bureaucrats working globally is already being mapped out.
If we look say at the development over the last 40 years of the Codex Alimentarius, this is how corporations and governments have come together in order to manage the global food trade.
The increasing availability of processed foods, or preserved foods, or foods that have been irradiated, or that have relatively high levels of pesticide residues − all of that has been agreed at an international level through Codex.
And it has been 100 percent supported by the FDA and also by the European Commission that interestingly stands as a body that represents the trading block of the 28 member states that comprises Europe. Which actually supports now our population of close to half a billion people.
And again, in this system at Codex there is a consensus approach to decision making and there are a number of countries such as the USA, Canada, Europe, and Australia, and even New Zealand that play a dominant role. If a smaller country, say a sub-Saharan African nation disagrees with any of these issues they tend to be quashed.
As a result you get a system of trade that is meant to be all about free trade, but it’s actually expanding trade in products that — particularly food products — that are right at the nub of the key health problems that we have.
So if we look at the prevalence of American-style foods that are maybe typified by say McDonald’s or other processed foods. Or the products of Pepsi, for example, or Coca-Cola, of which there are many associated products, or products from Nestle that cover many, many different brands… these are the companies that play the dominant role so that their products can be available in more or less the same form in supermarkets all over the world.
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I respect what you are doing Ty, but can’t believe with all the science, animal and environmental issues you continue to recommend animal products as part of a cancer preventative diet when the opposite is true and lots of studies to back it up. I’ve heard so many comments regarding this and though a lot of people WANT to believe they aren’t an issue, I suggest you check out the multiple cancer causing elements involved in eating animal fats & proteins, among plenty of other inherent issues. No matter how “humanely” they are raised, these issues exist, plus they are all slaughtered together. What you choose eat is personal, but giving poor advice is contrary to your stated mission and is causing many people to disregard your entire fight as fraudulent. If a low fat, high carb whole food plant based diet has been PROVEN by hordes of us to REVERSE all kinds of diseases including, in my case, diabetes, obesity and severe arthritis among others, shouldn’t that be the default diet for health??? Prevention is key, but a diet that can let the body heal is necessary, and animal products were preventing that.
Wake up Chaz and quit bashing Ty, maybe you would wise up by looking up- The myth of vegetarianism by Weston Price or Lierre Keith.
Chaz, I have to disagree. Following the recommendations of the Western A. Price Foundation, I have been able to reverse disease and chronic illness in myself and my two young children. Pastured organic animal products from small local farms have been a huge part of our healing protocol. Too many grains and carbs were making us sick. Being a vegetarian actually made me sicker! We do not eat supermarket meat, dairy or eggs, as these would surely sicken us, but we are healing every day with the meat, dairy, and eggs from humanely raised and slaughtered (no, they are not slaughtered with CAFO animals) pastured animals fed species-appropriate, GMO-free diets that nature intended them to eat. Since I am able to talk directly with the farmer, I know exactly how these animals have been raised and what they ate. We eat plenty of animal fat and our cholesterol levels, as well as many other markers, have improved since doing so.
Dear Chaz, There are tons of cases that would prove you wrong, but if somethings work for you it doesn’t mean it will work for somebody else. I eat LCHF and have gotten my diabetis under control. I couldn’t have done it on your diet. So, am I wrong for eating my way since it’s helping me? Or are you wrong for eating your way, since it helped you? It’s great you found your way but that doesn’t mean the others are wrong. There are simply different ways for different people. The main reason is that we’re changing the way we eat and that’s the main point. My doctor said once:”The one who heals is right.”
Chaz, I totally agree. At the most basic level, a person’s blood must stay within 7.35 to 7.45 pH. Meat, conventional or organic, is acidic and moves your blood towards the acidic side and cancer loves an acidic environment. Organic meats still are acid and when the animal is slaughtered, its hormones are circulating at high levels and the human who eats the meat is ingesting the hormones. Here are SOME references to look at that show how dangerous meat is:
J Am Diet Assoc. 2010 Jun;110(6):911-16.e12
Environ Health Perspect. 2010 Apr;118(4):A160-7
Gerontology. 2011;57(5):435-43
Nutrients. 2010 Dec;2(12):1247-65
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2000 Sep;9(9):905-10
J Natl Cancer Inst. 1998 Nov 18;90(22):1724-9
J Natl Cancer Inst. 2000 Aug 16;92(16):1352-4
Cancer Res. 2005 65(24):11779-84
Am J Epidemiol. 2009 170(9):1165-77
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2001 May;10(5):559-62
Cancer Res. 2009 Mar 1;69(5):1877-84
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 1997 Aug;6(8):573-81
Am J Gastroenterol. 2011 Mar;106(3):432-42
Int J Cancer 1997 mar 28;71(1):14-9
Cancer Res. 1999 Sep 1;59(17):4320-4
Cancer Res. 2000 Jul 15;60(14):3753-6
Cancer. 2010 Sep 15;116(18):4345-53
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2007 Dec;16(12):2664-75
J Chromatogr. 1992 Feb 21;592(1-2):271-8
Many people cannot eat a high carb diet,, due to insulin sensitivity. I’m surprised your diabetes was cured by this type of eating. Each person is an individual with different needs…no one diet is perfect for all.
Dear Chaz,
I could not agree more! Every diet including meat and dairy will push the body’s Ph towards acidic and while not every person will get sick, all is effected, and a lot more WILL get sick. “Forks Over Knives” opened my eyes to the immense research backed fact that the western diet rich in meat and dairy is what causing degenerative diseases and cancer, besides cardiovascular disease. There are no individual differences to that. For those of you carnivores, you can actually eat meat though, according to research but A LOT LOT LESS. Research confirmed that about 5% of our current we take produces disease free results like a plant based, while food diet. Which is still much preferred. And I sleep better knowing no animal has its throat cut because of my palate desires it….