In Episode 14, we called it what it is: a manufactured wellness machine built to make you feel broken, so you’ll buy what they’re selling.
This wasn’t a rant — it was a truth-telling. Diet culture. Big food. Big pharma. “Health” that’s more harm than help. Let’s unpack what came up in this episode and ground it in fact.
🧬 Diet Culture: Designed to Fail
“I believe it started in the 90s… with low-fat diets.”
Low-fat diets actually took hold in the late 1970s after government guidelines warned against saturated fats. By the 90s, food companies were flooding shelves with fat-free snacks packed with sugar and refined starches. Obesity rose. So did metabolic diseases. Health didn’t improve. Profit margins did.
🏭 From Industrial Revolution to Inflammation
“Mass food production… cancer and heart disease… increasing ever since.”
As industrialized food systems scaled, so did chronic illness. Cancer, heart disease, and stroke skyrocketed in the 20th century, correlated with ultra-processed diets, environmental toxins, and the collapse of traditional foodways. This isn’t coincidence. It’s design.
🍔 Big Food × Big Pharma = Manufactured Dependency
“Big food and big pharma dictate what we eat, think, and feel.”
Both industries spend billions to shape public belief — funding health panels, pushing marketing calendars (ever wonder why bacon booms in Q1?), and selling symptom relief instead of root-cause healing. This isn’t wellness. It’s a business model.
💊 Direct-to-Consumer Drug Ads: A U.S. Reality
“We’re the only country that markets medications to consumers.”
Almost true: only the U.S. and New Zealand allow direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads. And in the U.S., companies spent $6.88 billion in 2021 alone — not to educate, but to persuade. This is why diagnosis often feels like a funnel, not a pathway to healing.
💸 Cancer: Care or Capital?
“Cancer is a multi-billion dollar industry… the treatment kills.”
Cancer care costs exceed $240 billion annually in the U.S. alone. While research matters deeply, critiques of the system point to profit motives overshadowing prevention. And yes — chemotherapy and radiation carry lethal side effects. Many die not from cancer itself, but from the trauma of treatment.
🧪 Pringles & Engineered Cravings
“Pringles are chemically engineered… it’s not food.”
Pringles are made from a slurry of reconstituted potatoes, molded and flavored using enhancers like MSG and disodium inosinate — ingredients shown to overstimulate the palate and hijack satiety signals. You’re not weak. It’s engineered.
🥩 Protein: Quality Over Quantity
“Athletes need more protein than everyone else.”
Fact: Athletes require 1.2–2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, depending on training. Non-athletes? Closer to 0.8–1.0 g/kg. Yet wellness influencers keep pushing 200g/day targets as if every woman is a bodybuilder. Nourishment should feel accessible, not exhausting.
❤️🔥 Cardio: Not Always a Cure
“Cardio is more trauma… and can cause heart issues.”
High-intensity endurance training can cause exercise-induced cardiac remodeling, including left ventricular hypertrophy. While typically benign, sudden cardiac death has occurred in athletes post-race. If movement isn’t nervous-system aware, it’s stress, not strength.
🧑💼 Work Culture vs. Health Culture
“Work culture is anti-health.”
Truth: Long hours, digital overload, and lack of autonomy raise risks for chronic illness, burnout, and mental fatigue. The CDC has linked poor workplace design to heart disease, depression, and obesity. Rest isn’t laziness. It’s protection.
📱 Algorithms Are Weaponized Against You
“It’s easier to manipulate you if you hate who you are.”
Social platforms reward content that triggers emotion. That includes self-loathing, insecurity, and shame. Algorithms don’t sell solutions. They sell dissatisfaction — until you click.
🧠 The “Ideal Body” Is a Class-Based Fantasy
“The ideal size and shape… is built on unlimited access.”
Personal chefs. Trainers. Luxury wellness. Cosmetic surgery. The bodies on magazine covers aren’t average — they’re manufactured through privilege. And yet we’re told to mimic them on $80/month and a side of self-hatred. That’s violence.
🍟 When Fast Food Is Cheaper Than Groceries
“It’s more affordable to feed a family through a drive-through.”
Fact: Ultra-processed food costs less per calorie than produce or lean proteins. It’s by design. Poorer families are priced out of health, then blamed for illness. That’s not economics. That’s oppression.
💛 Final Word
You’re not broken. Your body is not a problem. The issue isn’t your willpower — it’s a multi-billion dollar system built on manipulating exhaustion, insecurity, and shame.
This episode was a mirror. Now it’s a movement.
Download the guide. Share the truth. Reclaim your care.