Episode 95 | Aug 29, 2024

How Big Pharma Keeps Us Sick, With Calley Means

When you get sick, who makes money? This week on Health Coach Talk, co-founder of TrueMed Calley Means joins Dr. Sandi to discuss the role Big Pharma and the ultra-processed food industry play in the ongoing health crisis. Calley explains the systemic issues that are keeping us sick and explores how these industries profit from our suffering.

“There’s a big incentive for people to get sick and then [for Big Pharma] to make money off the interventions.”

Calley Means

Right now, trillions of dollars in government subsidies and healthcare profits go towards promoting unhealthy diets and a sedentary lifestyle, which keep us sick. Calley works to educate the public on the way our health system is shaped by these massive incentives, highlighting the urgent need for systemic change to address these issues effectively. With a focus on both individual empowerment and top-down policy reform, Calley emphasizes the importance of informed dietary choices and supportive healthcare practices to break free from a system that’s keeping us sick.

In his conversation with Dr. Sandi, Calley calls us to pay attention to the ways these industries’ practices undermine our metabolic health and the broader implications for society. He advocates for education and points to health coaching a crucial tool for reclaiming your own health and reversing these these trends. If you’re a health coach who’s helping their clients navigate a wellness world influenced by powerful industries, we invite you to listen below.

Listen Now

Episode Transcript

Dr. Sandi: If you’ve listened to prior episodes of “Health Coach Talk,” then you know how passionate I am about training health coaches. Why? Because I believe that they are key to profound changes that we need in our health care system. First and foremost has to do with bedside manner, which we have lost. Physicians have so little time these days to be with their patients, that those patients are not being heard. They’re not making eye contact in most cases. And so it is critical that we train an army of health coaches.

But there’s another reason and that’s what we’re getting in today. The reason being that we are getting sicker and sicker as a population. And there is a vested interest that pharmaceutical companies and big food companies have in keeping people sick, and on medication, and addicted to ultra-processed foods, which is largely driving the obesity epidemic, the type 2 diabetes epidemic, and on and on. We are metabolically unhealthy as a population, and signs of metabolic unhealth are being seen at younger and younger ages.

That’s why I brought Calley Means to our podcast today, because he is really working hard, working tirelessly to make a difference, to create awareness of the problem and to provide solutions. So, let me tell you about Calley Means. He is the co-founder of True Medicine, built around the idea that food and lifestyle habits like exercise and sleep is medicine. The company’s goal is to make tax advantage spending on healthy food and exercise seamless. He wrote a book co-authored by his sister, Dr. Casey Means, about how preventable cellular dysfunction, primarily caused by food, is at the root of nearly every chronic condition that plagues American life and he talks about how to fix it. We will have links in the show notes.

Calley is passionate about public policy. He graduated from Stanford and Harvard Business School and initially started his career in politics. Today, he is very active, spreading the word, testifying in Washington and creating awareness by frequent appearances on cable news and other media outlets. So, without further ado, here is my conversation with Calley Means. Welcome to “Health Coach Talk,” Calley.

Calley: Oh, I’m so excited to be here.

Dr. Sandi: Well, we connected a while back at the Consumer Health Summit. And I knew for quite some time, every time I’ve heard you speak, that we need to be aligned because our mission is aligned. Our mission is aligned with your mission and that of your sister Casey’s. So, can you start by talking about your personal journey, this awakening that you had? Because you didn’t always start out in health and wellness. It’s quite the opposite.

Calley: Quite the opposite. I never thought I’d be talking to you about the importance of metabolic health. That would have never been expected. I grew up in Washington, D.C., concerned with American competitiveness, worked on some campaigns after college, and found myself working for food and pharma after the campaigns. And that’s just what you did. You just worked for the biggest spenders in D.C., the food industry and the pharma industry. And I didn’t like what I saw. We can go into that potentially, but got out of that, had been doing entrepreneurship. And I was radicalized by my sister, Dr. Casey Means, top of her class Stanford med school surgeon, left the system realizing that everything she was cutting people open for was rooted in inflammation and metabolic health, which she didn’t learn about. She’s become a big advocate.

And unpeeling those topics, I’m in this fight because I think it’s the most important issue in the world. I think the fact that we’re getting sicker in America, more depressed, that rates of every chronic disease are going up, that we’re going to go bankrupt from healthcare costs, managing these, the incentives of a system that makes money when people are sick. When you really wind through the health, the mental health, the economic ramifications of our metabolic health crisis, that’s my prism. I just think we’re not going to survive well as a country if our kids just increasingly are getting sicker and we’re getting sicker, more depressed. And what I’ve really been on a path to communicate with my sister, with our book and with Truemed and with my other activities is just diseases connected and more simple. And we’ve got to make it more personalized. We’ve got to empower folks like coaches that are on the front lines of a personalized health revolution and a root cause health revolution. And enshrining those incentives into policy is a real passion of mine.

Dr. Sandi: Well, it’s my passion as well. And I have also seen this change. I’m old, I’m 74. And I do not know one person who’s my contemporary that isn’t on a bunch of medications, hypertension. And I mean, it’s just so rare just that they’re put on cholesterol-lowering medications and going to the doctor and all they’re asked about is, “Well, did you get your shingles vaccine? Did you get your flu vaccine? Are you up to date on all those vaccines?” and bringing you a list of meds. And they’re shocked when they saw I don’t do any of that in terms of medications. But I do food as medicine and exercise as medicine. But it’s really hard to change behavior. And I think a lot of this is normalized, that people are expecting, “Well, it’s just as you age, you’re just supposed to get these conditions.” We were at a restaurant recently and literally every other person who walked in the door, I said to my husband, is metabolically unhealthy. So, I feel like an anomaly in my age in terms of… It is possible to age in reverse with some very simple changes.

Calley: Oh, we can talk all day about my admiration for you. But if folks followed your journey and practiced your dedication to the root cause, we’d be a just tremendously richer, happier, and healthier country. And I think just the message you just explained is really inspiring to me and should be inspiring to everybody. And I think you, kind of, said it. I think this path is available to so many people that most people want to be healthy, but the incentives of our system are just slanted against them. I think what’s happening is we have a bottoms-up revolution where individuals increasingly are realizing that health is outside the doctor’s office, and it’s lifelong habits. And they’re on inspiring paths like you.

But you’re right, the average American patient was my mom, who at 70 was on five medications. And she was actually told by primary care provider that was relatively normal. That was basically average for her age. And she has the high cholesterol and gets the statin. She has the high blood sugar and gets the metformin. The high blood pressure, the ACE inhibitor. Each time those lifelong drugs were prescribed, it was, “Oh, this is normal. You know, prediabetes is a pre-disease. No problem. It’s normal for people your age to be taking those pills.” What that did is it robbed her and it’s robbing the majority of Americans of curiosity about their metabolic health. And in my mom’s case, that manifested in pancreatic cancer that abruptly killed her.

What was so shocking when she died in 2021 is the oncologist at Stanford Med School said it was unlucky. And that’s what people say as we have skyrocketing rates of heart disease, and Alzheimer’s, and cancer and other deadly diseases. We’re saying it’s unlucky, it’s a tough break. It’s not. These are all exploding right now. And they’re downstream of these smaller things that people are suffering. I mean, a core point Casey and I talk about in “Good Energy” is the key to preventing disease long-term is feeling better today. It’s actually improving these conditions today is the key to everything. And the fact that we’ve normalized for people my age, conditions like infertility, depression, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, these things are just rites of passage these days , and that’s not normal. By solving the root cause of those issues, we actually solve long-term issues too.

Dr. Sandi: That is so, so true. And by the way, I love “Good Energy.” The book that you co-wrote with your sister is wonderful, so I highly recommend it. And I started my career way, way back in education, special education, to be exact. And at that time, there were so few kids that had neurodevelopmental disorders. It was rare. And autism was very, very rare. I supervised practicum teachers. And for our whole county, northern suburbs of Chicago, we had like one classroom. There were like nine kids identified. Now there’s nine kids practically in every classroom. So, it is something that is affecting our young kids and where they’re starting to eat ultra-processed food at such an early age and that is the norm. So, I wonder if you can comment because you have a wonderful company that you have started that I think can be part of the solution. Can you talk about Truemed?

Calley: Yeah. So, Truemed really takes these concepts we’re talking about, which is that we really incentivize the intervention in a space sick care system. And if incentives were different, things would be different. So, I looked to Japan, which has a 3% childhood obesity rate versus, you know, 50% of young adults having being overweight or obese here, 50% of the teens. So, there’s a real step function difference. In Italy, the obesity rates significantly, multiples less than the US. It’s like, are these folks in other countries lazier than us or do they have different incentives?

So, that’s how we started the company is, how do we actually just incentivize health coaches? How do we incentivize smart supplementation, food is medicine, exercise, metabolically healthy habits. We talk about food is medicine, exercise is medicine. How do we actually have the money…you know, the rubber hit the road there? So, what we learned is that doctors can and should be writing letters of medical necessity for root cause items. And with those letters of medical necessity, that can open up free-tax spending on what the doctor recommends. Medicine is what a doctor says can prevent or reverse a condition.

So, we use research from functional medicine practitioners to actually underlie these notes, which we provide in a telehealth service to recommend coaching, exercise, food, etc. The vast majority of the American people either has a chronic condition or is at risk for one, and they should be getting these recommendations. So, we do that through a compliant telehealth process that’s very seamless. You know, we integrate with top brands like Eight Sleep, Athletic Greens, CrossFit. And, coaches, you can come to our website, and coaches can get a link to qualify their patients. So, their patients then can use tax-free spending if approved.

Dr. Sandi: Well, this is a really giant step forward because a lot of these recommendations, people complain they’re expensive. Supplements can get expensive, gym memberships, but this is a great way for coaches to educate people, and their services are actually reimbursable through these health savings accounts as well. And many people say, well, they can’t afford a coach. But the good news about coaching is that there are ways that it is even being reimbursed by insurance and the support that you get with these lifestyle factors. So, it is so crucial that you have that guidance. And let’s go through that. I love your perspective on this, that people, they know what to do, but it’s a matter of actually doing it. You know, it’s not like the Nike expression, just do it. And they go to the doctor and even a functional medicine doctor, and they may be getting a whole long list of recommendations, or they’ll read something about the importance of lifestyle change, but they don’t do it. And I wonder if you could comment on that. How can we actually get people to change their behaviors?

Calley: Yeah, so I think there’s obviously a personal responsibility element here where I think on the personal responsibility, we need to educate people, which is happening through your work, which is happening through podcasts, which is happening through books. And when you speak more directly, I think we, kind of, tiptoe around diet and exercise. And, you know, there’s a big movement to, kind of, not be direct with parents about the types of food they’re feeding their children.

Somebody asked me recently, what would you say to a single mom, lower income, who’s only able to afford ultra-processed food at McDonald’s for her kids? And I said, I’d say that she’s poisoning her kids. It’s like we have to speak honestly about what’s happening on a bottoms-up level. But my whole life, and I’m very clear about this, that Americans have a huge problem, a huge albatross of the trillions of dollars of incentives that basically prop up our ultra-processed food system through hundreds of billions of dollars of incentives a year that recommend ultra-processed food and really incentivize a sedentary lifestyle from various government agencies. And then we have a $4.5 trillion healthcare system that profits when we’re sick.

So, I do think clear communication and bottoms-up empowerment, which is happening, is important. But why has this happened? Do people know better? Well, at some point, people should be able to trust the USDA, but the USDA says that 10% added sugar in a two-year-old’s diet is healthy. The USDA says that a diet of 92% in ultra-processed food is healthy. You know, do we trust our schools? We should but schools sit kids down in a sedentary environment in a sunless room for seven hours. It’s like a science experiment to make the kids go crazy. It’s like our institutions fundamentally are letting down our metabolic health. And the problem is there’s trillions of dollars of profit in hijacking our dopamine, frankly, hijacking our metabolic health for us to be sick, depressed, fearful, have our attention hijacked. That’s all good things, but those are all bad things for metabolic health.

To me, it starts with two pillars, education, which you’re doing, which, you know, we’re all working to do, and then top-down policy change. And I do think people sometimes talk about, oh, we can have a bottoms-up… A bottoms-up revolution is happening, but we’re not going to solve this without top-down change. We can’t go on if the largest industry in our country is incentivized for us to be sick.

Dr. Sandi: That is absolutely true. I live very close to a hospital, and I used to be on staff there when I was a health psychologist, big conglomerate in the Chicago area. And this branch used to be a tiny community hospital. And now they had a big addition about 10, 15 years ago, and now they are literally tripling in size. They have these huge mega complexes. And the idea is that there are going to be so many sick people needing these hospital beds that they have to prepare for them. And in fact, I belong to a local fitness center that’s on that campus of this hospital and they’re afraid that they’re going to be swallowed up, that the fitness center will close because they need more room for the acute care facilities. And it’s just such a shame because, well, what were people doing before this and didn’t need all these interventions? And they think it’s the norm.

And getting back to people in my age group, it’s normal to have a knee replaced, a hip replaced, and they’re just like, “Well, it’s just getting older.” But how about using exercise as medicine, for example? And it’s really difficult, I think, to change behavior. And what do you think about… It’s almost like greenwashing. Like, you go into Whole Foods. I was there the other day and I’ve been a Whole Foods shopper since they started. I mean, since the first store but I was there. I think I was the first customer in the door when they opened in the Chicago area. And I see this change. More and more products are ultra-processed and less and less, what I would say, are the better food choices. So, have you seen this where it’s, you know, a cereal box may have, “Oh, it’s organic, it’s gluten-free,” but it’s still not great.

Calley: A hundred percent. So, I think, again, it goes… Two things you said that I really like. One is, what do people do in the midst of all of this misinformation and all of these incentives? And I have to say what you’re doing and what your community is doing on personalized coaching, I think that’s such a core part of metabolic health and core, important part of the future is that we have a one-size-fits-all system where we say, you know, that industrial ag is good and then the one-size-fits-all, kind of, intervention based system is good. We got to get to individual coaching, which is really, really important on the health side and the nutrition side.

And I think your point about the food is hopefully it’s an empowering statement. I mean, we are being convinced that ultra-processed food and food with chemicals is healthy. Working for the food companies, we help fund nutrition research. Eleven times more food companies spend on nutrition research than the NIH. There were 50,000 nutrition studies created in just the last two years. The purpose of nutrition research by and large is to promote ultra-processed food, is to promote Cheerios. Literally, there’s a study from the NIH that says Cheerios are as healthy as quinoa. It’s like these processed food makers pay for research to confuse us.

And now there was recently an article where they’re using the research to get food as medicine money. That’s a big mission of our company. We’re never going to prove anything other than basically whole-ingredient food. But these processed food makers use their rigged research to get…. So, I’m not going to lie, right? We all know this. We’re up against a lot right now. And again, the key pillars are, you know, weeding, educating ourselves, working with personalized coaches that are on more of a functional medicine trajectory. And then, you know, I’m working really hard on top-down change, which we got to have.

Dr. Sandi: Well, it would be the ideal top-down change, if you could have your wish granted.

Calley: Yeah, stop recommending poisonous food. So, we recommend sugar. As I said, the USDA is totally co-opted by the food industry. It makes no sense that the standard of care, if you’re slightly pre-diabetic, is to immediately get on a drug. You know, in Europe, they actually prescribe a keto diet and prescribe exercise and help fund that with medical dollars instead of drugs. So, you know, in Europe, Ozempic isn’t really the drug at all for obesity. They have various lifestyle intervention programs.

So, we’re just not getting the right advice. And it’s not about drug or anti-drug. And drugs, to be clear, might be useful or part of the… It’s not a full anti-drug message, but 5 billion prescriptions last year in America, it doesn’t make sense and it’s not working. So, just the recommendations, people listen to medical leaders and we should have the standard of care for diabetes, heart disease, depression. It should follow the science. We should just be recommending what medically works best, which is often more lifestyle interventions, which we can incentivize. So, that gets to number two. It’s stop recommending the wrong things and then stop incentivizing the wrong things. Again, 95% of the $4.5 trillion in healthcare is on interventions after we get sick. So, there’s a big incentive for people to get sick and then to make money off the interventions. And then hundreds of billions of dollars a year from various food subsidies go to ultra-processed food, whether it’s school lunch programs, or food stamps, or agriculture subsidies. We’re propping up with subsidies the ultra-processed food system when we should be investing in regenerative agriculture.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely. Well, I have some great local farmers and I’m so committed to supporting them. They’re regenerative farms and just the idea of… And it’s not that hard that you can go to farmers’ markets. There are more and more stores that are offering those choices. And I think it doesn’t take that much more time or any more time. I remember there was a demo where how long it would take to go and buy some fast food to go out and get your dinner versus actually making it at home. I cook almost every night at home and it’s simple. I don’t do anything fancy. I’m not making gourmet recipes with tons of ingredients, but just simple things. And combine that with moving, walking throughout the day, feeling gratitude, and getting out in the sun. We’re afraid of the sun. We slather our kids with sunscreen. And just some real simple lifestyle changes, good relationships, community. And that is really the key. One of the things that we’re committed to is teaching group coaching. And we’ve seen some wonderful things happen when coaches are facilitating groups. People get together and they change in a group. They become motivated because it’s social proof. Oh, if this person could do it or this family can do it, well, maybe I can as well. I wonder if you can comment on that.

Calley: Just to make sure, comment on the importance of coaching?

Dr. Sandi: Yeah, and group, helping people to become empowered. Do you think it would be easier if we got people together in groups and they all are going to be working on these changes together?

Calley: A great point. It’s vital with our book that Casey and I have written. And just as a small data point, you know, not to brag or anything, but the book’s… It really had been gratifying to see it resonate. And it’s resonated for a surprising reason for me. The first part of the book is really about the systemic issues that we’re talking about in the science and metabolic health. What I hear time and time and time again is really the part that tactical and the plan. And the tactical part of the book makes the point that it’s actually simple and then makes very straightforward and very tactical shopping lists, frameworks for eating healthy, frameworks for exercise, frameworks for sleep. It’s simple, but it just gives the information, gives the shopping list.

But the chapter actually starts by talking about an accountability framework and going to the research and having accountability, having community, having people that are on the same journey to hold those standards, having people to check in with an accountability buddy, having personalized coaching, somebody that knows you, somebody that knows your goals. It’s vital. We actually say it’s almost required for long-term change. So, I think it’s a vital, vital part of the puzzle.

People say lifestyle interventions are hard. I think that’s a very convenient thing for the medical system to say because everything’s incentivized for them not to work. If we can really invest in personalized accountability tools, group tools, the research shows it’s much more effective, the change. And then, you know, what Truemed’s trying to do again is incentivize from medical dollars these actions, too.

Dr. Sandi: Yes, it can be affordable. It’s doable. And it is habit change that can really be something that is now a part of you. I never worked out, and I was never an athlete. I was terrible at any sport when I was younger. And now working out, it’s like brushing my teeth. It is non-negotiable. And I don’t even think about it. The day would seem so off if I didn’t have that.

And I think that people want to be healthy. Often they think they’re doing the right thing. So, it’s a matter of education, but presenting the facts and helping them to see what they want their health for., it’s asking those questions where they are then going to question and say, yes, they want to feel empowered. Self-efficacy. There’s study after study of health coaching, and self-efficacy always comes up as having improved because of working with somebody. And that’s what really I think we need is that sense of, yes, I can take charge. I can make these changes. And that’s what we’re going to need. I think we need a whole revolution, and you are leading the charge. So, I want to thank you for being here. I know you’ve got a super, super busy schedule. Where can people find you, Calley?

Calley: Thank you, Sandi. And just so proud to be in this effort with you on this mission. trumed.com. You can search both as consumers to direct your HSA/FSA spend, but we’d love to work with anyone in the community. Again, we’re just here as a simple telehealth solution to drive medical dollars, tax-free dollars to people on the front lines of metabolic health. And I’m on the socials @calleymeans. And I guess I’ll plug my book with my sister, “Good Energy,” which is we’re trying to really have a guidebook on metabolic health and really overjoyed by the response too. So, just so proud to be in this mission with you, Sandi.

Dr. Sandi: Well, together we will make it happen. So, thank you so much.