Dr. Anthony Chaffee discusses potential policy changes needed to improve American health, focusing on government subsidies and regulatory failures. He reveals that 80-90% of agricultural subsidies go to GMO crops and processed foods, not beef as often claimed. The current system allows companies to self-declare products as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) without FDA oversight, leading to over a million untested chemicals entering the food supply since the 1970s.
The discussion exposes how trans fats remained in the food supply for nearly 100 years despite being recognized as harmful, only being fully banned in 2020. Dr. Anthony Chaffee advocates for reversing the burden of proof - requiring companies to demonstrate safety before adding substances to food rather than waiting for harm to be proven. He also calls for criminal prosecution of pharmaceutical executives who knowingly release harmful products, citing Cox-2 inhibitors as an example where companies profited billions while causing tens of thousands of deaths.
Key Takeaways
- **80-90% of agricultural subsidies fund GMO crops and processed foods**, not beef - the cattle industry receives less than $400 million annually while corn, wheat, and soy crops receive the vast majority of government funding
- **Over one million man-made chemicals** have been patented since the 1970s and added to food without safety testing, as companies can self-declare products as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) without FDA approval
- **Trans fats remained legal for nearly 100 years** despite being recognized as harmful since the 1990s, demonstrating how the current system requires proving harm rather than safety before allowing substances in food
- **Pharmaceutical companies face only civil penalties** for deadly products like Cox-2 inhibitors that doubled heart attack rates - Dr. Anthony Chaffee advocates for criminal prosecution when executives knowingly release harmful products
- Government Food Subsidies and Agricultural Policy Reform
- GRAS System and Untested Chemicals in Food Supply
- Pharmaceutical Industry Criminal Accountability and Asthma Improvements
This is an auto-generated transcript from YouTube and may contain errors or inaccuracies.
[Music] I voted for your um make America healthy again nomination thank you very much Brian I appreciate that you'd be amazing if offered a role um what is the single most important change you would try to make assume you can directly influence policies processes and government Regulatory Agencies you know the thing is is that you have to sort of work within the scope of of um you know your purview and and in the government really what you can do is is just get rid of um the government funding subsidies Etc and lobbying efforts from from these things you know um GMO crops and um processed garbage is one of is is the most heavily subsidized food crop in America it's something like 80 to 90% of the subsidies go to that there was a there was a a nonsense piece by the guardian uh that they did they tried interviewed me and they tried to say that they tried to make it look like I wasn't a doctor and this and that it's just all this nonsense and they try to say that that all these subsidies for beef is like $ 38 billion and you know contrast that with everything for fruits and vegetables it's only 17 million I mean the I don't know where they they just completely pulled that out of nowhere um they like oh well we you know we you click on the hyperlink and it's like another like opinion piece where they just said that and they didn't back it up and you look go on their hyperlink on where they back it up and it's like the Link's broken it's it's like okay so if you actually go to the you know the Department of Agriculture and actually see you know the Like official government website and see you know who's getting subsidies beef and dairy is like one of the least that they get the vast majority is going to like corn uh wheat and soy crops and things like that vast majority vast majority or crops and um and even fruits like oranges get like 500 million dollar a year and and the cattle industry got like less than $400 million you know and um and so how is it that you know fruits and vegetables are only $17 million a year when just oranges are half a billion so I mean these are these are terrible journalists and I mean they're just terrible at their job it's just pure propaganda and they're they're just useless uh at this um but that's what you do you know you just say look we're not going to fund this anymore you want to you want to grow this stuff fine that's your business but that I mean that should be the case anyway I mean why the hell are we using taxpayer money to pick winners and losers I mean you shouldn't do that you know um you know if if the market wants that fine you know we educate people and let them know that this can be harmful but why are we spending billions of dollars subsidizing you know crops that are harming People's Health that doesn't make any damn sense and so you know education is the main thing um trying to get get education programs out there you know people understanding you know getting guidelines changed those sorts of things um recommendations changed and um you know cleaning these things up you know getting getting these products out these you know the different dyes and thises and that and process foods that like these don't these aren't used in any other country they're illegal in most countries for good reason and we get to use those here in America why why is that um that's not that's not great but we should at least stop subsidizing this stuff and um and get you know proper research out by the NIH and things like that you know the FDA approving things that should never be approved or just not even regulating things in the first place you know things are called Gras generally recognized as safe um FDA doesn't decide what that is the Private Industry gets to decide say hey look this is grass you don't need to worry about FDA goes awesome you know let us know if you need anything what you know the the what the hell is the point of having a regulatory body that doesn't regulate unless you tell them they should be regulated what um that's going to be insanely taken advantage of and of course it is so there are things that that are considered grass generally recognized as safe for What on what basis you know you you have to prove something's harmful before they ban it they don't have to prove it's safe or fit for human consumption before they stick this in the food supply like seed oils like massive amounts of sugar and refined you know carbohydrates and you know different you know red diey 40 and all these other sorts of things there have been over a million different chemicals patented since the 1970s over a million that have never existed in nature they don't exist they they're man-made and most of those are in the food cosmetic and cleaning and household cleaning industry so we're exposing ourselves to these chemicals that have never existed in nature and we are just guessing that they aren't harmful How would how would we know you know they've never been tested and so maybe some of them are safe or neutral maybe some are even beneficial but we don't know we have no idea and you don't get to ban something you just put this in food and all this sort of stuff and unless unless you you subsequently then prove that it's harmful people are using trans fats for like I don't know probably nearly a hundred years in food it only got it only got like uh banned like in 2020 like fully you know it was banned in certain industries for a while but like 2020 is when they say okay no more trans fats in the US um you know that's that's been well known to a it doesn't exist in nature trans fats don't exist in nature and so our bodies don't know what to do with those fats and they just end up getting deposited and and filling up Our arteries and so it's just like yeah just get rid of them just shove them there hey guys just want to take a second to thank our sponsor at carnivore bar I don't promote many products because honestly all you need to be healthy is to just eat meat for those times that you're out hiking road tripping or stuck at work and you want nutritious snack that is just meat fat and salt if you want it the carnivore bar is a great option so I like this product not because it's just pure meat but also because I want the carnivore Market to thrive as well and the more we support meat only products the more meat only products there will be available in the mainstream so if this sounds like something you'd like to get behind check it out using my discount code Anthony to get 10% off which also applies to subscriptions giving you 25% off total all right thanks guys and you know people are dying with massive massive heart attacks and strokes and getting all these sorts of diseases you know from the consumption of trans fats that's been recognized I mean when I was in in um undergrad when I was taking organic chemistry at at University of Washington whatever 2000 or something like that um that was that was discussed you know by our our chemistry professor and say like this doesn't exist in nature and you know this is this causes huge problems atherosclerosis and all these other sorts of problems it's something we we recognized even back in the 90s and it took took another 20 years um before this actually became um you know taken out from the food supply um to to a you know full degree and um you know but it it was in it was in the food supply for a 100 years and then and we had to we had to prove that hey no this is really bad so it that's completely backwards you know so why are we why are we proving things for people to use without any evidence that they're safe for human consumption and just and just hoping that it's okay people make a lot of money it's like you know the Pharmaceuticals you gotten sued for billions of dollars for you know Cox 2 Inhibitors um even though they caused twice as many you know caused a doubling of heart attacks so you had you had tens of thousands of people died of heart attacks they should not have and and um and uh you know and and they they got you know sued and find a few billion dollars for that they made like tens of billions of dollars on it ready so you know they walked away happy right um that's insane I mean those are those should that should be treated criminally they knew that that killed more people they knew that that would kill more people and yet they put this out knowing that and um you know and and shuffled it through the FDA um knowing that this was going to kill people and they just probably banked that they were going to make more money than they would lose in the lawsuits and so they said yeah net win that's fine it's all about money holy Christ no it's not you killed people and you knowingly did it so that's that's criminal negligence manslaughter at the least but you knowingly did this I think that's that's Criminal Intent and so I think that's even more than manslaughter I think that's mass murder at that point and these people should be should be prosecuted criminally oh but how are we going to do it it's a whole company do it then get the whole company get everybody body in a decision-making position that knew that this was a pro that this was an issue and still said yes go forward with it you knew people were going to die and you went forward anyway that means you are responsible for their deaths criminally so that's something I'd like to see as well so there's a lot there um but uh certainly accountability you know if you're going to put a product out on the market you know it's going to hurt people you don't just get hit civil you get hit criminally that's I think that would be one thing that would love to change about uh how we do things uh stink ass C the name cracks me up every time thank you very much for the super chat um rock and roll doc I'm rooting for you to be part of making marry Health game well thank you very much I appreciate that well you know it's you it would be pretty great to be able to try to affect things from a top down approach as well um you know we've got you know we're still going we still need hard press on the on the grassroot movement but uh trying to come at this from from the top as well especially because you have a multi-trillion dollar um multi- trillion dollar Industries in the food you know processed food manufacturers and the you know pharmaceutical companies that do not want that to happen you know um you know it's it's really important that we we really really push hard on this so um yeah thank you for that I'm yeah I I I don't know if anything's going to actually happen with that but um uh you know it's um it's a nice thought will they actually ask me I think it's quite unlikely that they'll actually ask me to to take an advisory role but it'd be nice it's sort of a nice thought um and it's nice to be um you know nominated but I think it's I think it's probably pretty slim chance that that it's actually going to happen but uh it'd be nice and a lot of people improve those allergies but don't necessarily get rid of them alog together so you know just have to sort of see what your your body what your body does I mean my asthma like massively improved I still have asthma you know but it's like it's exercise induced and sort of bit of a tightening but it's not like it was it's not close to what it was um