Calley Means
Former pharma and food industry lobbyist
Key Insights
- 80% of medical schools don't require nutrition classes despite pharma funding
- PCOS and fertility issues stem from metabolic dysfunction addressable through diet
- Fertility clinics are financially incentivized to grow rather than prevent infertility
- Food companies fund nutrition research 11 times more than the NIH
Actionable Advice
- Remove highly processed grains, added sugar, and seed oils from your diet
- Prioritize sleep, movement, and stress management for metabolic health
- Question medical recommendations and seek root cause approaches
- Use HSA/FSA funds for healthy food and lifestyle interventions through TrueMed
From This Conversation
Teachings 8
Ninety percent of medical school curriculum focuses on pharmacology, while 80% of medical schools don't require a single nutrition class for doctors to graduate
Calley Means, former pharma lobbyist, reveals that Stanford Medical School and Harvard Medical School are among the institutions that don't require nutrition education, despite food being the primary driver of metabolic dysfunction affecting fertility.
PCOS and fertility issues are fundamentally connected to insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction, which can be reversed through dietary interventions
Calley's sister Casey, a Stanford-trained surgeon, discovered that patients with fertility issues, depression, diabetes, and high cholesterol all shared root metabolic dysfunction that could be addressed through food and exercise interventions rather than separate medications for each condition.
More than 50% of major medical school funding touches pharma, and food companies fund nutrition research 11 times more than the NIH
Calley Means documents that 95% of experts who created the 2020 USDA nutrition guidelines had direct payments from pharma or food companies, including the American Diabetes Association accepting millions from Coca-Cola while setting diabetes treatment standards.
The foundation of the American diet consists of three ingredients that didn't exist 120 years ago: highly processed grains, added sugar, and seed oils
Calley Means explains that these ingredients make up 75% of ultra-processed food in America, with added sugar consumption increasing 100-fold in 100 years and seed oils being industrial byproducts originally created by John Rockefeller as oil industry waste.
Americans are the only animals, along with domesticated pets we feed, that have systematic rates of metabolic dysfunction, depression, and fertility issues
Calley Means points out that wild animals have close to zero percent obesity and cancer rates, while dogs fed human food have 50% cancer rates and 40% depression rates, demonstrating that our lifestyle and food choices are the root cause of chronic disease.
Fertility clinics are financially incentivized for growth and would have to lay people off if fertility issues were actually prevented or reversed
Calley Means spoke with a leading fertility specialist who admitted that while he would cure infertility instantly if possible, the institutional loans and hiring plans are all underwritten assuming continued growth in fertility procedures, creating a perverse incentive against prevention.
The healthcare industry is the largest and fastest-growing industry in the United States, but the more we spend, the worse health outcomes become
Calley Means explains that unlike other industries where innovation leads to lower costs and better outcomes, healthcare profits from people getting sicker for longer periods, with 85% of costs now driven by chronic conditions that continue increasing.
Even basic lifestyle interventions like vitamin D supplementation and exercise were called 'misinformation' during COVID despite strong scientific evidence
Calley Means documents how podcast hosts like Joe Rogan were violently attacked by the medical establishment for discussing the clear statistical connections between metabolic dysfunction, vitamin D deficiency, and COVID outcomes, while Dr. Ryan Cole was crucified for recommending sunshine and vitamin D.
Episode
EP229 Disrupt the Big Pharma-Big Food Matrix: A Conversation with Calley Means
2023-07-17 · 54 min
