Speaker 1: OK. Let's go next to God. I always struggle with this. Alisa Medusa from Dallas.
Did I get it right this time? Oh. Speaker 5:
Honestly, I'm giving you an A-plus for that, because I could tell that you've been putting
in the practice, and I really do appreciate it. Speaker 1: My pleasure. Do you do most people
just call you? Oh. Speaker 5:
Oh, yeah, because I mean, they have the same issue with butchering my name. OK,
so I mean, it's because like my parents are from Nigeria. Yeah, I was born here, so
you'd have to blame my mom for that. Speaker 1: Fair. Well, let's we'll do
that on a different episode. Speaker 5: Yeah, so again,
thank you so much for taking my call. Today, I wanted to talk about something different. And it's
in regards to food and I mean, I know it's not a very attractive topic topic to be talking about,
given how we're talking about Ukraine, Trump and Biden. But I feel like food is a big
issue. They're not a big issue, but like obesity in general in the United States is obviously
a very concerning issue that not enough people are talking about. And I feel like, you know,
most of it stems from, you know, our poor guidance and education on food in general. Like the good
example of this is the first aid pyramid that came out and like I think the 80s for the United
States, where, you know, the very bottom of the food pyramid said that we should have six to 11
servings of bread pasta. Right? But like less servings of vegetables and fruit? Yep. I mean,
I have no idea how that makes sense whatsoever, but I also know that, you know, unfortunately,
big food, a.k.a. the food lobby, you know, they were, you know, pressuring, you know, the USDA
a lot in terms of, you know, making sure that they would be able to like, push their products. So
I know I kind of went all over the place with this, but I guess my question is, what do you
think that like we could do to, you know, combat this issue with obesity? And I guess, you know,
yeah, like what do you think that we could do? Speaker 1: It's such a big topic. I mean, there's
so many issues here and oh man, and it also gets very touchy politically to talk about obesity.
One of the there's a bunch of different things here. First of all, of course,
there's an educational aspect to it where a lot of people have been given bad information or no
information about, you know, what it actually means to eat like a healthy, balanced diet.
Number two, you look at marketing and the way that marketing for food products, not for ingredients,
for food products, because that's what they are, steers people towards unhealthy food. I mean,
most of the food that's marketed is not healthy because just basic ingredients
don't really need marketing. I mean, OK, like you'll see like avocados in general advertised
or sometimes like milk generally. But for the most part, the advertising is for finished food
products. You then see the financial incentive where, you know, just growing corn. It's like,
OK, it's just corn, and that's what it is. But if you can separate corn into 10 different products
and then use them as additives and bump up up above, you can generate more profit. But you're
also giving people extremely processed items habits that are set by parents for young kids
and the age at which, you know, kids start having juice and soda and candy and this type of thing.
There's so many different things here that it is just a massive problem to get our head around, and
there's no there's no easy solution at this point. Speaker 5: Yeah, I totally understand, and one
book that I've been like, you know, looking into reading, it's called food politics. I'm not sure
if you're familiar with the book, but I'm probably going to pick up the book sometime soon to get a
better understanding of that. But yeah, thank you so much for taking my call and really quick
special shout out to David Pepper. Really good interview that you did with them. I actually know
him. Not like super personally, but I've met him on campus at the University of Cincinnati, so I
was like, really shocked to see you like David and David interviewing each other. So again, thank you
so much for everything that you do. And again, good interview and I hope to talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: All right, sounds good. Thanks for the call. Always great to hear from. Oh,
let's talk to Brian from Eastern Shore, Maryland. Not a place I've heard of before, Brian. Brian,
you're on the air. You've got to unmute in order to talk to me, though. Now, boy. That's
too bad. Things were going so well, they really were. I guess, no, no, Brian, there.