Rich Holman: The Hidden Dangers of Sugar Addiction

In this captivating podcast episode, I engage in a compelling conversation with the author of “Killing You Softly: How Sugar is Killing Us”, Rich Holman. This hard-hitting page-turner exposes the harms of sugar consumption and corporate efforts to hide these facts from the public.

At the age of 73, Rich Holman describes himself as a “dead man walking.” He was putting his affairs in order assuming the end of his life was near. Rich had chronic aches and pains, grotesquely swollen feet, high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, and more. 

One day, by chance, he met a naturopathic doctor who recommended a 21-day strict no-sugar detox diet and everything turned around. It was nothing short of a miracle. Rich shares before and after photos of his feet that returned to normal size after only 7 days of eating whole foods! The rest of his body fully healed over time and today at the age of 80 he feels better than he has felt in decades!

Rich’s dramatic health reversal inspired him to conduct 7 years of intense research into what science had to say about sugar. The more he researched, the more shocked and angry he became. He simply could not believe that no one - no doctor, no dietician, no medical expert - ever told him how his diet of refined carbs was making him sick and miserable. 

Prepare yourself for a profound eye-opener interview that exposes startling truths about the link between sugar and chronic diseases, and the influence of Big Pharma, Big Health, and Big Food in suppressing the facts. Rich holds nothing back as he shares the lies and coverups that have led to widespread misinformation that enables corporations to legally peddle junk food products known to be both addictive and destructive to human health.

Tune in to hear a man - whose second chance at life - has inspired him to help others wake up to the insanity of our sugar consumption and find our path to freedom. He wants all of us to be able to relish our twilight years in the peak of health.

Beyond the interview, be sure to seek out Rich's book on Amazon. The more people armed with the information and inspiration to break free from sugar's addictive grip and reclaim their health, the brighter our collective future becomes.

https://www.amazon.com/Killing-You-Softly-How-Sugar/dp/B0CJLLLTCZ

Florence's courses & coaching programs can be found at:
www.FlorenceChristophers.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome everybody to an interview today with one of our keynote speakers at the Kicks Sugar Summit. His name is Rich Holman and let me read you his bio. Rich lives in Medellin, columbia, where he's been operating a real estate company since 2007. At the age of 72, he had full-blown metabolic syndrome and was dying Incredibly. He read a book about the perils of consuming sugar, which we will talk about shortly, and upon finishing the book, he met a holistic doctor who gave him a life-saving 21-day detox program. Now, at the age of almost 80, he is sugar-free, in great health and off all medications.

Speaker 1: 0:42

His first question seven years ago was why didn't my doctor tell me to stop eating sugar? Why didn't he tell me, why didn't my doctor tell me that this was a major part of all of my medical issues? This led to seven years of research and now the publishing of Killing you Softly, his book that we're going to talk about today, which blows the lid off the lies and cover-ups by Big Pharma, big Health and Big Food. He also shares the exact 21-day detox program that saved his life at the back of his book, so that you too can experience the miracle of good health and the benefits and the blessings of being sugar-free. Welcome, rich.

Speaker 2: 1:27

In Florence. It's really great to be here. I feel very honored to be in the same dais with my heroes Dr Lustig and Dr Richard Johnson and many others. It's an amazing conference and you should be congratulated every year. Putting this on, you're doing a great international public service, so thank you so much. I do have a surprise for you. I've done something and no other author has done. I don't have a copy of my book. I'm in Medellin and my author copies haven't come yet, so you can hold it up maybe.

Speaker 1: 2:01

I would love to you know what I want to do. This thing is so marked up, oh my gosh. Let me do one thing. I'm going to change the view of my screen to speaker so that when I hold it up, people can see it really clear.

Speaker 2: 2:14

Oh wow, thank you.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Yeah, it's called Killing you Softly, how Sugar Is Killing Us. If there's only one book you buy this year, it's this book. We're going to deep dive into all the various different topics that Rich has covered in his book. When Rich was telling me about all the different topics, his chapters, I said Rich, are you scared? You're going to get attacked, are you afraid for your life? And he said, florence, I'm an 80-year-old man. I've got nothing to lose. I've got nothing to lose.

Speaker 1: 2:46

I can say things in my book, because this is just a self-published book that I spent seven years researching. It's a labor of love and it is brilliant. But he said I can say things in this book that the big guns can't. And he goes. I held nothing back. Everything is true, everything is true. But I have the luxury of being able to speak the truth at a level that's unprecedented in any book in modern history.

Speaker 1: 3:09

Around the topic of sugar. To me, when I read the book the Sugar Blues and Rich read the book Sugar Crush, there are these books that awaken us. There are these books that put so much facts and information in our brains that there is no going back. That's what this book is going to do for the world. I was saying to Rich that I'm hoping it will be the new generation's Sugar Blues. He self-published this and I was just saying to him that I imagine that we're going to get this over to an agent and they'll probably tighten it even more, like, whatever they'll do, they'll just sort of take it next level and then we're going to get this into every bookstore in the world, hopefully multiple languages as well. And why is this book so, so important? I'm going to answer that question by telling you some of the topics the chapter topics, how Rich has linked this to so many different aspects that other books haven't quite touched in the way that Rich does. For example, he talks about what is the sugar industry and most of us could probably answer that question. But what he really does well is he talks about anyone who benefits from the selling of sugar as part of the sugar industry and, quite frankly, that ties into his chapter on.

Speaker 1: 4:30

What chapter is that? It's chapter 13 and 14, where he says women's love affair with sugar and killing our kids, and he makes it quite clear that mothers have a very, very powerful role in what their children eat, what their husbands and their boyfriends eat, really what we are serving children in daycares and serving seniors in senior homes. We have a very powerful role in our modern day food culture and right now we're part of the sugar industry. We're enablers. We are the ones that are buying the marketing that says it. Cheerios are part of a heart smart breakfast bullshit, right. We are the ones that were talked out of breastfeeding children for two generations because formula was better. We are the ones that are like the go betweens between these big industries making profit at the expense of our children and our children and you know, all these other people that we influence. So I'm going to give you a hit you more with a few more titles.

Speaker 1: 5:36

A chapter titles how the sugar industry distorts the truth. Follow the money, the disturbing trends of sugar consumption, the anti sugar godfathers I hope one day, for for Rich's sake, that he's on that Godfather spectrum, that before he dies he knows if he's on that spectrum the cocaine connection, the incredible lost opportunity to make people be healthy, and he ties it in with COVID and the whole world came together and we had such an opportunity. So I definitely want to dig in there a little bit with with Rich today. And then he talks about the big three that what really does restore our health is simple and makes nobody any money Eat whole foods. Well, maybe farmers eat whole foods, exercise and get good sleep, right so, and then he talks a bit about the 21 day detox. So Rich, why don't we start with your story? Would you like me to share your photos? Or do you want to share your story and then cue me to your photos?

Speaker 2: 6:41

Let's do that. You know, I, about 10 years ago I started getting higher blood pressure, put a little weight on low energy, aches and pains, and then my feet started getting inflammation. And you know the doctors do what they do. They give you pills. So they have me on, you know, blood pressure meds and diuretics and statins and all the stuff. But it was getting bad and you, in a minute you can show the picture that put. But I, just I was 72 at the time and I'm thinking, you know I'm dying. I sold half of my stock back to my private company and you know a lot of my friends were gone. I'm saying, you know, this is what happens.

Speaker 2: 7:23

And just by pure luck I read that book. You held up sugar crush and it wasn't a book I meant to order, but the word inflammation caught my attention underneath the cupcake. I never thought sugar was bad, but I thought I'll buy it, let me see what they're talking about. Didn't read it right away and after about three or four books later I said I'm going to read this thing and about 50 pages into it I'm starting to think maybe the sugar is not so good. But you know, I wasn't totally alarmed, but just thinking about it. But I did something I've never done before. I took the book to my office I don't know why put it in my desk.

Speaker 2: 8:00

And that day I'm interviewing Gus, a Colombian kid, his wife, and he wanted to bring his wife an interview. And I've done hundreds of interviews, never had anybody want to bring their spouse in. But I said, okay, bring her in. I talked to Gus, gonna hire him. I turned his wife. I said what's your name? She says Rasa. I said, oh, rasa, what do you do? Just, I'm a holistic doctor. Now, I never met a holistic doctor in my life. But I held up my book. I said, oh, look at this, you know, maybe I should cut back on the sugar. And she says she looks at my inflamed face, my gigantic feet, says you should do a detox. I said, okay, send it to me. And basically there's no sugar, very low carbs, no booze for 21 days. And I said I can do this. And I did it. So, if you don't mind showing my foot for two or three years. And then I mean, this is the way I looked. Every morning I got up and within 30 minutes my foot no, that's the other one. Oh, darn it.

Speaker 2: 9:04

I had them here we go, there you go, okay, so there's my feet and it says for years, and I, you know, I didn't know what it was, it just you know. But my blood pressure is 160 over 100. And I'm just a mess Seven days after doing my detox. For the first two or three, four days I'm like tired, lethargic, I couldn't finish my work out the gym. But then, day six, energy went up. And day seven show show the other picture, if you would. Day seven, that was my feed. This is just seven days after quitting sugar. I'm saying, oh my God, and my energy went through the roof.

Speaker 2: 9:42

I went back to the gym, increased my weights and on the program you don't count calories, you just not eating sugar and processed foods, that's it. I ate all I wanted, all the eggs, I wanted fish and salads and veggies and fruit and everything, and almonds and nuts and macadamias. I wasn't ever hungry and by 21 days later I had lost 22 pounds, never being hungry, never dieting. And I said what the heck just happened? And, as you said, that started me on my journey and my first question was what did my doctor tell me? And then my blood pressure dropped 30 points and I'm like I then went off all the meds and then I told my doctor that he needs to tell us patient's quitting sugar. But that started the journey and the more I got into the journey I discovered a lot of things besides sugar being bad. But the thing I spent a third of my book on is the massive coverups by the money interest. This is the biggest coverup in human history. There's no bigger one. Sugar kills more people than the wars, infectious disease, drugs, drunk drivers, you name it. It's killing more people, destroying more lives and growing almost exponentially and yet not a peep.

Speaker 2: 11:05

And I took one of the book I talked why doesn't, why don't we know about that? I mean, think about this. This headline should be every day in the front page every newspaper that the kids today in the United States will be the first generation in 250 years of republic that will not outlive their parents. That should be a front page article. Think about that. And you know it gets back, as you mentioned, to the kids. But this started me on my journey and I don't know how many people out there ever saw that movie Network with Faye Dunnway, bill Holden, and they had this newscast in Howard Bill and it was, you know, one Academy Awards and the best scene of the movie was. He's getting fed up with all the bad news in the world and he goes out, walks across the stage in a live broadcast, opens the window but shouts outside, tells everybody open the windows up and shout out I'm mad as hell, I'm not gonna take this anymore. That's the way I felt. Those SOVs almost killed me with the crap that they were feeding me.

Speaker 2: 12:05

And the solution is really pretty simple and I get into that in the book. But I think where a lot of the other problems we have is that they like to keep us divided, distracted and dumbed down in too many choices or too much confusion out there. And my chapter on kiss, I keep it simple, stupid. It's just very simple. Just don't eat sugar. It's all you're gonna do, don't worry about that stuff. Start with that and then from there, after you do that, you can do all other things to optimize your life and your health and live longer. But start with the basics Do not eat sugar. And so I get into that quite a bit. It's just, you know we're on a real tough mission because the money being made by the money interest by big pharma, big health, big food, big sugar, it's trillions of dollars and they're not gonna give that up easily. But I have solutions.

Speaker 1: 13:01

Yeah, I was gonna say that really struck me when you were talking about the sugar industry in your book. And there's this light bulb moment for me when you were talking about the drug cartels and I was imagining back to some of the movies I've seen where the mafia, like, had friends in the government and you know, the government was sort of working with the mafia and I thought how's that any different from what we're doing right now? Right, that big pharma and big health and big food and all those are, they're peddling a drug. They are drug cartels. We know it's addictive, we know it's damaging, but there's big, big, big money and governments in the FDA and other organizations that you go in very great detail are all involved. They're all involved in perpetuating this scam. Do you wanna go there? Tell us a bit more about what you discovered in your research, about just how deeply corrupt that whole sort of unholy alliances.

Speaker 2: 14:04

Wow, yeah, well, you know it's always about the money, and I talk about that in the book. Follow the money and the money being made is just unbelievable. First of all, on the front end, there's people making money selling processed foods and sugar products. You know they're making money on the front end. You know that's big, big food Now. But on the back end, the people making the money is big health and big pharma, and this is starting to come out more and more.

Speaker 2: 14:35

But one of my favorite sayings about medicine today is that the doctors are trained to treat the symptoms of sugar addiction. They treat the symptoms, they don't treat the cause. Nobody makes any money. The doctors just go home, eat real food, exercise and sleep. Nobody makes any money. As you said, some of the farmers. So now, why is that? Why are the doctors trained that way? Well, first thing is less than 1% are trained in nutrition. It should be 100% trained in nutrition, but it's less than 1%. And less than 2% of medicine is preventive medicine. It should be 75%. But why?

Speaker 2: 15:13

Who influences the curriculums of medical schools? Our friend, big Pharma? They're on the advisory boards. They do the research. France they're. You know, they do all. They're intimately involved with medical school curriculums and they don't want even to change. And because the money they're doling out the med schools and the Congress and the Royals nothing is changing. They're making so much money and it's just so sad.

Speaker 2: 15:38

And speaking of Big Pharma, in the world today there's 203 countries. 203 countries, only two allow direct to consumer advertising from Big Pharma to the consumer. That's New Zealand. I have no idea why. In the other United States I'm sitting in Medellin, I get access to US television. The other night I'm watching CNN and I'm also watching Fox News and there's 10 ads and nine of them were Petland Pills, petland Pharmacy, it's just. And they're the biggest advertiser on the legacy media, on the internet media. They're the biggest everywhere. So you wonder why we don't hear what's really going on. You think somebody wants to lose their job or lose their ad revenue. So not a peep in the front page. Now there'll be some good articles back on the health section in the New York Times or even the Washington Post, but it's like it's buried. Only people read that people are already healthy. Normally, it's just.

Speaker 2: 16:33

It's such a massive cover up, but they're everywhere. And one of the things I just went crazy on and I've got 70 footnotes about this in the book. But they control Washington, the money interest. I used to think it was just the Department of Defense with their war machine, but no, you know, big Farm is an FDA. They're in the CDC, they're in NIH. They get people all over there and they come in and out and people leave. They go to work then as the government, they go to work for lobbyists, they go to work for Big Pharma. It's one big family in there and they're controlling and influencing everything, everything and it's just. It's like the fox is in the henhouse and we're nobody knows or nobody is aware of it. And it's so sad. And I get arguments of people say, well, all you gotta do is use discipline and you know and exercise, you'll be fine. Well, no, people need informed consent. People in the world, especially United States, do not have informed consent.

Speaker 2: 17:35

So I talk about, I mean this incredible cover up and massive misinformation and the lies they've told for the last 50 years. My favorite lie is back in the 60s when there's some information came out against sugar. The sugar industry rapidly said oh, we gotta do some more tests. And they started doing tests on rats with sugar. And then rats kept dying of cancer. So they just buried that research. I wanna say a word about that. But and then Ancel Keys came out with the whole thing fat's bad for you, and we all believe that. I did a fat low, no fat diet in the 90s and you know I had my bread with jam on it, you know, but no butter. I mean the lies, the cover ups, the misinformation, it's just incredible. So that got me really crazy, cause it just. I've got seven years of this and it's still coming out. And it's so hard. What chance does the average person have? Because sugar and this chapter, I'm really proud of it. Nobody's done this chapter.

Speaker 2: 18:43

But the cocaine connection. You saw the chart. I mean there's 15 characteristics of sugar and cocaine and they're all the same. They're both white, they're both processed, they're both come from plant, they're both we smoke, they're both mature, you know, they're both used socially, both highly addicted, they're both bad for your health, you know, they're both in the original form of Coca-Cola. I mean on and on and on. But cocaine at least has one good thing you can lose some weight doing cocaine, you know. At least it's got one benefit. But it's just amazing. And you talk about the drug cartels, pablo Escobar, who was a top 10 richest guy in the world peddling cocaine. If he'd have pedaled sugar, he'd probably be the richest guy in the world. The guy was a master marketer and genius in marketing.

Speaker 2: 19:31

And but on the solutions, though, the solution that I really am trying to get across and push is what I call the tobacco template, because we do have an example of a success story, and before your time, but when I was a kid growing up. I'm 11 years old, I'm watching black and white TV and gun smokes on. Advertising comes out and as doctor comes walking out smoking a cigarette or smocked a stethoscope and the voiceover is more doctor, prefer camels. They give you more energy, better for you, better for your health, jada, jada, jada. And of course, I said wow, and you know all the kids are smoking candy cigarettes. You know, joe Camel comes out and an obvious carcinogen, like tobacco smoking.

Speaker 2: 20:17

It still took 50 years to get the word out, to get people informed consent. It took getting them off the advertising, labeling, taxing it, taking it to schools, taking it to the hospitals, going behind it doctor, behind it public service announcement. It took 50 years to get tobacco smoking from 42% down to 12%, 13%, and you know, people can still smoke, but they're informed Sugar. No, there is not informed consent. But we got to use that same template. We got to get everybody together. Unfortunately, the trillion dollar money is running the big show big pharma, big food, big health and the 1834 lobbyists for big pharma running around Washington DC. They're not gonna let that happen, nor the advertising.

Speaker 2: 21:03

So it's got to be the people. It's got to be people like you and everybody that's speaking. We all got to. We're in this thing together because the world's health is being destroyed and the kids today in the United States will not outlive their parents and we've got to change it. And it can be changed.

Speaker 2: 21:19

It changed for me in 21 days. Anybody can do this. So I try to get that point across. And what I challenge everybody to do is here's the detox. It's in my book. It's just 21 days out of your 30,000 days. That's 0.007th of one percent. It's just 21 days. But I say one thing, one thing if you're gonna do the detox, do it right. Don't cheat. I'll have a little bit of sugar. Don't do it, because in 21 days you'll experience the miracle and that will guide you the rest of your life. So if you do that. You're set, and then you're gonna be set for your family and your friends and your kids. You'll never waver once you know the truth. Now it's not easy, but it's just 21 days and you can do it.

Speaker 1: 22:13

Thank you, rich, and I will say in defense of those of us that fall on the addiction spectrum, that it might not be enough just to do it for 21 days, that that will be enough for you to experience the miracle for your body to go. Oh, I do like this better, I wanna be your ally now. I'll remember this experience of feeling better. But for those that fall on the addiction spectrum, we just frustrate ourselves, rich, because we're like, oh, I feel better, I wanna do this forever. And then there's gonna be a moment where we think, oh, I'll just have one bite it's my daughter's wedding cake or something, it's my birthday, there's nothing else to eat and then boom, we're hooked again. And then it can be weeks, months, sometimes years, before we find our way back into the whole food miracle. So, yeah, I just don't wanna leave anyone with the impression like, oh, 21 days and I'm cured and everything's good and I'll never go back. That might be true for Rich, and it's often true for men. It's not always true for women. We are, for sure, more addicted. And, rich, I don't know if you've seen this research. It was the tiniest reference and I haven't had a chance to dig more into it.

Speaker 1: 23:17

But it was research that came to light for me when I was looking at the Rat Park study. You know, are you familiar with the Rat Park study? Right, where these rats were addicted in cages and then they put them in these enriched environments and high percentage of them weaned themselves off cocaine or sugar or alcohol, whatever it was that they were hooked on. But a certain percentage never did that. They stayed addicted and died of whatever horrific disease they died of. But in that study there were other studies trying to replicate it. There was an interesting little one line about they realized that they needed to make sure they were doing this research on both female and male rats.

Speaker 1: 23:57

All the research was being done on male rats previously but when they brought female rats into the mix, totally changed the numbers and they said there's clear evidence that sugar is more addictive to female rats. And that's all they said and that was it. I haven't been able to find any more. But I mean it's interesting and you sort of address that and you say it might be tied to hormones. But do you wanna speak to that whole sort of why? It seems that women are the ones that are really hooked into this and we're the ones that are eating it. We're the ones that are sharing it. What are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 2: 24:31

Well, it's interesting because I talk a lot about this in my chapter. The women's love affair was sugar and also, in the killing, our kids. Let me go back to kids for a second, because all the events with kids tied around sugar birthdays, christmas, easter, you name it it's just part of the whole society, everything Halloween, and I remember when I was a kid, in Halloween I get my bags of candy.

Speaker 2: 24:59

Somebody tried to give me an apple. It wouldn't even make it home, I just throw it out. But with the women I know the hormonal thing is part of it, but I think it's more of a social thing. It's something which the girls sort of enjoy doing together. It's oh, we're gonna have, whereas the guys it's booze for them, booze is their sugar. So it's not the guys are innocent, it's just that alcohol metabolizes very similar sugar, causes some of the same effects. So I think we're both guilty and it's just.

Speaker 2: 25:34

The problem is with the women. The gatekeepers are the biggest influence on the kids and the boyfriends and the husbands and the girlfriends. It's like we gotta get them on board, we have to. And it's like what I think is so sad is, by then, eating sugar. It affects their skin, it affects their energy, it affects their weight, it affects their sleep and it just it takes away from their essence. And I think it's sad. You know you guys gotta be the leaders. You know not the followers. And I was just telling the day in my book. I've got people around the world holding my book up in front of a windmill in Holland and countryside in England on a golf course. So far, every photo has been up. Guy, I haven't had one woman yet hold the book cover up and that cover that book. If you'll hold it up and look at that face, that's not a man's face, that's a woman.

Speaker 1: 26:31

I really wrote this book. I'm gonna talk so that it switches over to my screen. So here it is. Yeah, there's the image.

Speaker 2: 26:35

No, that's not a man. So you know, all we can do is do our best. But I have some good news For me personally once I quit the sugar, I do not crave it, I don't even want it anymore. It almost nauseates me. But I never used to like fruit because fruit wasn't sweet enough. Now I love fruit, fruit it just explodes now. And same thing with salads and veggies. They used to be. That was the last thing I'd eat, if I had ever eat it. Now it's the first thing I eat. So your whole taste buds changed.

Speaker 2: 27:09

And point we haven't made yet and I love this point Dr Richard Johnson, who's I really love his books and his talks and he's got this anthropological background and I like the way he really sets the stage, because mankind and primates have been around for millions of years, almost sapiens for 200,000 years. But for all those years, until the last 150 years, the one thing that wasn't there basically was sugar. Sugar wasn't really there. It was fruit, maybe a little bit of honey. But sugar just came around in the last five, 600 years, but it came as a rarity. The cost of sugar was like 200, it was more expensive than caviar and now it's 1,200 the cost of caviar. Because it didn't come out until the last 150 years and really mainstream into 40s and 50s after the Second World War, because World War I, world War II and the Great Depression sugar didn't really get out. But once it got mainstream in the processed foods, now it's just wreak and havoc. And I would love to see somebody Lawrence, I couldn't find this data, it's so hard to get but I'd like to see somebody take 10 charts and put them in a book and just put the first chart of sugar consumption per capita for the last 100 years, which will look like this, and then do a chart for cancer, coronary heart disease, chronic kidney disease, depression, alzheimer's, high blood pressure, all of it. It's all the same chart.

Speaker 2: 28:44

Now you might say, well, it's a coincidence. But it's not a coincidence, it's really what's happening. It's the honest to God truth. And yet they're getting away with it. The money interests are getting away, they're running the show. It's so sad.

Speaker 2: 28:58

And going back to our friends' tobacco business, finally we got on those guys. The last tobacco web is 1972 in the Johnny Carson show, and pretty soon the law started hitting the States. We're getting on a billion dollar, and so tobacco industry, what are we gonna do? In the 1980s the biggest leverage buyout in 1980s was a tobacco company by an RGA in Obisco. They bought in control of three processed food cans. Now they're all over processed foods. They're taking one addictive poison, nicotine, into another called sugar Instead of Joe Camel. Today the kids don't have Joe Camel anymore. They got Tony the Tiger. I mean, they're just putting the same marketing stuff they did to hook the kids and hook the people into the processed food business. It's a sin, it is a crime and there's nobody stopping them, but except people like you and like the people who are speaking. But it's an uphill battle but we gotta win this thing. Let's do it at least for the kids, if not for ourselves.

Speaker 1: 30:03

Totally, that is exactly how I feel. Yeah, children deserve to have happy, healthy childhoods, and if we want us, man, there's this really powerful part in your chapter under killing our kids, where you talk about how, back when you were in your mom's womb and growing, your mom was a smoker. No, she wasn't. Was she a smoker? Yeah, smoke and drink.

Speaker 1: 30:28

Right she smoked and she drank, right, and we're like, oh, that's terrible, mother shouldn't do that. So now, responsible mothers are not smoking and drinking when they're pregnant, but we're eating sugar every day, all day. Oh my gosh, it's such a powerful line and you talk about how, because of that, babies are being born obese, prediabetic and addicted to sugar right out of the womb, and there's barely a peep about it.

Speaker 2: 31:00

Yep, dr Lustig is the one, of course, was the first one to really come out, start blowing. That, you know, sounding that alarm and no broke his heart. But he figured it out very quickly and it just it's like. One of the things I talk about in the book is how do we reward our children when they're good? What do we give them? Give them sweets? We poison our kids when they're good. That's brilliant, that's really brilliant, you know. And but you know, if we get those little kids and get them trained at the beginning and get them onto real food and tell them what should, they'll be the biggest advocates. They will lead the charge if they have a chance. But the mothers and the fathers aren't giving those kids a chance. You know, the kids are misbehaving. What do we do to shut them up? Give them something sweet and they shut up, you know. And then the dopamine starts hitting them and then pretty soon they get the. You know the cravings, the crashes. When I was growing up there was no kids ADHD. Nobody's taken it right. A little Kids weren't all crazed and it's like it's the sugar.

Speaker 2: 32:02

And I think today and I don't I didn't cover this in my book because I didn't want to be too controversial, but I think about all these school shootings which I never heard of before until the last 10, 20 years. Imagine you take a kid, a boy. He's down in the basement all his watching video games and he's drinking red bulls and big gulps and Coke and candy and all this crap, getting no exercise. And we know what sugar does to the brain. We know what it does, disrupts the gut biome, how it affects serotonin. It's all covered in detail by Dr Lustig and many other books. And we know Rik and Havoc.

Speaker 2: 32:40

No, why are they going nutsy and doing stupid stuff like shooting up a school? It doesn't surprise me at all. I hope someday somebody connects those dots. I and I love Dr Christian Palmer's book Brain Energy where he's saying suck hatches and pills ain't working guys. And now he's putting people on keto diets and having another clinical trials having amazing results with bipolar depression. And it's like we gotta do this thing. We really do. The science is there, the evidence is there. We gotta get mainstream somehow in this. We gotta get past the barriers, the blockages of big food, big pharma and a big sugar, big health.

Speaker 1: 33:25

Yes, and I would say and I have never said this publicly and I think it's okay that I do I almost lost my own daughter rich to this sugar addiction. Yeah, she was raised on Whole Foods. I was 100% Whole Food Woman pregnant although I did have a pumpkin pie and once she sandwiched the entire pregnancy but after that I was hell bent on raising her sugar-free, and you too much about it, and so she was. But my family was sneaking sugar on the side. That kept thinking oh, you're gonna make this kid weird about food and you're depriving her and you're too extreme. And I'm like no, if you knew what I knew, you would not. This to me is you're just offering my daughter a cigarette or something toxic. Anyways, fast forward. She got it, though Like by the time she was in her teens and she was out and about, she would come to me to say, oh, mom, like I really like it, like I get, I can see it's addictive, like I have a little and I light up and I want more. Fast forward.

Speaker 1: 34:27

She's kind of spent most of her childhood years mostly sort of in and out of the junk, was very depressed and anxious in her twenties and there were stretches where rich. I didn't know if she was gonna hang in there. I didn't. I did not know. There was times I'd look at her and I think, honey, this is brain chemistry and it's so tied to the junk and the partying and you know, that's the whole picture. And one day she said either I leave, I leave this planet, I can't do this, or I listen to you and I'm ready. So she went on a whole food diet. She then she dropped it even more, she went keto and she'll tell her own story one day. She will.

Speaker 1: 35:09

She's an up and coming in this space because she is the first to look you dead in the eye and say everything Rich is saying in this book is been my lived experience All, not just Rich's books, but all the people who are writing and talking. We can't make this shit up. It's true. This is the facts. These processed, refined foods are truly impacting you from head to toe and very deeply at the brain level. Chris Palmer's book that you just mentioned, brain Energy, links sugar, refined processed foods to metabolic health, tied to mental health. It's. This is real. So, yeah, well, you know.

Speaker 2: 35:50

Here's another headline that you don't see in the New York Times or at CNN. The United States spends $4.3 trillion on healthcare. $4.3 trillion, now, that's a big number. In fact, that's the third biggest GDP in the world, behind China and Japan. That's a huge number. So we've got the best doctors, the best training, the best facilities and we spend more money the next 10 major countries combined. And what do we get for that, lawrence? Because the United States was a first generation sugar addicts, we started the process food business and all the other stuff. So what are we getting for the $4.3 trillion? We're number 47 in life expectancy and dropping Number 47. You've got poor countries with better outcomes than that.

Speaker 2: 36:40

Now, of that $4.3 trillion, dr Lustig has pointed out to other doctors. He says, hey, 75% of that's due to chronic disease. 75% of chronic disease is caused by what you eat, by sugar processed foods. Now, 3.2 trillion makes that number five, tied with India for fifth place in GDP. Those are horrendous numbers. And what's causing that? It's what we're eating. Now the United States has 120 million diabetics and pre-diabetics. Almost half the population is diabetic or pre-diabetic. And yet this isn't headlines. It should be. It's just horrendous. But it's part of this massive cover of this control to big money interest add. So I just it just grieves me to see this. And now it's so obvious to me and I feel so blessed to be at almost 80 years of age you're in all medications and feeling great it's. We got to get this mainstream. We have to do it somehow, some way.

Speaker 1: 37:51

And I imagine that right now, we're still at the phase where the early adopters that's, you and I, those of us who, for some reason, we were miserable enough that we were willing to read a book about sugar and have it totally change our lives and then we can't help it. We can't help but get the calling to pass this along. When you really have this, you will feel called to pass it on. You can't not. So, the early adopters, we're all teaming up, we're doing summits, we're writing books, we're supporting each other and we're waiting, waiting, waiting for this to be a big enough group, right, and for all the early adopters that are in the media, that are in hospitals, that are in daycares or in schools right, all of them are slowly waking up and we are the. We are the leaders. So we're not the innovators, we're the middle group that that are reading the lust eggs and going I get this, I'm going to do my part.

Speaker 1: 38:45

And then the early majority start going oh, there's something here. We should change policies, we should have a daycare policy, that all snacks have to be Whole Foods, and they start to make it mainstream. And then there's a tipping point. But we're still in the early adopter stage here. So we're doing our part. But if your early majority and you're skeptical and you're like I don't know, your job is to just do more research, because that's what the early majority oh, there's this weird echo. That's what the early majority need. They just need more science, more conviction, personal experience with it.

Speaker 2: 39:18

So yeah, we're starting to get. Actually, since I published a book this past month, I'm starting to see more headlines coming out. I wish I'd had them in the book, but Washington Post who's not my favorite publication but they came out with a huge article linking life expectancy to ultra-processed foods and sugar. I mean, god bless them. That was great, very detailed. Of course it's buried down the health section. They didn't make front page. It should.

Speaker 2: 39:47

Wall Street Journal I love this article. They had the one about how come people in the United States go to Europe and gorge themselves, eat and come back to states they've lost weight and they said, oh, europe gets 12% of the calories from ultra-processed foods, the United States gets 57%. You know should be a front page again in the health section of the Wall Street Journal. It's just the news. The information is out there and it's to us that are informed. It's so obvious. But sugar addicts are like cocaine addicts. You tell the cocaine addicts maybe you should quit. They look at you like you know, yeah, you know, yeah, you know it's. People are. Sugar is more addicted to the cocaine. There's no question about it. So we've got an uphill battle but, as you said, it's got to come. It's got to start coming every source and eventually get more of the doctors to start to get on board they sure are.

Speaker 2: 40:43

You know and I love what some of the things that some of the I mean I'm not picking the doctor, but I love what like Dr Lester talking about. You know we got to start treating symptoms of the sugar addiction. I mean the cause, not the symptoms, it's, it's, it's going to happen and so as more doctors get involved more than some of the newsmeets it starts getting in front page and more people and we start communicating, especially on the internet. For now I think we're going to get there and hopefully it won't take 20 years. Dr Listig referred to this 30 or 40 year cycle, like seatbelts and tobacco. We're in that cycle from the start of the process, but we need to accelerate it because people are dying every day from this crap and babies are getting diabetes and people's feet are getting cut off and and One of you want to get in the code with story it's one of my favorites.

Speaker 1: 41:33

Yes, and I just want to say one more thing about doctors before we move on. You know I've interviewed hundreds now through my nine years of doing summits and I have never yet met a doctor. I'm sure they exist, but I personally have not yet met a doctor who hasn't said, when I said, how did you get started? How did you know you want to be a doctor? And many of them say when I was a kid, I just knew. Or they'll say I like I just I just knew that's what I wanted to be.

Speaker 1: 41:58

They truly have a calling that most doctors honestly go into their field to make a difference in the lives of people. Either they had someone who was a sick parent, a sick sibling, they had a father who was a doctor or something like that. They felt inspired to move into a field that they thought they would be meaningful. They can make a meaningful difference, and this is especially true in countries where doctors are not particularly well paid. Actually, Even there you hear that same theme, and what we know now is that this food culture malfunction is affecting doctors too. They have one of the highest rates of suicide. Did you know that?

Speaker 2: 42:42

That's surprising.

Speaker 1: 42:43

Yeah, it's not surprising they are experiencing the same frustration at the limitations of drugs and surgery for chronic disease. They are extremely effective for the 25% of the times when we are in an accident or an infectious medical condition or an injury, infection, injury, genius Drugs and surgery for sure, but the chronic disease that's because we're not moving our bodies and we're eating crappy foods and we're socially disconnected and all those things, right.

Speaker 1: 43:15

Those are not going to be addressed. Well, because all they do is mitigate symptoms, address symptoms, not the root cause. And these doctors are as frustrated and demoralized and burnt out as the patients that keep coming to them for more help, but all they're getting is more prescriptions, right?

Speaker 2: 43:34

So I just wanted to share it and, speaking to doctors, it's almost like a cattle called. You know, the average time that a patient spends with a doctor now in the United States is seven and a half minutes Wow.

Speaker 1: 43:47

That's pretty much what a doctor yeah, Getting into medicine to just do here's a pill, next Like that's. You can't go home at the end of the day and feel like, wow, I have a connection to my patients and I'm making a difference.

Speaker 2: 44:01

Well, you know, in my towards the end of my book, my chapter called Future, Future, I talk about the future and the future. Instead of 1% of doctors being trained in at Trishy, it'll be 100%. Instead of 2% preventive medicine, it'll be 75%. I mean, it's going to be a whole different world in the future. You know, and we're going to get there.

Speaker 1: 44:20

We're going to get there.

Speaker 2: 44:21

But yeah, but you're right. But you know I had to write this chapter on the COVID because when I looked at what happened first thing is because I know what was going on with sugar and processed foods and big pharma and big I said all right, where's the money? And when I first heard about COVID, it was like November of 2019. I said, oh, this looks like it could be a nasty flu coming. So I started researching it and the best I could tell in the early 2020 was it's an inflammatory virus. In other words, if your body's in an inflamed state, you might have a problem with this virus. Now I never had a flu shot in my life and I said, oh gosh, I wonder. But I said no, I'm not. You know, I'm working out, I'm exercising, sleeping. I'm not in flame. Immunity is good. You know, I'm getting sunshine, I'm going to the gym, I'm not in an inflamed state. So you know I'm not going to get too worried about it.

Speaker 2: 45:24

And then, all of a sudden, they shut us down in March of 2020. Fortunately, the day before I got spots and weights from take my house Every day I'd do weights. Next day, I walk around my building illegally. I'm not supposed to be outside, set the balcony getting sunshine, popping my vitamin D, eating salads and fruit. And then I watch this thing hit.

Speaker 2: 45:45

And then I saw what the government did. The government says, all right, you just stay home. You know, no more gyms, no more beaches, no more sunshine, no more exercise. Sit at home and we'll weather this thing out. You know, wear your mask and then take this vaccine, because if you get it, you won't. You know, take the vaccine, you won't get COVID. Well, then they later said, well, you won't spread it. And then later they said, well, you won't die or get it a second time. All this stuff was untrue. Meanwhile, Moderna stock went from 14 to 440. There is the money. The vaccine was not free the vaccine manufacturer making billions of dollars.

Speaker 2: 46:22

But what they did then is the government had an opportunity to have all the people scared to say, hey, let's do this. We're going to get free gym memberships and send anybody wants to work out, join a club, and we're going to give discounts on real food. We want everybody to exercise, get sunshine and eat right, so you build up your immunity and not be in a flame state and we'll beat this thing together. They get the opposite. They locked us up no sunshine, no exercise, processed food sales went up 25% during the pandemic and besides that, drug use went up alcohol, and then it was like they made us sicker. Now the United States, the richest country in the world, but they're 4.3 trillion. How do they do with the COVID deaths? Well, 4% of the world's population went. 16% of the deaths, 16?

Speaker 1: 47:14

16. 16.

Speaker 2: 47:15

Wow 16% of the deaths was 4% of the world's population and it's like nobody you couldn't say anything about that. Because you said anything about that, you get, you know you get censored.

Speaker 1: 47:30

It should be a headline Not.

Speaker 2: 47:33

And one of the things interesting I bet really been following very closely Robert Kennedy's because he's really on a big farm in the corruption of Washington with the money interest and it's I mentioned in the book.

Speaker 2: 47:45

But you know, the week that President Trump is going to be inaugurated he reached out to Robert Kennedy Jr and he said you know he's going to be, his vaccines are. Because Trump was sort of concerned about vaccines, he heard about autism, other stuff, so he wanted Kennedy to take it over and so he made a point with fouching some others and within 48 hours suddenly a staffer called Kenny said no, we don't need you. And that same week Pfizer donated a million dollars to Trump's inaugural campaign and put two other people in the FDA and the CDC. And I was like wow. Of course Trump never knew he's like a bull on trying to cause, he had no idea. But it's just another example of the controls and other money interest and it's just so sad because our government could have had the people get healthy, scared of them to be in health, and it did just the opposite.

Speaker 1: 48:35

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 48:35

So it just.

Speaker 1: 48:37

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 48:38

Yeah, I had to put that chapter in there.

Speaker 1: 48:40

Yeah, yeah, and I and I wanted to sort of clarify that this is not to weigh in on the vaccine debate. It's about whether or not I mean the whole world came together to try and protect each other, and I don't know that a gym membership would have been a good idea. I think there was some wisdom to just stay homeless, steve, we can just kind of get this to ride by, but in the meantime, go out into parks. If six feet distance, it was sound advice. Great to separate. Go out into parks, get out on your balcony.

Speaker 1: 49:07

Yeah, one of the pieces to around COVID because we all watch this right Was whether or not we should be allowing our kids to get it so that they would have natural immunity. And one of the arguments was is that? No, you don't get natural immunity. The vaccine will give you better immunity. And so, like every argument for the vaccine like, this is the solution, this is the vaccine is the solution. It's the same paradigm surgery, pharmaceuticals, those are the solution to health issues, but in this case I think you make such a compelling argument that that paradigm is limited and it has a major money behind it. It's vested interest that keep us from broadening it. To look at the holistic picture of what truly does help people build immunity against viruses such as COVID and others.

Speaker 2: 50:00

Allow us informed consent, allow us to talk for a doctor and discuss it, but the doctors couldn't do anything. They were locked up. They said anything, they were going to lose their jobs. It's again, it's just another thing about the money interest. They run the show and they've corrupted Washington and the Democrats use and I'm not, I'm not, I'm an independent, but the Democrats used to be the party against big business, against war. Now the big business around them, the big farmers around the big health run them, the neocon, it's like they run Washington, the money runs it and the people are suffering. And here this, the greatest country in history has, is the sickest country in history. We're in a third generation sugar addicts, lawrence, and I hate to think what the fourth generation to look like? Yeah, when our sick kids a day and live their parents have kids, how are those babies going to be? Yeah, it's sort of scary.

Speaker 1: 50:54

Yeah, and I think that two things. I don't know that America is the greatest country that ever lived. I think that it's historical legacy will look like this you were involved in a whole lot of wars you shouldn't have been involved in you, you, you, you brought your franchise, fast food, junk foods to almost every developed country and you were, you were, you were preditorial about it in terms of trying to get children hooked on sugar. Those are probably the two things that comes from my chin. It's not American bashing, I'm just saying, like you, there's so much.

Speaker 2: 51:26

Not all the processed food companies from the States. There are some from Europe too.

Speaker 1: 51:29

So okay, fair, fair, fair. I'm just saying you don't you don't. If you're from America, you don't want that to be your legacy, like, come on, there's so much good that came out of America, so much I know but we can be the leaders to change this thing.

Speaker 2: 51:41

You know a little funny story and I'll tell you. It's like you know, I've been to Columbia now and I'll soon have my Columbia residence permanent permanent, obviously, a citizen, and what I? What I'm trying to do now is I want to get the book turned to Spanish, but I'm going to be reaching out. Next year I'm going to be the first country in the world to tell the truth about Columbia and health authorities, and I would love to see Columbia to be the first country in the world to tell its people the truth about sugar and do what needs to treat it like tobacco. I think it'd be so cool, you know, for my new country to do this.

Speaker 2: 52:14

Somebody's going to do it.

Speaker 1: 52:16

Why not Columbia, you know? So that's one of my goals. Why not Some community, some, some municipal city? I tried to do this at my municipal level. I didn't get anywhere. No, but someone's going to do it right. The blue zone thing is kind of catching on and of course, they're not quite fully. You know, no sugar, no processed foods, but that that'll probably come in. But, yeah, some countries going to do it.

Speaker 1: 52:38

Finland has done really good stuff around nutrition. They have brought themselves down from the highest rate of heart disease to one of the lowest in the world. How did they do it? Two things. The government at the federal level, at the national level, said you need to eat better and move more and they created this whole culture around it and it was very impactful. And if you look at the stats, it's like it works. It works Now.

Speaker 1: 53:01

They, the World Health Organization in 1989, said here's the deal. We've looked at the medical evidence. Countries, you need to go back and set policies in place that make sure that men consume no more than nine teaspoons, women no more than six, ideally less. They agreed, didn't happen. 2014, they brought them together again. The Rome Declaration of Nutrition 2014,. I think it was. 142 countries signed the declaration that said they would go back to their countries, set policies in place that men would consume no more, that would enable or support the achievement of no more than nine teaspoons for men, no more than six for women. Not a single country in the world has come even anywhere close to achieving those targets, and the reason is big money, but also because it's addictive, because it is so.

Speaker 2: 53:52

Well, as I said, I have my chapter on kiss and I have a quiz in there in the book and the quiz, basically, is all right. Here's what I wanted to ask you a question. Here's five things that if you do this, if you don't eat these five things, then you're your life of the immeasurably better. The rest you'll be set for life. The first one is strict nine. The second is rat poison. The third one is cockroaches, dead cockroaches.

Speaker 2: 54:20

The fourth one is cow feces and the last one is sugar. So if you quit those five things, you'll be, you'll be so happy and so healthy and your life will change and you won't be depressed, everything's gonna be great. And I also say if you're going to have to eat one of those five things, which one can you eat? And it's of course the cockroaches, which are protein. I suggest you put them in the microwave first before you eat them, but at least you can eat them. Then I can hurt you, like the sugar will. But the point is you got to take poison out of your diet. So you got to do it Because, as Dr Johnson said, the human body wasn't designed for this.

Speaker 2: 54:55

It's been around for millions of years, but it wasn't designed to metabolize sugar. Fructose is a poison. It goes to the liver to be processed and the body? It may take us another 1,000 years to evolve to it, but right now the body is not designed to eat sugar. It's just that simple. Never has been. And yet the sugar has flooded us the last 100 years and it's killing us. And it's killing us slowly, sweetly and softly.

Speaker 1: 55:24

And I might add, for people who find that idea like depressing and daunting and they're like oh God, that's too extreme and that's impossible, I'll leave you with this thought that actually sugar shows up in all plant foods, all of them. Every plant food you eat has glucose in it, but it comes within the context of this brilliant package of fiber and phytonutrients and vitamins and minerals and antioxidants. And so much goodness, little bit of sugar and ocean of goodness. But what we've done in our modern day sugar is we've taken all the good stuff the fiber and the phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, all of it and all we've done is concentrate the sugar. So it's not like we're asking you to never again have the pleasure of sugar. You're just going to have the pleasure of sugar in the context of whole foods and one day you will taste iceberg lattice and go dang, that's sweet.

Speaker 1: 56:14

Or an almond or Brussels sprouts are stupidly sweet. They will be plenty satisfying. Sugar with the little tiny bits that shows up in all plant foods is plenty satisfying when you get yourself unhooked. So don't despair that you're going to go without. You won't. But the sugar Rich and I are talking about is the stuff that's concentrated and processed and no longer is good. It is nothing but poison.

Speaker 2: 56:41

You're right and you mentioned vegetables. Also fruit applies. But as Dr Lustig says and I love his expression is you got to feed the gut and protect the liver and process foods and sugar. Do neither of that, neither, and this whole evolving study of the biome is new and fascinating, but all I know is you've got a trillion bacteria down there. If you don't feed them, they do a lot of bad stuff and by not giving them fiber, by giving them processed foods and sugar, you're not feeding them. And once they get like that, you know, blood brain barrier and let leaky gut, a lot of things happen with the brain and depression. The science is there, so it's.

Speaker 2: 57:22

Everything I think about now is, as hey, is it? Is it going to help my gut? Is it going to help my? You know, protect my liver. And he's absolutely right, there's just no question about it. That's the way the body works. So great. I mean, I have seven days. My feet went normal. It's the body's is great, incredible, creative, and all we're doing is with the sugar, you know, and the kids.

Speaker 1: 57:51

Yes, everybody. Please go out and get your book. It's on Amazon. It's not yet on Audible, but we will. We'll get it there one day. We need to. We need to show an agent that this is a bestseller already. Please go get this book. Pass it. Buy it for people for Christmas. It's the least we can do, rich. Is there any final words you'd like to share today before we wrap up?

Speaker 2: 58:13

The other is um, and I closed in the book with this, basically, and I said, look, you know I was dead man walking. You know eight, 10 years ago and I'm almost 80 now and I got to thinking, wow, I got my health, I got some experience, I got some knowledge, you got a little money in the bank. The last quarter of my life has been my best quarter and anybody can have the best quarter. You don't have to, the last quarter being the worst quarter. All the time in the hospitals, the doctors, the pills, the surgeries, the pain, the agony. You know it can be your best quarter as long as you got your health. And I wish that everybody reads this book and I wish the last quarter of your life would be your best score.

Speaker 1: 58:55

Thank you, rich. Thank you, thank you for your book, for your inspiration. I appreciate your time today.

Speaker 2: 59:01

Thank you.