Five years ago, family physician and functional medicine advocate Mark Hyman, MD, published Food Fix: How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet. That was a fairly positive book, loaded with solid recommendations for improving our food industry to promote healthier Americans and healthier people around the world.

Although it received many accolades, and Senator Cory Booker told Dr. Hyman that Food Fix was one of the most important books he had ever read, it had little impact on the food industry and very little has changed. Even worse, since the first book was released, our collective health has declined.

With his follow-up book, Food Fix Uncensored: Inside the Food Industry’s Biggest Cover-ups, Hyman argues persuasively that our toxic food environment is an existential threat to humanity on par with climate change. Hyman gets more radical in his criticism of the “big 3” culprits who profit from unhealthy food: “Big Food” (the food industry), “Big Ag” (the agriculture industry) and “Big Pharma” (the pharmaceutical industry). The book is divided into five parts and the titles below, with my summary of each, speak volumes to the content:

1. Is Our Food System Bankrupting Our Health and Economy?

The high cost of chronic disease that results from unhealthy foods is staggering and is not sustainable.

2. The Dirty Politics of Big Food

Food industry lobbyists have a firm hold on government policies.

3. Information Warfare

Misleading public messaging, especially to children, distorts food information in the media, especially on television, to make processed foods seem healthy.

4. Food and Society: The Destruction of Our Human and Intellectual Capital

Unhealthy food (especially ultra-processed food) is a major cause of our mental health epidemic and disproportionately impacts low-income populations.

5. The Environmental Impact of Our Food System.

Soil, water and biodiversity are adversely impacted by unhealthy food systems.

Reading Food Fix Uncensored may turn you into a militant food activist! For me, the book reinforced my desire to work with patients to help them make healthier lifestyle choices. Leading with more nutritious food choices—which are readily available here in the Coachella Valley—is the best thing we can do to fuel our bodies and give them what they need to thrive. Eating real food that is not contaminated by pesticides and herbicides is a good place to start.

Hyman is working with Robert Kennedy, Jr. and the Make America Health Again (MAHA) effort. Putting aside the politics and other controversies surrounding Kennedy, MAHA is an important effort to clean up and improve our food industry systems.

Dr. Scherger is the founder of Restore Health Disease Reversal in Indian Wells, a clinic dedicated to weight loss and the reversal of chronic medical conditions. To schedule a consultation, call (760) 898.9663 or visit www.restorehealth.me.