Qualy #73 - How can we change the food system when 10 companies control almost 90 percent of the calories we consume in the US?

**Peter Attia** (0:05)
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I looked into this a few years ago, and maybe the numbers have changed, but directionally, I think this is still correct.
There were something like nine companies that controlled basically all of CPG, consumer packaged goods.

**Robert Lustig** (1:16)
10 There's 10
10 control 90% of the food in this country.

**Peter Attia** (1:20)
Yeah, my calculation was 10 of them controlled 85% of the calories that people consumed.
You face a very uphill battle, because you're trying to get them to change the way they do business, but they answer to shareholders, not to you. And the way they're doing things right now is working out reasonably for their shareholders. Not great. These aren't the most high performing companies in the world, but how in the world, when such a small group of companies control so much, and going back to what you said earlier, you're asking parents to double their food budget to feed their kids correctly and spend twice the time doing it. What does this look like in 10 years? How does the story end?

**Robert Lustig** (2:00)
Well, I don't know how it ends. This is a battle royal, like tobacco was. And it took a long time to win that. And there are people who say, we haven't even won that one yet. You know, e-cigarettes now come, but we're having another proposition here in San Francisco tomorrow about tobacco to kids. Here's the deal. The food system needs to change. They're not gonna change it from the inside because right now, sugar is their business model. It's the thing that increases their sales. When high fructose corn syrup and the dietary guidelines of 1977 were first available, the profit margin of the food industry went from 1% per year to 5% per year. This is their juggernaut. This is their gravy train. They add more sugar, they sell more food, and they know it. And that's why there's sugar in all the food because when they add it, you buy more. For all the reasons we've discussed.
They have to change the food, which means they have to change the business model. So how do you change the business model?
Well, there are four potential ways to change the business model. One is educate the public so that they don't want that food, in which case then they won't sell it. We're trying to do that. That's one reason I am the chief science officer of a non-profit, trying to do just that. Okay, called Eat Real. And real is an acronym, responsible epicurean and agricultural leadership. We are trying to change the food system by praising the good and hoping that that will induce competition amongst restaurants, cafeterias, hospitals, schools to procure, market and sell real food.
Or, you can have executive branch efforts like the FDA or the USDA, but not in this administration. If anything, they've rolled back opportunities for that, like the Nutrition Facts label. Or you can have Congress legislate specific changes. They're not doing that because they're all paid off from the American Legislative Exchange Council and other concerns, like the Koch brothers, what have you.
Or you can have judicial impact. And so there are lawsuits against the food industry going on as we speak in an attempt to try to, shall we say, regulate from the bench, which no one thinks is optimal, but seems to be the only thing that's available at the moment, aside from education. So those are the four ways to do this.
My goal would be to get rid of food subsidies.

**Peter Attia** (4:42)