Episode 1 - Health Consequences of the American Food Industry

Written By Hailey Heishman

In this first episode, Dr. Hailey pulls back the curtain on how we arrived at today’s modern health crisis by tracing the industrialization of food, farming, and daily life — and how quickly it all changed compared to the pace of human biology.

This episode marks the beginning of a multi-part series exploring how modern systems quietly shape our health, energy, hormones, metabolism, and nervous systems (often without our conscious awareness).

This is not about fear or perfection.

It’s about context, clarity, and reclaiming agency inside the modern world.

Episode Overview

In this episode, we explore:

  • How quickly food systems industrialized in the last 80–100 years

  • Why modern disease patterns exploded in the 20th century

  • How farming shifted from biological systems to chemical systems

  • The rise of factory farming and what it changed in meat, dairy, and fish

  • Why organ meats disappeared — and why that matters

  • How seed oils quietly reshaped human fat intake and inflammation

  • The role of supermarkets, refrigeration, convenience foods, and drive-thrus

  • Why abundance of food ≠ nourishment

  • What ancestral food wisdom still applies today

  • How to live within modern life — without being ruled by it

Episode Outline

1. How We Got Here

  • The rapid shift from ancestral living to industrial life

  • Why modern disease exploded alongside modern convenience

  • Environmental exposures humans had never encountered before

Conditions strongly linked to modern industrial living:

  • Metabolic dysfunction & insulin resistance

  • Anxiety, fatigue, and sleep disorders

  • Hormonal dysregulation (thyroid, estrogen, HPA axis)

  • Toxic burden (chemicals, heavy metals, mold, EMFs)

2. The Industrial Food Revolution

  • Farming before the 1900s vs after WWII

  • Synthetic fertilizers made from repurposed explosives

  • Soil depletion, nutrient loss, and water contamination

  • Why yield replaced nourishment as the primary goal

3. Pesticides, GMOs & Glyphosate

  • DDT: persistence, endocrine disruption, generational exposure

  • Glyphosate: what the research actually says

  • GMOs and the systems built around them

Key takeaway:

The concern isn’t one ingredient — it’s cumulative exposure within an industrial system.

4. Factory Farming & Animal Foods

  • How CAFOs replaced pasture-based agriculture

  • Grain-fed animals and omega-6 overload

  • Antibiotic use and public health implications

  • Why meat quality changed even when calories didn’t

5. Where Did Organ Meats Go?

  • Nose-to-tail eating as the human norm

  • Why organs disappeared from grocery stores

  • The nutritional irony of modern deficiency

  • What factory farms do with the “rest” of the animal

6. Fish: From Wild Harvest to Industrial Protein

  • Overfishing, aquaculture, and global supply chains

  • Heavy metals, mercury, and biomagnification

  • Farmed vs wild fish nutrition

  • How to choose fish wisely (without fear)

7. Dairy: From Living Food to Commodity

  • Why pasteurization was introduced

  • Mechanical milking, consolidation, and hormones

  • A1 vs A2 casein

  • Why many people are dairy-sensitive today

8. Seed Oils & the Omega Imbalance

  • Cottonseed oil. Crisco. Canola oil.

  • How industrial oils are made

  • Why omega-6 excess matters biologically

  • Chronic inflammation as an evolutionary mismatch

9. Supermarkets, Refrigeration & Convenience

  • How long food is stored before we eat it

  • Nutrient loss post-harvest

  • Frozen meals, microwaves, and ultra-processed foods

  • Why chewing, cooking, and time matter physiologically

10. Advertising, Drive-Thrus & Behavior

  • How mass marketing shaped food preferences

  • Drive-thru culture and metabolic health

  • The loss of communal eating

  • Why convenience became the default

11. The Big Picture

  • We changed how food is grown, marketed, stored, and eaten in < 3 generations

  • Our bodies didn’t get the memo

  • This is not about going backward… it’s about integration

What Can We Do? (The Old Way, Reimagined)

  • Support local farmers, CSAs, and regenerative meat

  • Cook more at home

  • Replace seed oils with traditional fats

  • Eat seasonally and locally when possible

  • Reduce food waste and pantry overbuying

  • Slow down meals (ditch the microwave)

  • Use cast iron instead of nonstick

  • Relearn preservation: freezing, fermenting, dehydrating

  • Focus on progress, not perfection

Resources & Further Learning

Documentaries

  • Food, Inc.

  • Kiss the Ground

  • Sacred Cow

  • The Magic Pill

Books

  • The Omnivore’s Dilemma — Michael Pollan

  • Nutrition and Physical Degeneration — Weston A. Price

  • Wheat Belly — Dr. William Davis

Research & Organizations

  • International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

  • Environmental Working Group (EWG)

  • CDC & WHO (antibiotic resistance, food safety)

  • Weston A. Price Foundation

  • Rodale Institute (soil & regenerative farming)

Farm & Food Sourcing Tools

  • LocalHarvest.org

  • EatWild.com

  • US Wellness Meats

  • Farmers Market Finder (USDA)

Final Reflection

In less than three generations, we transformed the human food environment.

Of course our health reflects that.

This podcast isn’t about rejecting modern life — it’s about remembering how to live well within it.

In episode 2 we’re diving into the water industry!

Hailey Heishman
Next

Intro - The Foundations of Vitality