Congressional Hearings & my husband's first unboxing video (regenerative veggies of course)

(Quick note for our livestreams: You can now watch all our videos on your actual TV now (like YouTube) via the new Substack TV app - you just have to add it to the apps on your TV via Google apps or Apple tv apps. I’ve had success on one of our 2 tvs. Once in the app, just search up The Food Is Health Revolution and voila. It’s a great alternate if you prefer the full video experience over reading and you can handle us on the big screen - I might need to start focusing more on hair and makeup... Just kidding, no time for that.)If you watched our livestream last week, you already know it was a bit of a wild ride. First and foremost, I would like to thank my husband Brian for his contribution to this week’s recording as he made his first Food Is Health cameo which was also his first “unboxing video” of our first Chef’s Garden produce box. On this episode, what started as a backup plan when Carter got stuck in travel chaos turned into a guest appearance one of my favorite farmers - Bob Jones Jr. of Chef’s Garden.Bob joined us with about 90 minutes notice. And what he shared, about regenerative farming, nutrient density, and the real economics of our broken food system, gave me the opportunity to share in my typical N of 1 style, how in our house, we treat food expenses as part of our healthcare budget. We also recognize we are extraordinarily grateful we have the financial means to make that choice. Then we pivoted to the congressional hearing where five health insurance CEOs got grilled about why premiums are so high. As someone that has spent 34 years in healthcare, it was an absolute embarrasment, yet in no way suprising. In some ways it was deeply satisfying.Let’s dig in. (Pun intended of course). And a Cliffs notes version at the bottom.“She Doesn’t Care What They Cost”Bob Jones is part of a family vegetable growing operation in Northern Ohio. His parents started in the 60s. At their peak, they were farming over a thousad acres of wholesale vegetables, shipping anywhere east of the Rockies.Then came the farm crisis of the 1980s.Here’s how Bob explained it:“My Dad’s last operating note was 24% interest. Borrowed money at 24%, we loaned it out at zero, and we wondered why it didn’t work. It was economics 101.”They were working with a large grocery chain on 120-day payment terms. Borrowing money to grow food, giving it away on credit, and hoping it all worked out. Their bank encouraged them to “find a different advocate.” Here’s where the story gets interesting.While selling at a farmers market in Cleveland, they kept encountering this European-trained chef who wanted baby zucchini with the blossoms still attached. Bob’s dad kept saying no - they were harvesting at eight inches, packing 24 in a basket for $3, and thought they were doing great.The chef kept coming back. Week after week. And as Bob tells it, if you knew his dad, when he said no, that was the end of it. You didn’t bring it up again.But Bob’s brother finally said: “Dad, she really wants these baby zucchini with the flowers. And she said she doesn’t care what they cost.”Bob’s dad’s response? “How many does she want?”That was the beginning of The Chef’s Garden as it exists today.Latent Demand Is Real (We Just Keep Missing It)Carter and I talk a lot about latent demand. Spoiler alert, Carter Williams is in full engineer mode this week solving for how to show it as a collective (more to come). People do want to eat better, they just don’t have access to what “better” actually looks like.Bob’s story is proof.They took those baby zucchini to market hidden under a paper towel, tucked under the table, because they didn’t want other farmers making fun of them for bringing “squash that wasn’t ready.”When the chef saw them? She lost her mind with excitement. Clearly we would have been friends.“Oh my God, this is exactly what I wanted! I haven’t seen something like this since I left France! I love you! I love you!”Bob’s brother was mortified. But that moment? That was the beginning of an epiphany - teaching “a bunch of dirt farmers about the food business,” as Bob put it.Here’s what Carter nailed during the conversation: * There’s latent demand for something different. People say consumers don’t want to eat better - that’s not true. They want it. They just can’t find it. * They were willing to pay more. In a world where we’ve commoditized food to the point of nutritional bankruptcy, there’s a way to differentiate product that people will pay for.Today, The Chef’s Garden ships to restaurants and homes in all 50 states and 17 countries. They have over 800 varieties of plants available in six different sizes. Disney is their biggest customer. They went from hiding baby zucchini under a table to feeding the Magic Kingdom.The Nutrient Density Research That Stopped Me ColdBob has been working with researchers including Dr. Nasha Winters (a holistic oncologist I’m a huge fan of who also happens to know one of my favorite friends in Durango - we figured that out thanks to a necklace!) and Dr. William Li. They’ve actually published peer-reviewed research with the American Society for Nutrition.Here’s what Dr. Li found when he looked at five years of their data: As they’ve improved their regenerative practices, mineral density in their vegetables has increased while sodium has decreased.Think about that for a second. Most people who need nutrient-dense food also need to reduce their sodium. Bob wasn’t even looking for this - he was focused on increasing mineral content. But because they stopped using salt-based fertilizers, they got both.The food is getting more nutritious over time because of how they’re growing it.Bob also dropped this stat that I can’t stop thinking about:“USDA says that grocery store produce on average is two weeks old before it hits the shelves because of the distribution models. USDA also says that produce on average loses 10% of its nutritional value every day post harvest.”Do the math on that. By the time most produce hits your grocery cart, it’s lost 70%+ of its nutritional value. We’re paying for food that’s already nutritionally bankrupt before we even buy it.We talk about this alot as does our bestie Erin Martin and our friend Eric Smith with his technology at Edacious that makes it possible to easily test this.The Unboxing Video (Shout out to my husband)I had to share my actual unboxing video during the livestream because it captures something I couldn’t explain in words.Quick context: I subscribed to The Chef’s Garden’s seasonal box without telling Bob. No special treatment. This is what anyone gets when they order.When that box arrived, my husband Brian and I opened it together like kids on Christmas morning. I somehow convinced him to do this on camera with me (he normally wants nothing to do with my content). But he’s awesome so of course he got into it and stole the show…What was in the box:* All sorts of varieties of sweet potatoes (if you’ve never had a purple potato, you’re missing something in life)* Watermelon radishes with that gorgeous pink interior* Carrots that taste like candy - and I don’t say that lightly* Mashed potato squash (yes, it tastes like mashed potatoes - I used it for dinner last Thursday night with buckwheat, some of Bob’s spinach and more)* Romaine and Spinach that had actual taste profiles* Beats, red potatoes and a few cucumbersBrian tried a carrot straight out of the box. His reaction: “You know the really sweet one from the bag? That’s what this is.”I tried a watermelon radish. Super sweet and spicy, but nothing like the sharp bite you expect from a grocery store radish.Is it more expensive than the grocery store? Yes. But here’s what Bob said that nails it:“As Americans, we have become wonderfully accustomed to cheap food. But now what we’re recognizing is we’re paying for that cheap food. The cheapest per capita spending on food of any industrialized nation in the world - and the highest per capita spending on healthcare. There’s a connection between those two.”There it is.If you want to try it yourself, go to The Chef’s Garden website. You can choose between a “best of the season” box (where their team picks what’s peak that week) or order à la carte. We are doing Best of Season ourselves.Now, About Those Health Insurance CEOs...Last week, five of the biggest health insurance CEOs in the country testified before Congress about why health insurance costs are so high. They had two back to back hearings. I plan to do a full post on it under separate cover.The CEOs represented CVS (which owns Aetna), Cigna, UnitedHealth, Elevance (formerly Anthem), and Blue Shield of California.I recorded the whole thing and read the transcript. And while watching insurance executives squirm has a certain cathartic appeal for someone who spent 30 years in healthcare, what struck me most was what wasn’t said.Here’s my grading:David Joyner (CVS): C-“We believe that the single biggest issue is the health status of the population.”Okay, we’re getting somewhere! But then: “Our focus is on wellness prevention... keeping people on low-cost therapies that will ultimately manage your overall health costs.”And we’ve lost him. Still stuck in the therapy/management paradigm.David Cordani (Cigna): D+“We must focus more resources on the patient earlier in the care journey, especially programs that prevent chronic disease and support long-term health.”Still stuck in the “care journey.” Still not asking what’s causing the chronic disease in the first place.Stephen Hemsley (United) and Gail Boudreaux (Elevance): DMore of the same: “preventative care so people get care before a condition worsens” and “preventative care so problems can be caught early.”Catching things early isn’t prevention. It’s early detection. There’s a massive difference.Paul Markovich (Blue Shield of California): B-He was my favorite (always has been - he has been talking systemic failure for a few years now), only because he at least acknowledged the systemic failure:“Too many times the participants in the healthcare system - health plans, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, and others - put profits ahead of patients and are complacent about how complex, inconvenient, and inefficient our current system is.”He also specifically criticized fee-for-service medicine. He was the only one who called it out by name.But here’s the thing - nobody talked about food. Nobody talked about why people are getting sick in the first place. Not one person in that hearing mentioned the word “nutrition” or “food” or anything related to the actual upstream causes of chronic disease.The Problem Nobody NamedHere’s what’s missing from this entire conversation - and honestly, from most conversations about healthcare costs:We use the word “prevention” to mean completely different things.I learned this full framework at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine conference last fall, and it changed how I think about everything:Primary Prevention: Stopping disease before it ever occurs. Nutrition and diet. Physical activity. Reducing environmental exposures. Food policy. Food access.This does not exist in our current healthcare system OR ANYWHERE. People have to create it for themselves. There’s no reimbursement code for “helped patient not get diabetes in the first place.”Secondary Prevention: Early detection and intervention once a disease process has begun but before symptoms appear. Screenings. Catching pre-diabetes before it becomes diabetes.This is what insurance companies call “prevention.” But the disease process has already started. We’re just catching it earlier.Tertiary Prevention: Managing existing disease to slow progression and prevent complications. Diabetes management programs. Cardiac rehab.This is the monetization of disease.When those CEOs talk about “prevention,” they mean secondary and tertiary. They’re talking about catching you earlier in your “care journey” and managing your conditions better.They cannot offer primary prevention because they don’t have the assets. Food and lifestyle are the massive components - and healthcare doesn’t control those. Nor should it, probably.The system is literally designed to wait until you’re sick.This is where food can BECOME health”care” by offering the care of health, something that truly does not exist today.The Vision That Keeps Us GoingCarter said something during our conversation that I’ve been thinking about ever since:“You should be able to walk into a grocery store and it should be hard to make a bad decision.”That’s it. That’s the north star.Not another app that nudges you. Not another device that tracks your sleep and makes you feel guilty when you ignore it (I literally let my Oura ring die this week because I didn’t want to be reminded of how bad my sleep was during a work bender). A system designed so that healthy choices are the easy choices.We’re not there yet. But conversations like the one we had this week - with Bob showing what’s possible with food, and with us wrestling with what’s broken in healthcare - these are the building blocks.What’s NextThis week: Pryce Ancona from HTD Health is joining us to talk about AI for healthcare and the technical infrastructure side. If you’re curious about TEFCA, interoperability, and where this is all heading - you won’t want to miss it.The ACCESS program prediction: I shared on the livestream what I think companies like OURA might do with this new CMS program. It involves free Oura rings for seniors and a complete disintermediation of traditional healthcare. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am. Stay tuned.The Cliff NotesFor those who need the quick hits:* Bob Jones and The Chef’s Garden went from 1,200 acres to 6 during the 1980s farm crisis, then rebuilt by listening to a chef who “didn’t care what it cost” for baby zucchini with blossoms. Today they ship to 50 states and 17 countries. Disney is their biggest customer.* Latent demand is real. People want to eat better - they just can’t find it. And when they find it, they’ll pay for it.* Nutrient density matters. Bob’s research with Dr. William Li shows mineral density increasing while sodium decreases through regenerative practices. Meanwhile, USDA says grocery store produce loses 10% of nutritional value per day post-harvest.* Five health insurance CEOs testified before Congress about why premiums are so high. My grades: mostly Ds. Nobody mentioned food. Nobody mentioned upstream causes. Nobody distinguished between real prevention and early detection of disease that’s already started.* Primary prevention doesn’t exist in healthcare. What they call “prevention” is really early detection (secondary) or disease management (tertiary). Primary prevention - stopping disease before it starts - requires food and lifestyle, and healthcare doesn’t have those assets.* The north star: You should be able to walk into a grocery store and it should be hard to make a bad decision.* Try it yourself: Go to The Chef’s Garden website and get a seasonal box. Experience what food is supposed to taste like. Get full access to Food is Health at foodishealth.substack.com/subscribe