Book Title: Food Fix Uncensored: Inside the Food Industry’s Biggest Cover-ups
Author: Mark Hyman, MD, with Brianna Bella-Hyman
Publication Details: Little, Brown Spark, 2026, 480 pp., $22.99 paperback
Five years ago, family physician Mark Hyman, MD, published Food Fix: How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet—One Bite at a Time.1 That was a mostly positive book, loaded with recommendations as to how our food industry could be improved to promote more healthy Americans and people around the world. Because very little has changed and our collective health has become worse, Hyman wrote this book, Food Fix Uncensored: Inside the Food Industry’s Biggest Cover-ups. He argues passionately that our toxic food environment is an existential threat on par with climate change. A foreword to the book is provided by Casey Means, MD, author of Good Energy.2 She echoes the urgency of addressing our unhealthy food problems.
With this follow-up book, Hyman gets more radical in his criticism of the “big 3” culprits who profit from unhealthy food. The “toxic triad” are “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 speak volumes as to the content.
“Is Our Food System Bankrupting Our Health and Economy?”
The high cost of chronic disease that results from unhealthy foods is staggering and will bankrupt our health and economy. Hyman argues that at least 11 million people die every year from a bad diet, making it the number one cause of death globally. Life expectancy is now falling in the United States for the first time in recorded history, and we currently rank 49th globally just behind Cuba. Ultraprocessed foods that dominate the US diet are toxic to our overall health. Given the global reach of the food industry, the problem is now global. Hyman goes on to detail the insidious actions of the food industry to make unhealthy foods part of our culture. He concludes this first section of the book with calls for action tackling the unhealthy problems of obesity and chronic disease, such as taxing junk foods and having soda-free zones in schools and other public places.
“The Dirty Politics of Big Food”
In this section, Hyman argues that the food and agriculture industries control food policy. The US Government subsidizes disease, poverty, and environmental destruction through food and agriculture. He describes how these policies prey on our children and how the Food and Drug Administration fails to protect the public.
“Information Warfare”
Hyman argues how each part of the toxic triad manages to make adults and children believe that unhealthy foods are part of a normal diet. He describes how the media and the politicians are controlled and even censored. One chapter depicts “how the food industry co-opts public health and corrupts nutrition science.”
“Food and Society: The Destruction of Our Human and Intellectual Capital”
Hyman shows that toxic food will cause a less healthy population of children and a dumbing down of society. He argues that toxic food is at the heart of social inequities. Unhealthy food is a leading cause of our mental health epidemic and disproportionally impacts low-income populations.
“The Environmental Impact of Our Food System”
Hyman argues that where our food comes from and how it is processed is destroying the environment through agrochemicals, control of seeds, and soil destruction. The decline of civilizations, such as in Greece and the Middle East, can be traced back to soil destruction.3
Food Fix Uncensored is an overly one-sided book. Not all food processing is harmful, and some even makes our food better. Gary Taubes, the science writer who blew the whistle on the presumption that all saturated fat is unhealthy,4 criticizes the label of ultraprocessed food as scientifically imprecise and misleading.5 Michael Pollan writes that the cooking and processing of some foods make them safer and healthier.6
Many will consider this book as going too far and taking away from the positive experiences of some food franchises. When I oversaw the executive physical program at my institution, we once offered to provide lunch for a group of visiting executives, and they requested In-N-Out Burger!
Reading Food Fix Uncensored may turn you into a militant food activist. The book reinforced my desire to work with patients in making healthy food choices that nourish their body in the best ways possible. Eating real food that is not contaminated by pesticides and herbicides, and is low in sugar and processed ingredients, is the right focus for all of us. Food Fix Uncensored should be part of any teaching family physician’s library.
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