Ep.72 Health Crisis: Poisoning Our Youth w/ Calley Means

Calley Means shares challenges every day Americans must face with processed foods and big Pharma. He has been in the media A LOT so Programming Lions draws light on him being a father, his efficient MAHA advocating efforts, and seeing him get a good laugh from some unique questions. 

Links:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/calleymeans/

X: https://x.com/calleymeans

Website: https://calleymeans.com

TrueMed: https://www.truemed.com

TIMELINE

00:00 Intro

02:07 MAHA quick wins

03:37 Connecting RFK and Trump

06:11 Partisan politics

07:58 Feeding kids

10:27 Ramen?

12:38 Transparency in food

15:20 Kelce bros?

16:39 Pizza toppings

17:50 Ecosystem basics

20:38 Calley’s exec order

21:28 Corruption fixes

24:52 Rapid Fire

Transcript

0:05

​Welcome to the Programming Lions podcast. Today we have Calley Means. He is the co founder of TrueMed, enabling tax free HSA, FSA spending on supplements, exercise, and healthy food. He recently authored the book Good Energy, which has consistently been on the New York Times Best Seller list. Calley is a true advocate for health. He's been on every major news outlet. He's even been on major podcasts instrumental in the Maha movement, even connecting Trump and RFK. In this podcast, we've got a good mix of fun and serious topics. So without further ado, let's get into it. Yeah.

CALLEY_MEANS-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_328ms-StreamYard: 0:51

Calley Means, thanks for joining us in the Programming Lions podcast. Honor to be here. We're excited to have you. You are the founder of TrueMed. You're the co author of Good Energy. You are a pillar of the Maha movement, which we definitely want to get into. You've been on Pretty much every major news program, podcast, like Rogan, Russell Brand, Tucker Carlson, Dr. Phil, everything. But now, today, you're here with the Programming Lions podcast. So I'm sure you lost sleep over this. I'm honored. I know, I'm honored. This is going to be a highlight. Alright, so these boys, these boys have cooked up a lot of interesting stuff for you. So, welcome to the show and we want to make sure that you're comfortable. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Before we start the I think you're thirsty, so here you go. Oh no, oh my gosh. You can have a Pepsi. Get this away. I know you'll love it. You'll love a Pepsi. I can't be seen with that. I can't be seen with that. You can't be seen with that? For the audience, we tried Pepsi on him. He wouldn't take it. He wouldn't take it. Not publicly. Alright, fantastic. Well, let's get into some questions. This is going to be a mix, probably, of questions that are odd, funny, and some serious ones about sort of the movement and everything that you've been working on. So, appreciate it. Alright. Alright, so are there, so are there some quick wins for Maha coming up since Trump got elected? I think there's a lot of quick wins. I think we've got to be focused on quick wins. I think it's getting the NIH back to just asking why, particularly, kids are getting sick. Our big scientific authority, the NIH, which is like supposed to be doing foundational research. When I was a kid, it was like admired by everybody. It doesn't do foundational research. It just basically does pharmaceutical R& D. So, so, the way I describe it is, they're not asking why everyone is getting fat or getting diabetic or getting all these diseases, like depression. They're asking how do we profit from that. They're creating drugs to manage those conditions. I think Trump is going to direct the NIH to ask the first question, why is it happening? And if we know why it's happening, that can lead to potentially better solutions. I mean, the reason we're getting so sick is because of our food is because of Sleep and exercise, basic things. We need to just substantiate that with research. I think that's a good one. And then conflict reduction. You know, our agencies and the government, you know, the FDA, which oversees drug approvals, is funded by the drug industry. So, that makes no sense. It's like, why is the agency that's regulating drugs, it's not funded by taxpayers, it's funded by drug makers. There's a lot of examples of those types of things where you can get the conflicts of interest out of the agencies. So, those are two big ones I think you can get momentum on right away. Mm hmm. Yeah. With Maha, I'm wondering, because I'm pretty sure you basically connected RFK and Trump, right? So, I wonder if you ever just, like, look in the mirror, and you're like, Yep, that was me. Well, that's an interesting No, I don't, I don't do that. You don't? Really? No, I, I mean But you are kind of credited with introducing these fellows, right? RFK made a nice statement about that. I mean, I We heard him say it. I, I think if I, listen, I, I think there was a rare moment, of opportunity. For after Trump got shot when big events happen, there's new opportunities to reformulate, when 9 11 happened, that was used to go into and start a whole new kind of war wars everywhere. It's like it can be good or bad. I mean, when COVID happened, there was a big plan to shut down the whole country. So there's opportunities to change things when there's. Crisis, for better or worse. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, RFK calling Trump right after he got shot, it solidified a good bond between them. And I had a suspicion that would happen. So, I recommended it at that time. But, it was a 20 second phone call. I mean, I really obviously credit, Bobby and Trump and this incredible bond that they built. You know, it was just cool to see, honestly. My psychology is I just ask what's next, which is probably not very healthy. It's probably not good. You gotta just enjoy the journey. But but I don't, I don't really, I'm just focused on what we can do next. Yeah. Well, looking back at it, that may have been the swinging, like, piece of the election that put it kind of over the hump and brought the red wave forward, right? Yeah. I mean, I honestly think President Trump Captured this frustration in many ways that's and this election was really important because it's like no more BS like Let's reset and focus on big things like cleaning up our conflicts of interest in the military and our education system and health I You know I think there is a recognition that there's this movement about children's health is beautiful and it did bring a lot of new people into The coalition, young people haven't really been fans of Trump and they voted much more for Trump women It's been a big issue, and they closed the gender gap, and, and other demographic groups, independent voters. So Trump did do better, and to make change, you have to do politically popular things. You have to get a coalition behind you. At the end of the day, there's a lot of corruption, but if voters are behind something, that moves the dynamics to get things done. So, the fact that voters got excited of various groups was a positive thing. Yeah, for sure. And maybe a related question that I had was, Health shouldn't be a partisan issue or topic, but it has been. People kind of blasting Bobby and the movement of MAHA. How do you combat that and and look at this more as a like? This is a this is an American issue and not a partisan issue and battling some of the criticisms Yeah, so The things being talked about are, I do not think, are partisan, you know. When you really listen to what was talked about in the campaign, it's a concern about why kids are getting sick, it's a need for transparency, it's a, you know, cleaning up our food supply. But health was political this year, for better or worse. There was one side that was, just sticking to what the pharmaceutical company said, for whatever reason, on the left. It's very important, right? A lack of critical thinking to just unquestioningly listen to the experts. I think it's a real problem and that was the left and there was one side talking about clean food. There was one side talking about taking on the pharmaceutical industry and, and I, so my framework here is I, I hope that the Maha principles become the norm for both sides and both sides start arguing about how they can be more transparent, how they can be more for kids, how they could be, you know, more about medical freedom. I think the way that happens is Trump gets wins right now. The way politics works is if, if this movement can help Trump, then people are going to try to come and take that away on the other side. I honestly think that's good. I actually would love for 2028 to be both sides basically on this paradigm of health. I think the way that happens is for Trump to do politically good from it. So that's how I, that's how I see it. You have to think about things through politics. But you're right, I want it to be seen as a political opportunity to, to do these things. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Okay. So, what are some foods that you make your son eat, but you actually hated as a child? Oh man, that's a good question. Well, I, I was raised, you know, I don't know if you guys have heard of the food pyramid, but You know, in the early 90s, there was this thing where the government basically recommended kids eat a bunch of pasta and a bunch of processed stuff. I mean, that was like literally what the government guidelines were. So, you know, I followed, my parents followed that. I was like eating like, you know, garbage, basically. Like, just a bunch of carbs and sugar, which was basically the government recommendations. So, that was my story. We really try to stick to whole foods, I think pretty much 100 percent whole foods with our 3 year old. And he definitely gravitates to the meat, to the steak. And doesn't love the green stuff. So we try to cook the broccoli and the brussel sprouts in a way that he'll like. But honestly, like, I'm okay. I think it's kind of interesting actually, like, I don't know about you guys, but he really likes steak. He really likes we have grass fed yogurt. He likes that. He, but he loves the meat. We generally, oh, he loves avocados too. I don't know what you guys like. No, they're not avocado fans yet. So, but yeah, he does a lot of avocados, a lot of steak, a lot of, a lot of yogurt. And and I'm, I'm kind of okay putting What we do is just put the food, the healthy meal on the plate and, he can kind of eat what he wants and if, I, I always say, you know, if he's hungry, you know, I don't know, like, he might learn a lot, I don't know, maybe eat more next, I, you know, that's kind of. We, we had a policy of, we would cook dinner and if the kids didn't want to eat it, then they would be hungry. Yeah, yeah. And, and so, like, we'll, we'll make a good meal, a healthy meal. And if they don't eat it, they're hungry. He likes cheese. You can try a good, nice, yeah, but I, I think, I honestly think. I think kids get addicted, and adults too, to like, carbs and kind of not optimal food, and you kind of got to wean yourself off, and, yeah. Well, and to your point, like, if you, if you let them, oh, well, he didn't want to eat this, the healthy meal steak, but we got some chips over here, and he likes that, so we'll let him eat that, because we don't want him to go to bed hungry. Well, then you start this vicious cycle of bad habits, and so we've tried to guard against that, but I see a lot of families falling into that. Yeah, and I honestly think it might be better not to eat than have those trips. Yeah, for sure, for sure. I mean, you know, within reason. Right, right. I have heard that ramen does not have some good stuff on it. So I'm wondering what you think about ramen. Because me and Max love that stuff. And that would be not very good if, you know, one day it was just disappearing. So, I always just think, my framework is I always just gotta look at what's being done to the food. ramen from, you know, that's from Japan that's made in the traditional way with really good grains, you know, it's fine. I mean, you always hear like people go to Italy and eat a bunch of pasta to lose weight. It's like It's really what's done to the food. I, I, I think a good paradigm is like, is this something people ate hundreds of years ago? Is this what grandma used to make? Is, is what I say? If it's really cheap and heavily, you know, in, in a bag, with a bunch of chemicals in it, you know, it might be problematic. If it's if it's made in an appropriate way, I think ramen's good. Most, most food can be really, really good. You know, and I think, you know, you look around the world and different cultures that are really healthy, they have a very different diet. I really try not to be on the big dietary wars. My, my thing is like, let's, let's have food as close to the, the way it used to be made as possible. People used to, get grains and And, and have been making things like bread, and different pasta type derivatives for a long time, you know, that, that can come from a very natural, be done in a very natural way. So, so I would just look, if it's super cheap in a bag, it's It might not be great, but Yeah, like top ramen, maybe not, but you can make, maybe you can make different kind of ramen that's a little bit better. I like that, I like that ramen that you just need to put in the microwave for a minute. That's fine. Add water, nuke it, and it's salty and delicious, right? I like that, I like that too. I used to have cup of noodles, yeah, every day, the cheapest possible one. Styrofoam cup. I'll tell you, it's funny, we were hanging out with some friends at a swim meet, and they were let's just say, A friend of ours was eating some chips and some ramen and she's like, man, I got to eat this now before RFK takes it away. I know, I know. And we laughed, but the truth is, he's not necessarily trying to take these things away, but, but put healthier Additives and chemicals and have some of these addictive additives. Taken out of the food. Yeah. Food and eating, still a lot about choice and along with exercise, but but he's not looking to strip these things away or outlaw foods. Right. It's just No. Like let's put more transparency into it. Yeah, that's right. Transparency. I mean, no, there's a real libertarian mindset here where most things should be legal. Like, like soda shouldn't be banned. Like, even like cigarettes or drugs. Like, you know, we're a free country. But We shouldn't be incentivizing these things, like we don't give cigarettes to kids, but we do subsidize soda for kids, like the food stamp program, which is the program for lower income Americans to help if they're hungry, you know, that goes to soda for kids. And I think soda in many ways is actually a bunch of sugar, liquid sugar, it's, it's, I don't want to compare it to anything else, but it's, it's, it's like cigarettes, it's not good. Emcee. Yeah. We showed, we showed the kids how much sugar is in a soda. It's a lot. And it's, it's mind blowing. Yeah, I know. It's like, can you imagine eating that much sugar? And to your point, I was going to ask about this, but food stamps, I think the number one item that it goes towards is carbonated drinks. It's sugar drinks, yeah. And so, I find this wild because then we have taxpayer dollars go to food stamps, helping families that are underprivileged, okay, that's great, then they use it for that, but then they also need to go back to the health care provider to get a prescription for Ozempic so that they can offset what we've already given them here. It's like this weird Diabolical, vicious loop. It's horrible. We poison people and then drug them. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so we're not missing anything. That's actually, like, that's what's happening. No, that's what, that's why people got frustrated this election. We poison kids and then drug them. The kids, you know. You guys are more awake than most people. But, it's profitable for a kid to be addicted to ultra processed food, and be loving soda, and then that gets them sick, and then healthcare is a big industry, and like, you know, it's dark, but you know, a kid needing interventions at the hospital and needing drug prescriptions, that's, that's good revenue. So, so that's the dynamic. Yeah, it's like creating a perpetually sick, but not sick enough to die, just sick enough to be on a prescription or suffer a bit, and that's pretty dark. There's someone that I know that like has a apple juice every single day, and like once every two weeks he's sick. Yeah, of course. I mean, that's impacting his cells. It's basic, but that's creating His internal dynamics in his body, and that's really problematic Okay, well, let's get on to some more fun questions. It's been pretty serious guys come on. So what's your favorite Travis Kelce? endorsed product Let's see he's got the cereal We've got an argument that but he's got the The COVID vaccine. Alright, what else does he endorse? Bud Light. Bud Light. Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift. What else? What else? What else? Oh, his soup. Didn't he do Chunky Soup at some point? Some Campbell Soup? He endorsed Bud Light. Yeah. Yeah. God, it's all the bad brands. Literally. Supported for, supported karma. if you were to choose the stuff you don't want to endorse, like, he pretty much hit all of them, right? Yeah. And, and dated Taylor Swift on top of it, right? Ugh. Ugh. And then endorsed karma. And he also got really mad at the Super Bowl. Yeah, yeah. Remember? He Yeah. I'd probably And he shoved into your ear. say Taylor Swift, maybe? Out of those? Yeah. It's a pretty bad list. It's a pretty rough list. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Max has been pretty disappointed. He used to like Travis Kelsey, but it all changed. The thing is, I'm holding back my rage right now. But the thing is, sometimes whenever, like, we start talking about him, I go on, like, a total rage. Oh, you do not want to see him in a rage. Yeah, I think we had, yeah, I've seen it. I've seen it. If you were to make a pizza, what toppings would you put on it? I, I, a lot of meat. A lot of meat? I'm a meat guy. Yeah, like, I like the meat lover's pizza, yeah. Oh, that is so good. Sausage and pepperoni and buffalo chicken. Bacon? Bacon. All the meats. All the meats. All the meats. You're a health guy, though. Shouldn't like that. You can eat meat as a health guy. Really? What's wrong with meat? Meat? I like, I'm just like thinking like, Mom's plant diet, but we love meat. Meat tastes good. it's gotta be, quality meat. Yeah. But, but, but the ecosystem of like a farm is meant to have animals and plants. Yeah. I mean, I really believe that we just need to get back to natural processes and, having everything exist in a, you know, kind of ecosystem that doesn't. It used to be, it's kind of naturally accustomed to is, there's a good book, or a good documentary called Kiss the Ground. Kiss the Ground? Kiss the, Kiss the Ground, yeah, it's about regenerative, it's worth watching. It's about regenerative agriculture and how animals and plants kind of farm together and they kind of are. You don't need pesticides, cause, literally, the animal urine helps, like, protect against, it's all actually meant to be this way. So, I think, you know, if you, if you raise things the way they're supposed to be raised historically, that's a good thing. Yeah, that makes sense. We've, fortunately, we shifted over, mom's pretty smart about all this, but we shifted over to a meat company that gets all natural, like, grass fed beef. Grass fed, yeah. And they come to our house, and they deliver it, and, you know, the price is not that much different than you get at the store. Right. And it's not injected with dyes and water and a bunch of, weird preservatives. So, we like that and it feels a little bit healthier for us. It's weird. When we were at a vacation We saw something in, er, we bought some meat and I think it said it was like 33 percent meat or something. Or like 33 percent beef. And the rest was like some crazy stuff. Wow. Yeah, but Grandma and Grandpa love that stuff. And it did taste good, but it's probably just not very healthy. Yes. Yeah, not so much. It's like once in a while. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe. In moderation, Max? Yeah. So, if you were stuck at an airport, which has like all the Terrible places. Well, and, like, you were stuck in it, you couldn't get out. What would you eat? How long were I stuck there for? Let's just say 20 days. 20 days? 20 days? That's a long time to be in an airport. Sometimes I just try not to eat. It's like that Tom Hanks movie. 20 days? Yeah, 20 days. Like, like, protein, like steak. Whatever meat they have like a salad. Would it be, would it be different if you were stuck there for a year? Would they still have food? Yeah. So, so it's opera, I just couldn't leave. Yeah, you just can't leave, but everything else works. I'd load up on the, at the Hudson News with all the jerky they have. I like the jerky nuts. I, I'd go, try to just get like steak. Like, without much oil or anything on it. You know, salads with, I don't know, the seed oils are in the dressings probably. What else? Yeah. That's probably what I'd do. Oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah. I think you could survive. Yeah. I cannot imagine just being stuck in an airport. Nobody else is in there. That would be rough. You just see a bunch of, like, food companies. Like, eat it now, and like. Like, yeah, maybe, like, would there be a Chipotle? Probably. Yeah. Salad bowls, with meat, with guac. Guac! A lot of guac. Guac! Yeah, I do that. Starbucks. You like Starbucks? They're not great. If I ever have to get something, I get the egg bites. Which have a lot of bad ingredients, but, you know. It's still tasty, probably. Yeah, it's mostly eggs. So if you had one executive order as president, what would you do? I would ban direct to consumer pharma advertising. Oh. Yeah, cause, cause they allow the, the, that, that, pharma's able to buy off the news. Yeah. Which is a problem. So, the, the pharma ads on TV I think are a bad thing. And we're one of only a couple of countries that do that, right? Yeah, like, like two. Yeah. Yeah. So that is wild. That's crazy. It's like everybody else has figured it out, but not us. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, that's kind of a, yeah, it's a, it's a pretty obvious collusion there. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, okay, we should probably, I'm gonna go back into the more serious topics. Oh. I have some very interesting ones here. Oh. So, what do you think is the most corrupt part of the system, mainly in the government, and how do you think they can fix it? That's a good question. I think one of the most corrupt parts of the government is our Medicare and Medicaid services. So, so, Do you guys know what Medicare and Medicaid is? I don't know what Medicaid is, but I know what Medicare is. Okay. So those are the big ways the government spends healthcare dollars. So Medicare is for the old people and then Medicaid is for lower income people. And they, they spend so much on those programs and they're so complicated that whatever standards the United States government sets for them impacts private insurance. So So, two billion dollars basically go through these programs and then set the standard for the rest of the, which is, which is another two and a half billion. The, the U. S. government outsources code creation to the American Medical Association. So, so, so the government's like, okay, we need to figure out like what doctors should do, what they get reimbursed for. And they just have chosen to outsource that decision making to a pharma lobbying group. Yeah. Called the American Medical Association. I mean, one thing the American, the American Medical Association is just totally corrupt. They're recommending Ozipic for six year olds. What? They don't have an age limit for gender transition surgeries. Oh. They they are very corrupt. Ah. And what we could do is, is take away the power of that organization and just have a better process to determine what the standard of care is. I mean, the standard of care could be. And Medicare, Medicaid, like, if you're depressed, you know, that you could be, get incentivized to work out more, eat better, instead it's like they give kids drugs. Right. Like the first option is a drug instead of a habit or a therapy. Right now the first option is drugs. Yeah. Now if, if y'all are successful in this endeavor, and we hope you are, in draining the swamp and fixing a lot of this corruption. How do you keep it out? Because you got, let's say we got four years here and then, God forbid, like, changes happen. Like, how do you keep it out of the system? Because it seems like corruption always has a way of like, you know, finding its way back into, into places. Yeah, we gotta be relentless. We gotta just get win after win after win. And then like I said, change the paradigm, make it politically popular, fight for kids. But keep the pressure. It's a never ending, when you say, do I look in the mirror and feel, like, You should do that, you should celebrate the victories, but It is a never ending push. It's like any, maybe anything in life, I guess, like It's just like nothing, there's no destination. It's like we won the election and then it's like Bobby's gotta get appointed And then Bobby gets appointed and it's like he's gotta get the right people in It's like, it's like now he's gotta get the policies done It's like each policy's gonna be a fight. It's like, it's like a never ending game. So You gotta just enjoy the journey and keep the momentum up and have process to just keep getting wins and But yeah, they're, yeah, absolutely they're trying to corrupt it. Yeah. Is Bobby RFK his first name? Yes. Oh, I thought it was like Robert. He told me to call him Bobby. Bobby. I used to always, yeah, I still say Robert a lot, but he likes to be called Bobby. Yeah, yeah. Bobby. Well what do you guys say we shift into our fun section? I like that idea. Yeah, we have a section called Rapid Fire. Fire. Let's do it. Oh, okay, there it is. Oh, wow. Alright, so. Max will go over the rules. Yeah. Alright, so the rules are that you have to answer as fast as possible with no explaining. Alright. Alright, so we will start in 3, 2, 1, go. So, if you had a superpower, what would it be? X ray vision. Would you rather die to a great white shark or flaming hot volcano? Flaming hot volcano. What was the coolest driverless cars. Would you rather fight a 1, 000 pound duck or 1, 001 pound ducks? 1, 001 Pound Dogs. Okay. What is the best book that you've ever read? The Fountainhead. The Good Energy. The Fountainhead. That's a good one. Alright. Is that all, Will? Is that all you had? Okay. Alright. Have you ever been stuck in a bathroom stall without toilet paper? Yes. Shame. That concludes Rapid Fire. Thank you very much. That is Rapid Fire. Thanks for entertaining us on that. And with that, we'll wrap up the podcast. Calley, thanks so much for coming on. Thanks guys. Love what you're doing. You have been relentlessly, I know, traveling and working and everything since the election, so you must be exhausted. But keep up the great work. We appreciate what you're doing. You're fighting for America. You're fighting for the youth. Keep pushing, guys. Keep going. You can, you can keep the Pepsi. Thanks guys.