I recently popped into a large chain drug store to buy some greeting cards and hydrogen peroxide, and it was quite an enlightening experience.

After grabbing the peroxide and picking out my cards, I began glancing over their “Deals of the Week.” 

Right up at the top of the ad was a buy 2 get 1 free offer for Coca-Cola products. Under that was a reduced price on Pepsi products!

I guess they wanted to have both the Coke and Pepsi camps covered.

The next item was a sale on Doritos, including nacho cheese, cool ranch, spicy nacho and sweet chili flavors—something for everyone!

Next up was a special on Nabisco cookies and crackers including regular Oreos and Double Stuf Oreos.

Am I the only one that’s seeing what’s going on here?

Pharmacies tout that they are “dedicated to your health,” yet they carry (and heavily promote) food products that roll out the red carpet for sickness and disease and create a need for their medications!

And on the flip side, food companies willingly and knowingly create addictive products that guarantee you will be sick and overweight and of course need some type of medication!

Let’s look at the history of these two industries as well as talk about ways you can safely and naturally pave the way for optimal health.

Big Pharma

Prior to the early 1900s, disease was considered to be due to an inner imbalance in the body that could be helped by making dietary and lifestyle changes.

Drugs, although available at the time, were typically a last resort.

Well, we’ve certainly done a complete 180 there, haven’t we?

We’re at the point where nutrition and diet are ignored or seen as unimportant or downright quackery by the medical community.

Sickness and disease are now viewed as a “mystery” that is not well understood and for which the symptoms are typically suppressed with medications.

I can’t think of anything more lucrative in the world than making trillions of dollars creating chemical concoctions that cover up symptoms, but never actually cure anything.

Trillions of dollars create DEEP pockets—that strongly influence (i.e.: basically dictate) the content of our medical schools’ curriculums, sway our doctors with bonuses and trips to exotic resorts, infiltrate every single magazine and network TV station with direct-to-consumer advertisements (only the US and New Zealand allow this, by the way), and even largely control what is (and more importantly, what is NOT) reported by the mainstream media.

Remember this: Drugs are chemicals that your body was never meant to ingest. They “work” to produce a desired result (such as lower blood pressure or pain relief) by altering, suppressing or destroying one or more of your body’s innate functions or processes.

For example, acid reducers cripple your stomach’s ability to produce acid for protein digestion.

Statins impair your liver’s ability to manufacture cholesterol.

And antidepressants prevent your brain’s little “vacuums” from cleaning up excess serotonin like they should.

Tell me, does any of this sound “healthy” to you?

Now let’s switch to…

Big Food

The original objective of food processing was to help make food more widely available to people in outlying areas without worrying about spoilage.

We’ve gone way beyond that, haven’t we?

Now in grocery stores you are barraged with tens of thousands of boxed, bagged, jarred and canned items vying for your attention.

Just like drug companies, food companies also have very deep pockets and bombard people (especially children) with ads for their “stuff” (I won’t even call it food).

Don’t be fooled by the ads or claims. Because what they should say is “Jam-packed with health-wrecking chemicals that make you sick and us rich.” 

The food industry currently uses over 2,000 different food additives including enormous amounts of salt and sugar.

Sugar is one of the most health-destroying substances in existence, contributing to obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, cancer and practically everything else in between. And of course, excessive salt can drive up your blood pressure and increase heart disease risk.

Plus, the additives in processed foods don’t just “sail innocently” through you and become part of your next BM—similar to drugs, they get into your bloodstream and stress your liver to detox them out.

And they create acid wastes which can stir up inflammation and disease.

It’s up to YOU

When it comes to creating real health, my friend, it’s all up to YOU.

When you realize the creative marketing partnerships of Big Pharma and Big Food and understand that all that matters is their bottom lines—your health be damned—then you can become inspired to take the steps you need to turn things around.

NOTHING can replace the effects of a healthy diet and proper nutritional support!

Here are effective ways to start on YOUR path to real health:

Have a diet of actual “food”—things that don’t come with a bar code and chemicals you can’t pronounce. “Food” also includes drinks—so ditch the soda, energy drinks, sports drinks and other liquid garbage.

Help support your gut and immune function with Super Shield multi-strain probiotic formula. This is especially important if you’ve been pumped with multiple courses of antibiotics or acid reducers—I guarantee your gut microbiome is topsy-turvy.

Optimize your Vitamin D level. Vitamin D is crucial for strong immune function, heart, cardiovascular and brain health, cancer prevention, and protection against allergies, asthma and autoimmune disease. Since deficiency is very common (especially this time of year), a complete Vitamin D3 product like Optimum DK with Fruitex-B can help ensure your levels are where they should be.

Consider supplementing with VitalMega-3 fish oil formula. Inflammation is running rampant in our society today thanks to our diets heavy in processed foods, and meat and milk from grain-fed animals (which are inundated with inflammation-stirring omega-6 essential fatty acids but have little or no anti-inflammatory omega-3 EFAs). Eating fish also helps, but make sure it’s wild caught and not farmed. 

Get regular exercise. This is especially important if you are facing insulin resistance and obesity. Pick an activity you like or will at least tolerate and do it for at least 30 minutes, four times per week. No excuses! There are 168 hours in a week—you can carve out two of those for exercise.

Ask questions. Don’t just blindly accept that medications are the sole answer to your health issues. If your doctor is not willing to answer your questions or discuss alternatives, find one who will. And remember my story—I was fired by my gastroenterologist because I wouldn’t take his IBS drugs and instead eliminated my condition with my diet and probiotics.

Make 2025 the year you get on the road to better health!

To your health,

Sherry Brescia

PS: Keep in mind the office’s holiday hours this week as follows

Monday 12/30, 9:00AM to Noon EST

Tuesday 12/31 - Wednesday 01/01, Closed

Thursday 01/02, 9:00AM to 4:00PM EST (Closed for package preparation as usual, typically an hour or two depending on volume)

Friday 01/03, 9:00AM to Noon EST