Category: Health Tips

Twelve men sat down to breakfast knowing their meal was poisoned—and they ate it anyway, three times a day, for five years.

Today, we open our refrigerators without fear. We pour milk for our children without hesitation. We scan ingredient labels out of habit, not desperation. But there was a time in America when every meal was a gamble.

If you walked into a grocery store in 1902, you would find no expiration dates, no ingredient lists, and very little truth. Milk often contained formaldehyde—the same chemical used to preserve corpses—added to keep it from spoiling in the summer heat. Butcher’s meat gleamed bright red, not from freshness, but from borax dust used to hide the gray of decay. Canned vegetables sparkled with copper sulfate, and candy glittered with lead and mercury.

This wasn’t a scandal at the time; it was standard business practice.

Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, chief chemist at the Department of Agriculture, carried this knowledge like a weight on his chest. He knew families were unknowingly feeding poison to their children at every meal, and there was no law—none—to stop companies from doing it.

He needed proof. He needed real, undeniable evidence that these “preservatives“ were destroying human bodies. So, in the basement of his Washington, D.C. office, he did something radical: he set up an elegant dining room with white tablecloths and fine china, and put out a call that stunned the nation.

He needed twelve healthy young men willing to eat poison for science.

The terms were brutally honest: free meals three times a day in exchange for consuming measured doses of borax, formaldehyde, salicylic acid, and sulfurous acid—the very chemicals hidden in America’s food supply. They would be human test subjects in an experiment with no precedent and no guarantee of survival. They even had to sign away their right to sue if the experiment killed them.

Dr. Wiley expected silence, or perhaps a few desperate souls. Instead, people lined up. Government clerks, college students, and postal workers raised their hands. They weren’t reckless; they were patriots who understood that someone had to prove the truth.

The press gave them a name that echoed across the country: The Poison Squad.

At first, the meals looked normal—roasted chicken, fresh bread, and vegetables. The chemicals were hidden inside the food. Later, to ensure exact dosages, the men swallowed gelatin capsules filled with the toxins. They tried to keep their spirits up, joking about their “daily dose of death,“ but as weeks became months, the laughter died away.

The poison did exactly what Dr. Wiley feared. Healthy young men turned pale and gaunt. They lost their appetites, and their weight melted away—ten, fifteen, twenty pounds. They suffered from violent nausea, splitting headaches, and stomach cramps so severe some could barely stand. They were being slowly destroyed in plain sight for all of America to witness.

Every morning they were weighed, and every day they provided medical samples. The humiliation was matched only by the physical agony. Yet, not one man quit.

Newspapers ran daily updates. Headlines screamed about their suffering. A popular song even mocked their misery: “O, they may look dead, but they don’t die / They’re only experimentin’ / For the Pure Food Law they’re inventin’.“

To the public, it was entertainment. To the men at that table, it was torture endured for strangers—for children not yet born and families a century into the future.

The food industry watched with growing panic. They had everything to lose, so they sent observers to find flaws and hired armies of lawyers and lobbyists. They published articles claiming these chemicals were perfectly safe. But the evidence mounted like an avalanche.

After five brutal years, Dr. Wiley had to stop the experiments; the men were simply too sick to continue. But he finally had what he needed: scientific proof that these “harmless“ preservatives were destructive.

The results shocked the nation into action. The food industry fought back with money and power, but they couldn’t overcome the image of those twelve young men who sacrificed their health for the truth.

In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act became law—the first federal regulation of food and drugs in American history. For the first time, companies had to list ingredients and could no longer lie about what was in the bottle. This became the foundation of the FDA, the agency that now protects over 330 million Americans.

Dr. Wiley had won, but the victory belonged to the young men who sat at his table. They returned to their quiet lives and never sought fame or monuments. They volunteered because they believed ordinary people deserved to know what they were feeding their families.

Every time you flip over a box to read the ingredients, you are seeing their legacy. Every time you check an expiration date, you are protected by their sacrifice. You can trust that your food won’t kill you because of the foundation they built with their suffering.

They took the poison so we wouldn’t have to.

The next time you glance at a nutrition label, pause for just a moment. Remember that twelve men willingly destroyed their health so you could have that simple piece of paper. They didn’t march or petition; they sat down, picked up their forks, and ate poison—three times a day, for five years.

Because of that quiet, terrible courage, we get to eat our breakfast in peace. Their sacrifice deserves to be remembered.

(Tom: We might be able to eat our breakfast in peace, providing it does not include nitrate loaded meats, margerine or cooked in seed oils. And despite the efforts of the people in this article we now need to read the labels on foods and be informed as to the dangers contained in all too many of those ingredients!)

Veteran here. 45 years of drinking. Over a year sober. Let me tell you some uncomfortable truths about alcohol that the £1.5 trillion industry and the governments taking tax money from your poisoning really don’t want discussed.

Buckle up. This gets ugly.

TRUTH 1: ALCOHOL IS A CLASS 1 CARCINOGEN – SAME AS ASBESTOS AND PLUTONIUM

The World Health Organisation put alcohol in Group 1. That means “definitely causes cancer in humans.” Not might. Not probably. Definitely.

You know what else is Group 1? Asbestos. Plutonium. Tobacco. Processed meat. Formaldehyde.

But you can’t buy asbestos at Tesco for £6. You can’t get plutonium on special offer at Sainsbury’s. They’re regulated, banned, and controlled because they cause cancer.

Alcohol? In every supermarket. Every corner shop. Every petrol station. Next to the crisps.

It causes seven types of cancer: mouth, throat, oesophagus, liver, breast, bowel, and larynx. That’s not disputed. That’s an established medical fact.

But the industry doesn’t want cancer warnings on bottles because it might affect sales. And the government doesn’t want to push too hard because they’re making £12 billion a year in alcohol duty.

So they let you buy carcinogens with your weekly shop and pretend it’s fine because of tradition, culture, and profit margins.

TRUTH 2: THERE IS NO SAFE LEVEL OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

None. Zero. Not a glass with dinner. Not a pint after work. Not champagne at weddings.

The WHO published this in 2023. The Canadian government updated their guidelines: no amount of alcohol is safe.

But you won’t see that on billboards. You won’t see it in advertising. You definitely won’t hear it from your GP unless you specifically ask.

Why? Because if people genuinely understood that ANY amount is harmful, they might stop drinking. And we can’t have that. Think of the economy.

“Moderation” is a marketing term. It’s not a health recommendation. It’s the alcohol industry’s way of keeping you buying while pretending to be responsible.

There is no safe dose of poison. You’re just choosing how much poison you’re willing to accept.

TRUTH 3: ALCOHOL IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN HEROIN AND CRACK COCAINE

In 2010, Professor David Nutt published research ranking drugs by harm. Alcohol came out on top. More harmful than heroin, crack, meth, and cocaine.

Not just harm to the user. Total harm—including harm to others, harm to society, harm to families, economic cost, and healthcare burden.

Alcohol wins. It’s the most dangerous drug we have. And it’s legal, available everywhere, and actively promoted.

Heroin? Illegal. Prison time. Addiction services. Social stigma.

Alcohol? Sponsored sports events. TV advertising. “Drink responsibly” as if that makes it fine.

Professor Nutt lost his government advisory position for publishing this research. Because truth is less important than protecting an industry worth trillions.

TRUTH 4: ALCOHOL IS A NEUROTOXIN THAT KILLS BRAIN CELLS

Every time you drink, you’re poisoning your nervous system. That’s not metaphorical. That’s literal biochemistry.

Alcohol crosses the blood-brain barrier. It damages neurons. It kills brain cells. It impairs cognitive function. It shrinks your brain over time.

“But I feel fine!” Yeah, because brain damage is gradual. You don’t wake up after one night of drinking and forget your name. You slowly lose cognitive capacity over the years, so gradually you don’t notice.

Until you’re 50 and can’t remember words. Can’t focus. Can’t think as clearly as you used to. And you put it down to ageing.

It’s not ageing. It’s decades of voluntary exposure to neurotoxins.

The alcohol industry knows this. They just don’t put “BRAIN DAMAGE IN A BOTTLE” on the label because, shockingly, that doesn’t sell.

TRUTH 5: MODERATE DRINKING IS NOT GOOD FOR YOUR HEART

Remember that? Red wine is good for your heart? The French Paradox? Resveratrol and antioxidants?

All bollocks. Industry-funded research. Cherry-picked data. Correlation mistaken for causation.

Independent research shows that alcohol increases your risk of cardiovascular disease. Even moderate drinking raises blood pressure, increases the risk of atrial fibrillation, and contributes to heart disease.

The “heart healthy” myth was created and promoted by alcohol companies. And it worked. Millions of people still think a glass of wine a day is medicinal.

It’s not. It’s poison. There’s nothing in wine that you can’t get from actual grapes without the ethanol.

But “eat a grape” doesn’t sell bottles. “Heart healthy wine” does.

The industry made billions on this lie. And people are still drinking for their health. Unbelievable.

TRUTH 6: ALCOHOL IS MORE ADDICTIVE THAN YOU THINK

About 10-15% of people who drink will develop alcohol use disorder. That’s not a small number. That’s millions of people.

But it’s presented as a personal failing. “Alcoholics” have a problem. Everyone else is fine. Drinking normally. In control.

Except alcohol is physically addictive. It changes your brain chemistry. It creates dependency. And the line between “social drinker” and “problem drinker” is thinner than anyone wants to admit.

The industry loves the “alcoholic” label. It puts all the blame on the individual. It’s not the product. It’s not the marketing. It’s not the availability. It’s YOU. You’re the problem. The alcohol is fine.

Except it’s not. It’s an addictive substance. That’s what it does. That’s its nature.

But if we acknowledged that alcohol is inherently addictive, we’d have to question why we’re allowing an addictive drug to be sold everywhere with minimal restriction.

Can’t have that conversation. Bad for business.

TRUTH 7: THE GOVERNMENT MAKES MORE MONEY FROM ALCOHOL THAN IT SPENDS ON ALCOHOL HARM

UK government takes in about £12 billion a year in alcohol duty and VAT.

The cost of alcohol harm to the NHS, police, courts, social services, lost productivity? Around £27 billion a year.

So the government makes money, but society pays the real cost.

And the government knows this. But they can’t ban it or heavily restrict it because:

a) Political suicide—people would riot

b) They’d lose £12 billion in easy revenue

c) The alcohol lobby is incredibly powerful

So they do token gestures. Minimum pricing. “Drink aware” campaigns funded by the industry itself. Guidelines nobody follows.

Meanwhile, 3 million people die globally every year from alcohol. But tax revenue is more important than public health.

TRUTH 8: ALCOHOL CAUSES VIOLENCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL HARM ON A MASSIVE SCALE

39% of violent crime involves alcohol. Domestic abuse, assault, murder—alcohol is a factor in nearly half.

But we don’t talk about it like that. We talk about “drunk and disorderly.” We talk about “lads on a night out.” We minimise it. Normalise it.

If any illegal drug caused this level of violence and social harm, there’d be a war on it. Armed police. International task forces. Billions spent eradicating it.

Alcohol causes the same harm? “Well, people need to drink responsibly. It’s not the alcohol’s fault.”

Yes it fucking is. Alcohol reduces inhibitions and increases aggression. That’s pharmacology. That’s what it does.

But we can’t acknowledge that because then we’d have to do something about it. And doing something would affect profits.

So we accept thousands of violent crimes every year as the price of keeping booze legal and available.

TRUTH 9: THE ALCOHOL INDUSTRY ACTIVELY TARGETS YOUNG PEOPLE AND VULNERABLE GROUPS

Despite saying they don’t. Despite “responsible marketing” codes. Despite industry self-regulation.

They sponsor sports that kids watch. They use social media influencers. They create sweet, candy-flavoured drinks that appeal to young people. They advertise near schools and universities.

Why? Because they need to recruit new drinkers. Because older drinkers either quit, cut back, or die.

The industry needs young people to start drinking early and drink often. That’s their customer pipeline.

And they do it while claiming they’re against underage drinking. While funding “drink aware” campaigns. While pretending they care.

They don’t. They care about profit. And young drinkers are profitable for decades.

TRUTH 10: YOU’RE BEING MANIPULATED BY THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MARKETING IN HUMAN HISTORY

The alcohol industry has convinced entire societies that their product—a toxic, addictive, carcinogenic poison—is essential for:

Celebration. Commiseration. Socialising. Relaxing. Success. Sophistication. Confidence. Fun. Romance. Culture. Tradition.

They’ve made it so embedded in every aspect of life that NOT drinking is seen as weird. As extreme. As something that requires explanation and justification.

Think about that. You have to explain why you DON’T want to consume poison.

That’s the power of marketing. That’s generations of propaganda so effective that the absence of their product is now abnormal.

They’ve normalised poison. They’ve made it sophisticated. They’ve made it essential. They’ve made it so you defend their right to sell it to you even after knowing what it does.

That’s genius. Evil genius. But genius nonetheless.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Alcohol is a toxic, addictive, carcinogenic neurotoxin that causes cancer, brain damage, violence, and massive social harm.

It’s more dangerous than illegal drugs. It has no safe consumption level. It’s not good for your heart or any other part of you. It’s designed to be addictive and is marketed to keep you drinking.

The industry knows all this. The government knows all this. They just don’t want YOU to know all this. Or think about it too hard.

Because if you did? If everyone did? The whole £1.5 trillion house of cards collapses.

So they keep it vague. They keep it about “personal responsibility.” They keep the truth buried under marketing, tradition, and cultural normalisation.

And people keep drinking. Keep getting sick. Keep dying. Keep defending the substance that’s killing them.

After 45 years of drinking and over a year sober, I finally see it clearly:

Alcohol is the most successful con in human history. They convinced us to pay them to poison us. And we did it happily. Repeatedly. For our entire adult lives.

Then when it damaged us, we blamed ourselves. Not the poison. Not the industry. Ourselves.

That’s the real genius. They sold us poison, we developed problems from the poison, and we took the blame.

Fucking brilliant when you think about it.

Veteran. 45 years drinking. Over a year sober. Finally seeing the con for what it is.

The truth is ugly. Uncomfortable. Inconvenient.

But it’s still the truth.

And no amount of marketing, lobbying, or tax revenue changes it.

Alcohol is poison. Always has been. Always will be.

Everything else is just expensive packaging and lies.

Did you know that one of the most rigorous cholesterol trials in history was kept hidden for 40 years?

I didn’t either and when I learned about it, I was stunned.

Between 1968 and 1973, researchers conducted what should have reshaped nutrition science:

THE MINNESOTA CORONARY EXPERIMENT.

It was a gold-standard, blinded, randomized controlled trial involving 9,423 men and women across six mental institutions and one nursing home. A rare setting allowing precise dietary control

The question was simple:

If saturated fats like butter and beef are replaced with vegetable oils rich in linoleic acid, will lowering cholesterol reduce heart disease and save lives?

The intervention worked exactly as intended.

Cholesterol fell by 13.8%.

On paper, this should have been a success but the outcomes shocked researchers.

Lower cholesterol did NOT reduce mortality.

In fact, for every 30 mg/dL drop, the risk of death INCREASED by 22%.

Even more unsettling, autopsy-confirmed data showed heart attacks were nearly twice as common in the low-saturated-fat, high-vegetable-oil group (41% vs 22%).

Let that sink in.

This wasn’t observational data or food questionnaires. It was controlled feeding, randomization, and autopsy-confirmed outcomes.

And then the data disappeared.

Stored on nine-track tapes, forgotten in a basement, it remained unpublished for 40 years until it was finally recovered and published in The BMJ (2016).

To confirm the findings, researchers went further, running a meta-analysis of similar randomized trials (10,800+ participants) that specifically replaced saturated fat with linoleic-acid-rich vegetable oils.

The result?

No reduction in heart disease

No reduction in all-cause mortality

A trend toward worse outcomes

So why didn’t this change the narrative?

Some argue the linoleic acid dose was too high. Others point to possible trans fats. But the uncomfortable truth remains:

Cholesterol fell and outcomes worsened.

Even more striking, the relationship held across both groups: the lower cholesterol dropped, the higher mortality rose, regardless of diet.

The takeaway isn’t that cholesterol doesn’t matter. It’s that biology is more complex than a single biomarker.

Before demonizing foods like butter and beef or issuing sweeping dietary guidelines, we should ask:

What does the totality of evidence really show?

Who benefits and who might be harmed?

Because sometimes, science doesn’t fail.

Sometimes, it just gets buried.

<p>Walter White on Canivore Rx on Facebook</p>

Click to view the video: https://www.facebook.com/reel/4370368759897690

1. Hospice workers see a clear pattern: ordinary people in their final months choose chemotherapy until the end. Resuscitation, tubes, machines. Death in a hospital surrounded by equipment. Families spend tens of thousands on the final weeks. Meanwhile, 80% of doctors facing the same diagnosis refuse aggressive treatment. Almost none agree to resuscitation. Most die at home with family.

2. Here’s why doctors choose differently: they know what actually happens. One oncologist said: “I’ve treated cancer for 30 years. If I get stage four, I won’t do chemotherapy.” Stage four chemo extends life 2-3 months, but those months are nausea, pain, weakness. He’d rather have two good months at home than three terrible months in a hospital. Doctors aren’t choosing death. They’re choosing quality over quantity.

3. A Johns Hopkins study found doctors are three times more likely to sign DNR orders than the general public. They don’t want resuscitation because they’ve performed it. Movies show two minutes and a hug. Reality is broken ribs, brain damage, months on machines, then death anyway. Survival rate for hospital cardiac arrest is 18%. Survival without brain damage is 3%. Doctors know these numbers. Patients don’t.

4. Medical industry won’t emphasize this because end-of-life care is massively profitable. The average American spends more on healthcare in their final year than in the previous 80 years combined. Hospitals profit from aggressive intervention. Doctors who’ve seen the outcomes choose hospice and dignity instead.

5. You’ve probably never considered that the people who understand medicine best choose to die without it. After seeing this pattern for five years, I signed a DNR. No aggressive chemotherapy at stage four. Hospice, family, dignity.

(Tom: This is what I am working diligently to defer for as long as possible with my diet and exercise regime.)

At 81, Sam Elliott struggled to climb out of a swimming pool and what he said next brought millions to tears.

In a recent episode of Landman, the actor delivered one of TV’s most raw reflections on aging. Playing T.L., an 82-year-old former oil worker and distant father, Elliott’s character finds himself stuck in a pool. His knees and hips no longer have the strength to lift him out, and his son, Tommy, played by Billy Bob Thornton, has to help him.

But what followed was more than just a performance. It felt like lived truth.

Sitting by the pool with his son, T.L. talks about another man at the facility, a man who laughs all the time, yet seems unreachable. “It’s a curse that my mind still works,” T.L. says, tears in his eyes. “I sit here fully aware of every way my body is breaking down. I’m fading while my eyes still see it all.”

When Tommy suggests physical therapy, T.L.’s reply is simple and heartbreaking: “You don’t get it. This body is worn through.”

The scene showed something rare on TV. It showed the quiet sorrow of losing physical independence while the mind stays clear enough to witness each decline. Elliott later admitted he was deeply moved during the season, explaining that the emotion had to come honestly with Taylor Sheridan’s writing.

The moment ends with something small but powerful: T.L. and Tommy share their first hug, a simple gesture signaling the start of a long-delayed reconciliation between father and son.

Elliott has played tough characters in films like Tombstone, Road House, and A Star Is Born. But here, he revealed a different kind of strength, the courage to be vulnerable when physical power fades.

The scene resonated because it reflects something universal: watching our bodies slow down, seeing it happen to our parents, or quietly fearing it for ourselves. Elliott wasn’t creating drama for the sake of it. He allowed the truth to emerge naturally from the moment.

For anyone who has helped a parent stand up, watched a loved one struggle with everyday tasks, or felt their own body push back, the scene holds a painful mirror: we are temporary, and our bodies don’t last forever.

Yet it also offers something gentler: connection, understanding, and the grace of being seen as we are. Sometimes, the strongest thing we can do is admit we need help.