A Body of Lies - Emily Kaplan

How Broken Science Built the Chronic Disease Epidemic—and Why Education Is the Way Out At the 2026 Unbreakable Health Retreat in Miami, Emily Kaplan, CEO and co-founder of MetFix and The Broken Science Initiative, presents the chronic disease epidemic not as the result of bad luck or failed willpower, but of decades of flawed science, institutional corruption, and incentives that reward disease management over health. Through examples ranging from the sugar industry's influence on nutrition policy to buried research, publication bias, irreproducible studies, and misleading pharmaceutical marketing, she shows how many of the assumptions underlying modern healthcare have produced a population that is sicker than ever despite record spending. Conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, fatty liver disease, and many mental health disorders are different manifestations of the same underlying problem: mitochondrial dysfunction. Excess sugar and refined carbohydrates, seed oils, and chronic inactivity damage the body's energy-producing systems, while a healthcare model built around specialties and billing codes focuses on managing symptoms rather than addressing root causes. The answer, she argues, is not waiting for institutions to reform themselves but empowering individuals through education. By improving metabolic literacy and restoring mitochondrial health through nutrition, exercise, and community support, MetFix affiliates are demonstrating that chronic disease can be prevented, improved, and often reversed.