Former CDC Director Reveals The Formula for Better Health | Dr. Tom Frieden
The Exam Room by the Physicians Committee
Physicians Committee
4.9 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden joins Chuck Carroll on The Exam Room Podcast to reveal The Formula for Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives, Including Your Own. In this powerful conversation, Dr. Frieden breaks down what’s keeping America sick — from poor diets to toxic environments — and how we can turn the tide with simple, proven steps that save lives.
He shares his three-part framework — “See, Believe, Create” — a practical guide for improving personal and public health. Discover what science says about potassium deficiency, the dangers of ultra-processed foods, and how nutrition, environment, and policy can come together to create a healthier world for everyone.
Dr. Frieden also discusses:
- Why the potassium-to-sodium ratio is one of the strongest predictors of heart health
- The impact of microplastics, PFAS, and air pollution (PM2.5) on chronic disease
- How food industry tactics mirror Big Tobacco’s playbook
- The truth about processed meats, sugar-sweetened drinks, and trans fats
- What governments can learn from Chile’s bold food labeling laws
- Why plant-based, high-fiber diets are key to longevity and disease prevention
- The risks of animal agriculture and wet markets in future pandemics
📘 Get Dr. Frieden’s book: https://amzn.to/4nf1xzU
If you feel like you’ve raised your health IQ, please leave a 5-star rating and nice review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today on the exam room. |
| 0:04.0 | The World Health Organization has also classified processed meat as being carcinogenic. |
| 0:09.0 | Okay, we know that it causes cancer. |
| 0:11.0 | What is it going to take to get a warning label put on a package of bologna for goodness sakes? |
| 0:16.0 | It's a really great question. |
| 0:18.0 | When I was CDC director, we looked at different food policies. |
| 0:22.2 | Started with the country of Chile. |
| 0:23.8 | And what they have is a black stop sign that says too much salt, |
| 0:29.6 | too much sugar, too many calories. |
| 0:32.7 | And one of the things I've learned over the years |
| 0:34.9 | is that industry says it's impossible until it's mandated and then it was |
| 0:38.7 | pretty easy for them to do. Welcome to the exam room podcast brought to you by the Physicians Committee. |
| 0:47.0 | Hi, I'm Chuck Carroll, raising health IQs coast to coast and around the world. Hi to the exam room. He's |
| 0:53.1 | listening in Huntsville, Alabama, Fort Collins, Colorado, |
| 0:57.0 | and Stockholm, Sweden. Wherever you are, we appreciate you helping to make the world a healthier place. |
| 1:03.5 | This is episode 83 of season 8, number 682 overall. And today we are going to be joined by Dr. Tom Frieden, a major name in the world of health. |
| 1:15.6 | Dr. Frieden is the former director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. And he |
| 1:21.1 | also has a brand new book out called The Formula for Better Health, How to Save Millions of Lives, |
| 1:26.8 | Including Your Own. And this book, |
| 1:30.7 | this formula, it is a powerful three-part framework, really, three-part framework. The words |
| 1:37.7 | see, believe, create. And this simple formula is one that Dr. Frieden designed to help individuals and communities |
| 1:45.7 | and even nations take control of their health once more. So today we're going to talk about that |
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