By Michael J. Critelli | MakeUsWell Newsletter, 

One of the most common explanations people give for eating poorly is simple: “I don’t have time to eat healthy.”

For many people, that statement feels unquestionably true. Cooking has come to mean planning meals, shopping for ingredients, chopping vegetables, preparing meat or fish, cooking everything, and then cleaning up afterward. 

After a long workday, ordering a pizza, picking up fast food, or microwaving a packaged meal can seem like the only realistic option.

But there is a flaw in the premise: Eating healthy does not require cooking from scratch. It also does not mean investing time and money in eating at a regular restaurant at which a meal can consume an hour, or even at a restaurant popularly called a “fast casual” dining experience. It also does not relegate us to fast-food restaurants or take out restaurants serving highly processed foods with low nutritional value.

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By Michael J. Critelli | MakeUsWell Newsletter, 

One of the most consequential insights in the history of consumer marketing came from Roberto Goizueta, Coca-Cola's legendary CEO.

Instead of thinking about Coca-Cola's market as soft drinks, Goizueta encouraged the company to think about all the fluids people consumed. Coca-Cola's 1996 annual report calculated its market opportunity using an assumed daily fluid intake of 64 ounces per person. Suddenly, Coke wasn't competing primarily with Pepsi. It was competing with water, coffee, tea, juice and virtually everything else people drank.

That seemingly simple reframing helped change the beverage business. Over time, Coca-Cola and its competitors expanded far beyond traditional carbonated soft drinks into sports drinks, energy drinks, bottled water, coffee, tea, flavored and sparkling waters, mixers and other beverages. Dasani, a still water, for example, was launched in North America in 1999.

But something more significant has happened.

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By Michael J. Critelli | MakeUsWell Newsletter, 

Every July 4, our younger son and daughter-in-law invite about 40-50 friends, ages between 30 and 40 for a party at our Connecticut home. We get a quick tutorial on trends in this generation, although, fortunately relative to this one, not with our family members and their invitees.

One trend is the significant increase in online acquisition and use of self-injectible peptides. The word “peptide” has become a marketing category for substances promoted to reduce weight, build muscle, accelerate recovery, improve skin, increase energy and slow aging. Some are approved prescription drugs.

Peptides are short chains of amino acids, the same basic building blocks that make up proteins. Many occur naturally in the body and act as chemical messengers, influencing appetite, growth, metabolism, inflammation and tissue repair. Some peptide-based drugs are among medicine’s most important treatments. Insulin is a peptide hormone, and the widely used GLP-1 drugs for diabetes and obesity act through peptide-related pathways.

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By Michael J. Critelli | MakeUsWell Newsletter, 

Two friends of mine each had very different major surgeries on July 23, 2026, one in Naples FL and one in Bonita Springs, FL. When patients leave these hospitals after surgery, they are likely to have been given highly detailed dietary instructions, as I learned after a surgery in one of those hospitals in 2021.  

After bowel surgery, they may be told to avoid fiber. After gallbladder surgery, they may temporarily limit fatty foods. After oral surgery, they may eat only liquids or soft foods. These restrictions are easy to understand because they relate directly to the body part that was treated.

But there is a less obvious issue that affects recovery from almost every kind of surgery: blood-glucose control.

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By Michael J. Critelli | MakeUsWell Newsletter, 

On July 20, 2026, The Wall Street Journal reported an embarrassing reversal by the Food and Drug Administration.

On July 18, 2026, the FDA had said that a sample of iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms from central Mexico had tested positive for Cyclospora, the microscopic parasite associated with a major outbreak of gastrointestinal illness. After reviewing the laboratory data, FDA concluded that the result did not represent “true amplification” and should be considered a false positive. As of July 19, 2026, the agency had no confirmed positive product samples.

That reversal might appear to demonstrate that our food-testing system is unreliable.

The more important lesson is different: no laboratory test, however sophisticated, can carry the entire burden of keeping food safe.

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