Greg Glassman on Sugar, Government, and the Consumer Power of 4 Million CrossFitters

CrossFit Founder and CEO Greg Glassman has been on a busy tour lately. Last week, he spoke on Capitol Hill about how soda companies influence medical research in the United States. Two days later, he was at the iConic Boston conference, where he spoke to CNBC’s Tyler Mathisen regarding a variety of topics — including, but not limited, to his efforts regarding the politics and ties surrounding the sugar industry.

A portion of the interview has been posted to YouTube by CNBC, which we’ve embedded below. In the clip, Mathisen asks Glassman about “squar[ing] your libertarianism your activism and the need for government to move in ways you see fit.” If you’ve ever wondered about Glassman’s perspective on government regulation and consumer choice, the 4:32 video is certainly worth a watch.

A snippet from the interview, which we highly suggest you watch in full:

“I think I can justify it. Look, I don’t wish soda or big food harm. It’s not about that at all. And I have an unprecedentedly effective consumptive reduction plan in that I got four million CrossFitters that don’t consume sugar at all. And so getting people to stay off the product, it’s not our issue. But the corruption of the basic health sciences by these same people, these products that we need to avoid, their impact in the health sciences and their invasion into the health sciences with money is alarming.”

A co-sponsor of the iConic event, Inc. has a post with some more text snippets from the longer interview with Glassman, including his thoughts on accumulating wealth and CrossFit’s massive success as a business.