Calley Means says he knows firsthand that America’s food and pharmaceutical industries are corrupt. As a former lobbyist, he argues, he once helped corrupt them.

Mr. Means, 39, has emerged as a key figure in the Make America Healthy Again movement. He is a top adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and coordinated a presidential commission report that will be published Thursday on the causes of chronic disease among children. That report is expected to touch on some of the movement’s top priorities, including environmental toxins, ultraprocessed foods and corporate influences over our health.

Corporate influence has long been a talking point for Mr. Means, who has rapidly risen from an obscure health care entrepreneur to an influential figure shaping the White House’s health priorities. (It was Mr. Means who suggested to Mr. Kennedy that he consider joining forces with President Trump last summer.) He is a fixture on Fox News and on popular podcasts, where he often discusses rising rates of issues such as infertility, depression, diabetes and obesity.

He is the co-founder of Truemed, a startup that helps people funnel their flexible savings account dollars toward products like weights, saunas and supplements. Mr. Means has said making it easier for people to purchase these types of products could help prevent disease.

Mr. Means, who does not have any formal medical training, has used his experience consulting for companies like Coca-Cola and the pharmaceutical industry to call out what he sees as insidious tactics that harm American children. For example, he has said that he worked to ensure sugar taxes failed, on behalf of soda companies.

He argues that the health care industry profits from sick children and frequently describes the American public as being on a pharmaceutical “treadmill,” arguing that the health care system pushes the public toward prescription medications rather than prioritizing diet and exercise.