In The Next Trillion, Pilzer exposes the truth about why half the U.S. population is unhealthy and overweight: Americans have become caught between the economic interests of the trillion-dollar food industry and the trillion-dollar healthcare or "sickness" industry.

In analyzing these two gigantic industrial complexes, Pilzer focuses on an emerging "wellness" industry that will soon occupy an additional one-seventh, or "next trillion," of the economy—an industry ripe with entrepreneurial opportunities that will eclipse those of today’s Internet-based companies.