Posted on 01/30/2025 10:57:58 AM PST by marktwain
At one of the confirmation hearings in the Senate, for President Trump's nominee Robert F. Kennedy to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kennedy asked an interesting question, slightly paraphrased below:
How is it that the wealthiest nation on the earth, the United States of America, is not the healthiest nation on earth? How is it we have increasing levels of Obesity, Depression, Diabeties, etc?
The question assumes the wealthier a nation is, the healthier it should be. This is not necessarily true.
Many of the problems noted by RFK Jr. are diseases caused by abundance. Wealth is the cause of the disease, not its cure.
The human body is designed to be physically active. Humans have, for thousands of years, had to work hard to have enough to eat. Foods which humans love have been hard to find in nature, which is why they have been so desirable.
Fat is difficult to find naturally, at least in abundance.
Sugar is difficult to find naturally, in abundance.
Salt is generally not abundant in nature.
The industrial revolution, followed by the rise of the petrolium society, and now the digital economy, have rendered food in the United States of America abundant, cheap, and easily attained.
The same petrolium society with the digital economy has made exercise unnecessary for the vast majority of people.
The incredible success of sanitation, vaccines, and medical procedures have resulted in great numbers of people who would have died before adulthood or in early adulthood more than 65 years ago. Large numbers of people who would have died in accidents have been saved because of higher safety standards. These factors have resulted in a higher population of older and sicker people vulnerable to diseases of abundance.
As mentioned in the movie "Idiocracy", More people are surviving and reproducing who would not have been able to in a society which was not so wealthy.
Thus, much of our medical problems have resulted from our wealth, not in spite of our wealth.
Of course, the rise in wealth has corresponded with a rise in processed food, in more money being used in the "healthcare" industry, in more use of plastics, pesticides, and artificial fertilizer.
It appears more likely all of these things are the result of more wealth.
No other large country has food as cheap, has everything as convenient, and allows so much wealth to its individual citizens, as the United States.
When we were less wealthy, we were healthier in most of the things RFK Jr. mentions.
We also had more communicative diseases, more accidents, more deaths during pregnancy and childbirth, more deficiency diseases, more problems caused by insufficient calories in the diet.
Those maladies have been severely reduced by our unparalleled wealth. In their place, we now have numerous diseases and problems caused by abundance.
We are unhealthy because we do not use our wealth for growth.
We should be dying in space, not La-Z-Boy armchairs.
“IDIOCRACY” you Had me there!
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The founder of La-Z-Boy died in his invention i recall. Kind of poetic in a way.
I have a very general rule of thumb for judging American society, whether it be food, pharmaceuticals, sexual morality, personal finance, politics, - if it’s discussed or advertised on broadcast or cable TV - ITS BAD FOR YOU
The word is "communicable." The author is an idiot.
Organic produce and grass fed meats cost more. Lower food processing demands refrigerated and rapid transportation. Wealth buys that too. Wealth buys those. Wealth pays for better water and more efficient removal and better processing of wastes. Wealth pays for health club memberships and home exercise equipment. I doubt the author would argue against any of those.
It's well documented that poorer people in the US buy more candy, snack food, and highly processed or fast food, drink more alcohol, and use more illegal drugs and don't exercise. I'd bet there's more obesity at the bottom of the income scale in the US, as grain is cheaper food.
We got “Fat, dumb and happy”
TRUTH is suppressed and most people don’t prioritize physical fitness.
Unhealthy compared to whom ? Liechtenstein and Qatar are probably the richest countries in the world. The US is the largest economy in the world. It has a large population and a highish GDP per person, but the ones getting sick are almost certainly not the wealthiest by median average. Interesting question, though.
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The least healthy Americans as a group are from low income demographics, not wealthy ones.
....and Heavily Armed.
We should incentivize activity and healthy living and eating
No. The most wrong foods are cheap and the most right foods are often not so. But navigating those two is not as much a matter of wealth as it is smarts and how we use what income we have. There are “poor” people who do eat well by skrimping on luxuries and buying healthy food choices, and their are wealthy people who buy cheap and bad because its what they enjoy. Blaming our poor health on wealth is wrong.
I disagree in that wealth is only a piece of the puzzle.Brian Cates posted an article about the use of seed oils, once considered industrial cleaning/oiling products, that were proven via experiments to destroy the health of animals (rats) in 1918 before becoming entrenched in the public diet to the present levels of approximately 30% of the calories in an American diet. Mayonnaise, BBQ sauce, marinade, salad dressing, vitamins/supplements, non dairy beverages, and frankly, most items on the grocery shelves, baked or packaged are loaded with seed oils, particularly soybean oil. Seed oils contribute to auto immune illnesses and inflammation.
Why Do People Who Stopped Eating Seed Oils No Longer Burn As Easily In The Sun? By Brian Cates
The same is true for sugar - it's unhealthy and added to foods you wouldn't think would be sweetened. I couldn't find a turkey in the grocery store for Thanks Giving which was not injected with sugar. The same is true for the Costco rotisserie chicken, it contains injected sugar. Ham? Sugar. Bacon? Sugar. Hot dogs? Sugar. Lunch meat? Sugar. Cracker? Sugar and seed oil.
There's concerns about red food dye in foods now (particularly children's cereals, candies etc.) and I'd like to know why silicon dioxide is added to calcium supplements (for 'whiteness') and other supplements which are not white. The FDA and USDA allow many, many ingredients which don't belong in our food (carageenan is worse than I thought) and is also in pet foods. I'd buy supplements and foods without these toxins if I could find them, but I seldom can find foods without unhealthy ingredients.
The USDA and/or FDA allows and even incentivizes our unhealthy foods (e.g, subsidizing soybean crops etc.). Don't get me started on glysophate and other unhealthy products applied to produce, and ending up in cartons of dried oats, breads, crackers, cereals containing oats etc.
THe FDA and USDA approve of the spraying of synthetic Folic Acid (Folate) on grains (rice, wheat, oats etc.), nutritional yeast, and in milk, even though approximately half of Americans (estimates I've seen are 40% to 70%) cannot synthesize it and it is toxic to them. The impacts of synthetic folic acid are pronounced in some, but quietly contributing to inflammatory/autoimmune ill health (e.g., heart disease, diabetes and some say weight gain) in others. All fine with the USDA/FDA. These foods are 'fortified' with synthetic folate to reduce the incidence of a spinal condition in the fetus, however synthetic folic acid is associated with that same condition. Labeling laws allow companies to use synthetic folic acid without making it clear to consumers; supposedly 'organic' products cannot contain it.
So I don't buy the self-flagellation regarding healthy foods 100% - I know the American diet reflects relative wealth and indulgence, but that's only part of the problem. Our media reaches indoctrination levels with constant commercials for unhealthy foods - what if kids were blasted with advertisements for their favorite salads, fruits, vegetables or meats 24/7 since the day they were born, instead of the latest dyed cereals? We'll never know. When they learn to shop in grocery stores, they are often found in the store-length cereal aisle (parents, marketing, FDA, USDA are all in play here). Unlike impoverished Calcutta, our youths go to drive-thru at night for snack raids or dinner, but when they get there they are dosed with toxic chemicals, up to 30% of calories which are derived from seed oils.
“Large numbers of people who would have died in accidents have been saved because of higher safety standards. These factors have resulted in a higher population of older and sicker people vulnerable to diseases of abundance.”
Those two sentences are my favorite part. This kind gets into getting the Darwin Award thing. Those that are too stupid to have any common sense deserve to die. Those that should not be kept living are kept alive by artificial means, especially older and those who are too weak and constantly sick. It should be survival of the fittest and we would all be better off.
We’re unhealthy because of the CRAP they put into the food.
Because most people will not exercise.
Finally because of too much stress. Stress is a driver for many diseases.
Horsefeathers. I have to eat ordinary chocolate ice cream because I can’t afford Madagascar vanilla bean-flavored white Italian truffle ice cream with 24k gold flakes adornment like I truly want/deserve. So my obesity has nothing to do with imaginary wealth.
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