Unconstrained Egos with Simple Answers for Diet and Health
Bálint Magyar tells us in his recent Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes that “populism offers problem-solving without moral constraints.” As we witness unconstrained egos with pseudo-populist views about obesity, diet, and health spout their dogma, the words of Magyar ring true.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a simple answer for obesity:
“Giving good food, three meals a day to every man, woman and child in our country, could solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic overnight.”
He says obesity is simply the fault of the food industry:
“We are betraying our children by letting these industries poison them.”
Kennedy is choice of America’s president-elect to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He is an environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist, and conspiracy theorist.
Applause Lines Before Facts
Applause from an audience that subscribes to his theories seems more important to Kennedy than paying attention to facts related to health. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, offers perspective on Kennedy:
“He acts like he knows what he’s talking about when he doesn’t, and he says things with a definition that makes people convinced he has the data to support his statement. Trying to follow him and understand what he’s talking about is often like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall.”
Nonetheless, Kennedy’s theories about obesity, diet, and health reflect ideas that are popular with sources as diverse as left-leaning food policy activists and comedian Bill Maher. To them, obesity is just a problem of too much bad food. The activists blame capitalism and want to take down “big food.” Maher is content to promote fat shaming. (In his recent book, he persists in labeling ConscienHealth’s Ted Kyle as a “fat activist.” Actual fat activists would beg to differ.)
But applause lines don’t solve complex problems and years of bitter experience tell us the rise of obesity is due to much more than too much bad food. Unconstrained egos with simple answers for diet and health will serve themselves first. But they will very likely make our health problems worse.
Click here, here, and here for further perspective on the gap between reality and the views of the proposed Secretary of Health and Human Services. For more about Magyar’s observations about populism, click here.
The Self Seers (Death and Man), painting by Egon Schiele / WikiArt
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November 18, 2024
November 18, 2024 at 6:46 am, Mary-Jo said:
Awhile ago I watched a blurb of Kennedy saying how Italians eat pizza in Italy and they don’t gain weight or something to that effect. I literally lol’d. I just saw the photo of Kennedy with the Trump team sitting g on a plane eating McDonald’s, I literally cried. It’s painful.
November 18, 2024 at 7:21 am, Michael Jones said:
It seems to me it’s virtually never all-or-nothing, but rather, usually both-and. We have a toxic food supply – many of my patients (including my wife) with “allergies” and “intolerances” seem to have little problem with the same foods when traveling to Europe. Does that prove it? No, but shouldn’t it make us think? We also have a disease where the horse is already out of the barn. Regardless what let it out, we need to aggressively treat this diseases while seeing if we can make healthier foods more the “norm”.
November 18, 2024 at 11:06 am, Ted said:
Good point, Michael. As a case in point, I have bought two different varieties of Pita Bite Crackers from Trader Joe’s. The “regular version” with sea salt has a short list of ingredients. The “whole grain” version has a >2x longer list and is disagreeable to my GI system. Which one is healthier? I have no idea. But I know the plain version agrees better with my body. Perverse ideas about “healthy food” are in play.
November 18, 2024 at 1:19 pm, Mary-Jo said:
I have lived in 6 European countries, travel in many more. Food, especially meat and produce, eggs and other dairy ARE more locally sourced and distributed, in smaller factories and depots. We don’t have the massive production and distribution plants as in the USA, thus less additives needed and used, which I think allows for purer, fresher food supply. Having said that, as an American when I go back home, I CAN find places like farmers markets and local, smaller grocery stores in local communities that offer similarly fresher, less ‘udulterated’ foods, even pre-packaged goods, often more expensive, overall, but with practice, I’ve found I can find comparable less additive-riddled foods in larger supermarkets, and only go to local markets for key items to decrease my food bill.