Make America Healthy Again?

Last week, Donald Trump nominated RFK Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the backlash was immediate. The Atlantic, The NYTimes, Vanity Fair, Financial Times and Associated Press published hit pieces on him hammering home the same point: RFK Jr. is polarizing, his ideas radical, his approach is extreme. They’re right, he’s an extreme figure never before seen in government health.

He wants to strip artificial substances from American food, dismantle the pharmaceutical advertising machine, and remake how the government regulates these industries. He’s promising a complete transformation.

Honestly? That’s exactly what we need. Something is deeply wrong with American health. Why are we trying to preserve something that does not work?

Do you Consider America a Healthy Country?

I don’t think America is a healthy country. Do you?

Sure, there are pockets of health, affluent neighborhoods where people jog daily, scrutinize ingredient labels, and debate the virtues of organic versus gluten-free. But step back. Look at the whole picture. Would you call this a healthy place? The numbers tell the story:

• 40% of American adults are obese with over 70% overweight. Highest in developed nations.

• Chronic conditions are spiking. A large percentage of adults have type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes. In the 1970s? That was 3%.

• Prescription drugs are everywhere. Nearly 50% of Americans used one in the last month. Almost 25% used three or more. Over 13%? Five or more.

• Mental health is unraveling. In 2022, 23% of adults had some form of mental illness, nearly 60 million people. Among kids 6-17? Over 16% had a mental health disorder in 2016.

• And then there’s stress. Chronic, unrelenting stress from American work ethic, long commutes, financial worries, and health concerns. It eats away at people, raising cortisol levels and opening the door to hypertension, heart disease, and weakened immunity.

The environment works against you. Fast food is everywhere and engineered for addiction, marketed as an irresistible indulgence. Cities and suburbs are designed for cars, not people. Walking isn’t practical. Add to this the endless barrage of pharmaceutical ads on TV, a relentless drumbeat that reminds you something must be wrong with you, and there’s always a pill waiting.

Despite the grim picture, history shows that America has a unique ability to confront its flaws and adapt.

A Self-Correcting System

America is a self-correcting system. America adopts new things faster than any other country and it discards things faster than any other country. It doesn’t just come from the government in a top-down. It’s also a bottom-up process. Americans just move on from things. They adapt and change.

Take smoking, for example. In the middle of the 20th century, smoking rates in America skyrocketed. By the later part of the century, they plummeted faster here than in any other country. People simply moved on. Unfortunately, we replaced cigarettes with food.

We forget how polluted American cities were. Now they’re amazing. Problems of air quality are still being felt in cities like India but you won’t find them in America anymore.

We’ve seen fast food actually become healthy over time. Fast, quick and good for you.

@cava

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And hopefully soon we will fix our cities. We adopted the car and highway system too aggressively and destroyed the urban fabric. America remade itself to suit the car. The car was the new technology, the symbol of the future. The US had to win it, and it changed everything to do so.

The self-driving car can save our cities. A system correcting itself.

Becoming More Like Europe

I don’t think it would be a bad thing if America copies some of Europe’s very strict regulations on food.

Some questions about American health remain unanswered, yet they’re impossible to ignore. For instance, why do so many people lose weight in Europe, only to gain it back as soon as they return to the U.S.? Is it all the walking? Vacation mode? Smaller portions? No one seems to know for sure, but nearly everyone notices the difference.

Much of the current RFK Jr ideas of reform in the U.S. is simply an attempt to catch up to Europe’s standards. European countries tend to have stricter regulations, especially when it comes to food and chemicals. While that level of oversight may stifle some innovation, perhaps it’s a trade-off worth making, do we really need so much experimentation with substances that directly affect our health?

Corporations focus on profit and are willing to serve Americans experimental chemicals if they can get away with it. There is an emphasis on cost savings in America, which is why companies can experiment on you with these things.

Ozempic To The Rescue?

I don’t think the solution is Ozempic.

Ozempic is often hailed as a game-changer for America's weight crisis, and its sales have skyrocketed recently. It’s true that Ozempic works, it helps people lose weight, and having more options is always a good thing. But while it’s an effective tool, it’s far from the answer to holistic health.

@bossfidence

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We don’t know the long term side effects of Ozempic yet. We also don’t want to be a country reliant on a pharma drug for basic health. Besides there is a big problem with Ozempic.

The problem with Ozempic is that it creates an artificial feeling of fullness, making you eat less throughout the day. However, feeling slightly hungry is actually a natural and healthy state—what some might call "Lindy." Once you stop taking Ozempic, you can’t rely on that artificial fullness anymore, and many people end up overeating and regaining the weight. Essentially, staying off the drug means learning to be comfortable with mild hunger, which is something Ozempic masks.

The bigger issue is reliance: to avoid relapse, people would need to stay on Ozempic indefinitely. While it’s a helpful tool for some, we need solutions that don’t depend on putting the entire population on long-term medication. Holistic, sustainable health requires more than just a pharmaceutical fix.

It would be nice if the government stepped in and took out all the experimental chemicals that could be making us hungrier, giving us heart issues, or who knows what else. Just like referees at a sports game, they should keep the experimental stuff out of food. Level the playing field. Let it become a fair fight in the battle for health.

In This Newsletter

1) Use The Lindy Effect for Food: When judging health reforms through the lens of the Lindy Test (whether they align with long-standing traditions that have withstood the test of time) RFK Jr.’s proposals present a mix of both adherence to historical practices and controversial deviations

2) Forgotten Foods: Food trends in America are cyclical. Items that were staples for thousands of years can fall out of favor, pushed aside by convenience foods and changing tastes. But some of these forgotten foods, Lindy foods, deserve a comeback. Here are three that could transform your diet

3) Don’t Go To Bed with a Full Stomach 

4) Eat Seasonally: What’s missing from most modern diets? Seasonality. Today, we optimize the entire year

Seed Oils, Additives, Artificial Sweeteners, and High-Fructose Corn Syrup

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