THE AMERICAN FAT FARM

     Here in the Prozac Nation, a new study published in the Journal of American Medicine revealed yet another of the growing health issues facing America's youth. Obesity rates among the 12-18 age group have now hit an alarming 21% of that demographic. One would assume that this and several other reports of high addiction, suicide rates, infant mortality, and infertility would be a major topic of discussion over here, but apparently only the Chinese Media thought it worthy of mention. Their editors also stated the obvious: "Treatment strategies vary, but lifestyle modification remains the cornerstone. Effective interventions include dietary changes, increased physical activity, and behavioral counseling." Ultimately, parents have the responsibility for the physical and mental health of children and legal minors; however pointing out parental failures is probably not an ideal way to flatter the public for votes during an Election Year. 

    It should be noted that in the clinical sense that JAMA is using the term, obesity is not the same as overweight. Heaven only knows how many fall into the latter category, which is also unhealthy. Evidently the situation has gotten so bad since I studied any medical science that the World Health Organization has had to add new categories for hyper-obesity.

        The Public Schools and politically-correct politicians likewise have failed our youth in this respect. In the early 1960s, now-Dead White Males led by President John F. Kennedy mandated a program in the school system to ensure the health of future generations, which included health education in addition to actual physical training. The program was abandoned by Neocon George Bush Sr. who saw it as a waste of money and later by the Clinton Co-Presidency who thought it wasn't inclusive enough. There have been a few half-hearted attempts to promote public health in schools, most notably under Obama; but these were mostly publicity stunts and there has been no political focus on the problem since the 2010s and no real policy on the subject since the 1980s. 

      JAMA is, of course, published by the American Medical Association which has deep ties to both Big Pharma and to the Insurance Cartels; so naturally their proposals call for more top-down solutions and expensive medical procedures instead of good parenting and better education. Wall Street is never one to let a good crisis go waste when there is an opportunity to enhance stakeholder profits.

    Likewise, there appears to be no popular will to address the problem either, considering how so-called Fat Acceptance has become a New Normal in American standards of beauty. Like Gender Dysphoria and Drug Addiction, most Americans seem to imagine that pretending there are no health risks will make the problem go away by ignoring or denying it. 

    However, Reality does have a bad habit of making itself felt whether people ignore it or not. Four-fifths of Americans aged 18-24 are unfit for military service, even by the Pentagon's abysmally low standards. Infertility rates are causing a decline in future work forces which will have to support an increasingly aging population. What's worse: the associated health problems with morbid obesity is putting a strain on the very generation that will need to provide for its elders.

   It's also quite apparent that our failures in public education are contributing to our decline as a world leader in innovation and technology. As we've noted many times before, it's simple mathematical logic that what is a social problem in the 2020s is going to be a national disaster in the 2040s. 

   Sadly, the average Ameroboob's concept of the future is something like next weekend; and thus the next decade or so is as remote to their thinking as the 25th Century. So likely we'll continue sinking into bulimia and addiction while Big Pharma, Big Ag, the Insurance Cartels, and the Academic Mafia going laughing all the way to the bank.