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https://twitter.com/dougpolkpoker/status/1200479459070988288?s=21
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Obesity “crises” def a huge one for Polk. I mean this guy can run laps around Mason and Dave I guess and we all read their books so what does that say about us.
Lol poker bro dipshits
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The environment is definitely the #1 biggest problem for the world right now.
“Future of the US dollar” sounds like some dumbass Libertarian “AUDIT THE FED!” bullshit, so he loses a lot of points there.
I give him a lot of props for mentioning the obesity crisis; that’s an enormous problem for the developed world and not a single candidate has said anything about it.
Overall, solid C+ on my hot-take-o-meter.
But for serious, the obesity epidemic and how government should respond to it is an interesting thing to think about. Food is an extremely primal and intimate thing, and there would be enormous pushback for any heavy-handed government program that tried to regulate what or how we eat. Y’all remember how Republicans lost their minds when Michelle Obama planted a garden and tried to make school lunches healthier?
Some kind of carbon tax on beef might indirectly reduce red meat consumption. Maybe a subsidy for soy/vegetarian alternatives could be possible. What about a subsidy for employers who give their employees a half-hour to go for a walk? I have know idea how that would be enforced, I’m just spitballing.
I do think this is something that’s not being addressed and the field is wide open for someone to come in and propose a solution. Like, I think across partisan lines we all agree that Americans are dying because we eat garbage and dont’ work out enough. I think most Americans are against any kind of heavy-handed government mandate that regulates what we can eat, like Big Gulp bans are not going to fly. Within those parameters there’s an opening for someone to come up with a plan that people on the left and right could agree on.
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Tax Fast Food Like Cigarettes tm
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The obesity crisis is something politicians really aren’t talking about, and because they aren’t talking about it, it’s not really politicized. And because it’s not politicized, it’s a rare situation where Republicans and Democrats mostly agree on the basic facts. Even your Trumpy uncle knows he should be eating more fruits and vegetables and getting lots of exercise.
5D chess move: Dems should start talking about eating healthy and getting exercise. Republicans will start living unhealthy lifestyles to pwn the libs and then they’ll start dying off.
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Ban all prepared food delivery and close all drive thrus.
Bring back SuperSize.
Broaden obesity crisis and call it the health care crisis and ok by me.
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I feel like a platform of “take down powerful corporations” must naturally include food conglomerates in that. I don’t know enough about agricultural policy to prescribe a solution, but I’ve seen enough about capitalism to assume that a handful of super powerful companies controlling our food supply and lobbying the government on their own behalf is a bad thing. I don’t think there are a ton of conspiracies or anything, I just assume that they’re all full of shit and no one is calling them out on it because they take money from their lobbyists.
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But Trump thinks exercise depletes a body’s finite amount of energy and is therefore misguided and/or detrimental.
I’m surprised this attitude hasn’t taken hold among his followers (it has an obvious appeal) but I guess it isn’t that well known.
It’s complicated. Like, companies selling people enormous amounts of calories on the cheap really is a great success story of capitalism. For 99.99999% of human history this has been a huge existential problem, but by god the 1st world has figured out how to make lots of carbs available to everyone thanks in large part to capitalism. It’s like capitalism worked so well that we’re now victims of our own success.
We’ve become so proficient at this that we’re now consuming insane amounts of calories. It’s tempting to blame McDonalds for serving us crap, but if there was a consumer demand for healthy eating, these corporations would find ways to deliver it cheaply. OTOH, anti-competitive bullshit like the sugar lobby is definitely doing things that damage the health of Americans.
And then there’s the problem of iniquity: why is the first world dying from heart disease and strokes while the rest of the world starves?
I think government has a very important role in researching nutrition and educating the public on what food choices are healthy. But also, conservatives are right that much of the blame should be leveled at individuals and their lack of responsibility.
Back to my original thesis: as a far-leftist, I can still see that there are sensible points being made on both sides. That’s probably because this is an issue that hasn’t been politicized.
Anyway, thanks for listening to my TED talk, be sure to mash those link or subscribe buttons.
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Obesity is also about poverty, education, mental health; access to healthcare, access to infrastructure, etc.
“While the rest of the world starves” is increasingly an incomplete picture. Obesity related health issues like diabetes and heart disease are also increasingly impacting the poor around the world, for similar reasons as they do in the US.
Solution is to eat the rich, obv.
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As I understand it, a great percentage of the problems in terms of getting food to the people who need it is political rather than lack of production - there’s enough food to go around, even at reasonable cost, but food is used as a weapon by a lot of ruling regimes.
“And then there’s the problem of iniquity: why is the first world dying from heart disease and strokes while the rest of the world starves?”
The problem isn’t that we’re dying of heart disease and strokes, it’s that we’re dying younger than we need to. Heart disease is going down as a cause of death - but cancer is edging up. We’re not getting out of this alive…
MM MD
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That’s probably correct for acute issues. Famines etc. there’s a lot of people who just generally don’t get enough to eat, consistently. Especially kids. That’s often down to straight poverty and the social disfunctions that go with it.
Not that poverty doesn’t have a political cause as well of course.
People should look behind the curtain at those fancy restaurants…
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Heh. My graduation from medschool we went to Eli’s in Chicago. Dinner for eight and when they brought out my dessert there was a tiny cockroach doing the backstroke in the Strawberry gel on the top. Got all the desserts for free…
MM MD
well, I don’t think a campaign of hey fatass eat a vegetable and move your ass is gonna get yourself elected but what do I know. Michelle’s plan basically got eviscerated when kids didn’t eat it because well I sure didn’t back then either. Then again I was pretty jealous of that; I ate ice cream sandwiches about every day because that was the best thing they served to actually consume. 
serious 2020 campaign slogan: free ice cream sandwiches whenever you want
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This is absolutely correct. Like, well-to-do people can take time off to hit the gym or eat fresh vegetables. There are a lot of poor people in America who are obese because of poor food options and lack of exercise. It’s not an easy problem imo.
Being serious about it, there was a VERY interesting article in the most recent New Yorker talking about how baby foods are designed and produced. From what I took, kids are hardwired to LOVE sugar, and to a lesser extent salt - but if you grind away at it and keep feeding them “better” stuff they’ll eventually develop a taste for it. Problem is, people don’t want to bother with that shit, cause who wants a fussy baby who won’t eat. Which leads to me seeing 140 lb 6 year olds with diabetes…
MM MD
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