Why Didn't Those in Power Promote Healthy Living? Was There an Agenda?

“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.”  John F. Kennedy 

One of the oddest aspects of the Corona pandemic was the utter absence of any meaningful health measures designed to improve people’s health and natural immunity.  One may ask why that was, why the nations of the western world, particularly the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, with skyrocketing obesity rates, not only placed full effort into masking, lockdowns and shots, but did nothing to promote healthy lifestyles. Certainly, the greatest irony of all regarding this epidemic.

To the contrary, in areas with strict lockdowns, the weight gain, especially in younger populations, was enormous. And sad to say, weight gain slows overall metabolism down, thus making it harder for people to get up off the couches and exercise to lose the weight.  This may be a public health crisis only in its early stages. And while obesity leaves one highly vulnerable to Corona, it also contributes to lower fertility, diabetes type 2 and various cancers. 

In the early 1960s President John F. Kennedy took the bold initiative to create the Presidential Fitness Initiative.  Those of the baby boom and older generation X probably remember daily physical education courses with teachers demanding you run around the track over and over again only to drop and do pushups, sit ups and then spring up for pull ups. Afterwards you needed to hit the showers. Fun times…yet quite effective in maintaining a lean population until the latter part of the 1990s.  Then more “empathetic” school policies replaced such routines with “health appreciation” or, in other words, as long as you feel good about fitness, you could walk around the track.

Of course, in the 1990s we saw a policy at the national level to promote corn syrup as an additive, along with a host of other ingredients, to our foods. We also saw more low-cost processed foods made available, especially in lower income areas, which increased the caloric density of diets.  And another variable entered the scene, that of gaming, the internet and an attitude in the young that sweat was uncool.  The saying that once adorned PE rooms around the nation of “No gain without pain” gave way to “Why bother” and that idea became pervasive in the culture, be it in relationships, studies, etc. This is the atmosphere many of the millennial generation was accultured into as they grew up.

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So where are we today? We have a population fast approaching the Wall-E stage, and with that we will see massive problems down the road as the population ages. In regards to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who die each year from obesity-related causes, will we actually see any positive initiatives such as JFK’s? Doubtful.  For some unexplained reason we have entered an era where any commentary on obesity is met with cries of “fat shaming” hurled at those warning of the danger obesity poses. We even have “body positivity” which has morphed from an ideal of feeling good about yourself, to one that defies anyone to even suggest that an athletic look is more healthy than morbid obesity.  Even some people who have posted before-after pics celebrating their success as getting in shape have been met with scorn from many of the woke mob.

One aspect rarely mentioned as a casualty of our public health crisis is testosterone. Of course, there are many culprits in the rapid decline in testosterone levels, be they plastics, stress, alcohol, etc. but the greatest variable is likely the decline in fitness, and with it weight gain, or more importantly, increases in body fat ratios.  In many young men their testosterone levels are the same as their grandfather’s. And the lower a man’s testosterone, the quicker he will gain weight, as well as be sluggish and unmotivated. What might be worse? A decline in sex drive. Research has show that American married couples are at an all-time low in marital intimacy, which may contribute to unhappy and depressed relationships and a sense of apathy to life in general.

So, what could be the answer? I mean, beyond any hidden agendas one might point to, it is true that humans are geared to obtain and conserve calories. The so-called lower brain functions of survival generally win over the higher-brain functions that tell one they should eat moderately and exercise. In days past, we had to sweat at work, but that is not true anymore, and any craving we might have can be fulfilled at any 24-hour supermarket anytime of day.

With that in mind, fat is not our enemy, but it is something that must be under our conscious control.  If we want to have a better chance of fighting off disease and conditions that will take people’s lives prematurely and cost our nation hundreds of billions in additional health care costs we need to act individually.  Keep in mind that corporations neither care about your health, nor have a responsibility to promote it, they are there to make money, and if that means selling you calorie-packed items, that is what they will do. However, it is our responsibility to guard against their manipulations, teach our children to guard against them and also respect the body God gave them.  We could hope churches would do their part, but that is doubtful as most have entered the safe zone of the Bill and Ted gospel of “Be excellent to each other” and want to skip anything potentially contentious.

Finally, what level of fitness should you have if you are to survive a probable collapse of civilization? In normal times, the government prefers a population of docile people, and so your health means nothing to them. However, if/when things do collapse, government won’t be there to help. Isn’t it best to be in your prime level of fitness, based on age, personal health variables, etc., in case things go bad? Today might be a good day to begin.

Again, though, why do you suppose the government completely left personal health strategies out of the Corona equation? That question must bug anyone with an analytical mind.