The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) <a href="https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/doi/10.1542/peds.2022-060640/190443/Clinical-Practice-Guideline-for-the-Evaluation-and?autologincheck=redirected" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> new guidelines on Monday highlighting that childhood obesity can sometimes be addressed with medication and surgery.
An executive <a href="https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/doi/10.1542/peds.2022-060641/190440/Executive-Summary-Clinical-Practice-Guideline-for" target="_blank" rel="noopener">summary</a> of the guidance noted that pediatricians and other primary health care providers should offer children 12 years old and up — who are obese — medication for weight loss. It also said that they should offer referrals for teenagers who are 13 years of age and older and have severe obesity to be evaluated “for metabolic and bariatric surgery.”
The guidelines are the first comprehensive outline to be put forward by the <a href="https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2022/american-academy-of-pediatrics-issues-its-first-comprehensive-guideline-on-evaluating-treating-children-and-adolescents-with-obesity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AAP</a> in 15 years. 
“Weight is a sensitive topic for most of us, and children and teens are especially aware of the harsh and unfair stigma that comes with being affected by it,” Sarah Hampl, MD, a lead author of the guidance, said. 
An AAP statement that has yet to be released will talk about obesity prevention, as that is not outlined in the new guidance. 
“There is no evidence that ‘watchful waiting’ or delayed treatment is appropriate for children with obesity,” Sandra Hassink, MD, an author of the guidance, also said. “The goal is to help patients make changes in lifestyle, behaviors or environment in a way that is sustainable and involves families in decision-making at every step of the way.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 2017 to 2020, 19.7% of children <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html#:~:text=Prevalence%20of%20Childhood%20Obesity%20in%20the%20United%20States&amp;text=The%20prevalence%20of%20obesity%20was,to%2019-year-olds." target="_blank" rel="noopener">between</a> the ages of 2 and 19 were obese, amounting to around 14.7 million kids and teens. 
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and the forced massive school shutdowns that accompanied it, continue to be felt by children across the United States. It had a negative effect on childhood obesity, as well. A CDC <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7037a3.htm?s_cid=mm7037a3_w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from 2021 <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/17/1038211236/weight-gain-obesity-children-teens-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> that the body mass index rate increase “approximately doubled during the pandemic&#8221; compared to a time before the pandemic for the same age group. Those who were already overweight or obese prior to the pandemic, as well as young kids, saw the biggest spikes. 
“We now have evidence that obesity therapy is effective. There is treatment, and now is the time to recognize that obesity is a chronic disease and should be addressed as we address other chronic diseases,” Hassink <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/new-guidelines-treating-childhood-obesity-include-medications-surgery-rcna64651" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>. 
&#8220;Obesity is not a lifestyle problem. It is not a lifestyle disease,&#8221; Aaron Kelly, co-director at the University of Minnesota&#8217;s Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/obesity-kids-teens-drugs-surgery-early-new-guidelines/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>. &#8220;It predominately emerges from biological factors.&#8221;
&#8220;This is not different than you have asthma and now we have an inhaler for you,&#8221; Hassink noted.

ACABEF6E-C490-4328-96F7-3BE8B3FF90C7_1_105_c

New Pediatric Guidelines Highlight Medication, Potential Surgery, For Childhood Obesity

New AAP Guidelines On Childhood Obesity Highlight Medication, Potential Surgery

Children's Health

Health

Medical Research

Obesity

Young beautiful blonde doctor surgeon nurse woman over isolated background with sad expression covering face with hands while crying. Depression concept.

TikTok Doc’s Trans Patients Post More Gruesome Stories Of Post-Op Complications

TikTok Doc's Trans Patients Post More Gruesome Stories Of Post-Op Complications

Florida

Miami

Transgender

transgender surgery

The Washington Post took a virtual beating on Thursday over an article detailing the results of an &#8220;eye-opening&#8221; study that compared exercise habits and coronavirus outcomes.
&#8220;Regular exercise protects against fatal covid, a new study shows,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/12/21/covid-exercise-hospitalization-mortality/?utm_campaign=wp_main&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">headline read</a> — and the article went on to lay out some of the findings of the study, which was <a href="https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(22)00526-8/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> December 14 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
According to the study — which looked at data from nearly 200,000 adults in Southern California — adults who exercised 30 minutes almost every day were up to four times more likely to survive COVID infection than those whose lifestyles were more sedentary.
&#8220;It turns out exercise is even more powerful than we thought&#8221; with regard to COVID, said the study&#8217;s senior author Robert Sallis, who is also a clinical professor at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine in Los Angeles.
Exercise had such a profound impact, according to the study, that even those who only worked out for 11 minutes per week saw lower instances of hospitalization and death than those who did not exercise at all.
Critics quickly swarmed on Twitter, mocking the Post for being late to embrace what many had believed to be an obvious conclusion even as cities and states had <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/los-angeles-mayor-garcetti-orders-closure-of-all-bars-in-dining-restaurants-theaters-and-gyms-amid-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">locked down gyms</a> and even <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/read-it-california-reopens-playgrounds-issues-ridiculous-guidelines/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outdoor playgrounds</a>.
&#8220;Remember when they closed the gyms?&#8221; author Max Lugavere <a href="https://twitter.com/maxlugavere/status/1606015918395441152" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a>.
Actor and comedian Rob Schneider added, &#8220;Surprise surprise! Healthy people less likely to drop dead!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Surprise surprise! Healthy people less likely to drop dead! <a href="https://t.co/c0ZAl2l0qB">https://t.co/c0ZAl2l0qB</a>
&mdash; Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) <a href="https://twitter.com/RobSchneider/status/1605998033442770944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Let me get this straight. We mandated vaccines even though widely known they don&#8217;t stop spread, because we must unburden the hospitals,&#8221; @ITguy1959 mused. &#8220;Yet we locked people in their homes + closed gyms because &#8230; we wanted to burden hospitals? Stunning act of *journalism.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Let me get this straight.
We mandated vaccines even though widely known they don&#39;t stop spread, because we must unburden the hospitals.
Yet we locked people in their homes + closed gyms because &#8230; we wanted to burden hospitals? 
Stunning act of *journalism👇🏽
h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/EddieLeBec3?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EddieLeBec3</a> <a href="https://t.co/InE1GyMPnN">https://t.co/InE1GyMPnN</a>
&mdash; IT Guy (@ITGuy1959) <a href="https://twitter.com/ITGuy1959/status/1605946535912407041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The Washington Post announces exercise is a great way to beat COVID. This is something people with functioning brains knew in March 2020. Instead of talking about the vaccine nonstop, we should have been telling people to put down the junk food and go for a nice run,&#8221; Outkick&#8217;s David Hookstead <a href="https://twitter.com/dhookstead/status/1605927581546450944" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commented</a>.
Special Forces veteran and UFC fighter Tim Kennedy <a href="https://twitter.com/TimKennedyMMA/status/1605925141082525697" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a>, &#8220;Those of us not profiting off of people being sick or living in fear have been saying this for 2 1/2 years … Glad you finally join the party.&#8221;
&#8220;Exercise, in almost any amount, reduces your risk of being hospitalized or dying of anything. The fact that governments &#8216;experts&#8217; finally admit this, after 2 years of trying to convince us the answer is to stay home and take big pharma products, shows how much we can trust them,&#8221; Spike Cohen concluded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Exercise, in almost any amount, reduces your risk of being hospitalized or dying of anything.
The fact that governments &quot;experts&quot; finally admit this, after 2 years of trying to convince us the answer is to stay home and take big pharma products, shows how much we can trust them. <a href="https://t.co/JN9YEFdXa6">https://t.co/JN9YEFdXa6</a>
&mdash; Spike Cohen (@RealSpikeCohen) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSpikeCohen/status/1605920646734692352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

NEWS: MAR 20 Coronavirus in Ohio

WaPo Mocked For ‘Eye-Opening’ Study Saying Exercise Limits COVID Risks

WaPo Mocked For 'Eye-Opening' Study Saying Exercise Limits COVID Risks

COVID-19

Media

U.S.

Washington Post

Film director Darren Aronofsky is defending his choice to cast actor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/celebrities">Brendan Fraser</a> to play an obese gay man in the Golden Globe-nominated drama, “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/movies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Whale</a>.”
The movie tells the story of Charlie, a middle-aged man who gains weight following the death of his boyfriend and works on repairing the relationship with his estranged daughter. 
It received critical acclaim, but one common reaction in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/entertainment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hollywood</a> community was to question whether Fraser was the best choice for the role, given that he&#8217;s not actually gay or obese. Aronofsky said he was surprised by that reaction and still stands behind his decision.
&#8220;Actors have been using makeup since the beginning of acting — that&#8217;s one of their tools,&#8221; the film director told Yahoo Entertainment during a recent <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/brendan-fraser-says-that-his-kids-inspired-his-transformative-performance-in-the-whale-181128097.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a>. 
&#8220;And the lengths we went to portray the realism of the make-up has never been done before. One of my first calls after casting Brendan was to my makeup artist, Adrien Morot. I asked him, &#8216;Can we do something that&#8217;s realistic?&#8217; Because if it&#8217;s going to look like a joke, then we shouldn&#8217;t do it.&#8221;
Aronofsky went on to discuss how Fraser approached the character with compassion and went out of his way to create an insightful narrative about him. 
&#8220;People with obesity are generally written as bad guys or as punchlines,&#8221; the director explained. &#8220;We wanted to create a fully worked-out character who has bad parts about him and good parts about him; Charlie is very selfish, but he&#8217;s also full of love and is seeking forgiveness. So [the controversy] makes no sense to me. Brendan Fraser is the right actor to play this role, and the film is an exercise in empathy.&#8221;
Fraser also expressed his commitment to the role. 
&#8220;Charlie is not the person he presents,&#8221; Fraser says of his character. &#8220;He&#8217;s not the person who we so often dismiss. He&#8217;s a man who lives with obesity, but he&#8217;s also a father and he&#8217;s also a teacher. He&#8217;s someone who can bring out the best in others even when they can&#8217;t see that in themselves. Tragically, he can&#8217;t do that for himself.&#8221;
The “George of the Jungle” actor called Charlie a “well-rounded character” who he approached with “empathy.”
Fraser was just nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama despite saying he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/my-mother-didnt-raise-a-hypocrite-brendan-fraser-explains-why-fans-wont-see-him-at-golden-globes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">refuses to attend</a> the ceremony on principle. The actor previously accused one of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association&#8217;s former presidents of sexual assault and claims he’d be a “hypocrite” if he attended.

“The Whale” New York Screening

‘Makes No Sense’: ‘The Whale’ Director Responds To Critics Of Brendan Fraser Wearing A Fat Suit

'The Whale' Director Responds To Critics Of Brendan Fraser Wearing A Fat Suit

Entertainment

Hollywood

Movies

Actress <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/rebel-wilson">Rebel Wilson</a> responded to fans calling her out for not including any <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fat-acceptance">plus-sized</a> offerings in her new R&amp;R Club clothing line.
The “Pitch Perfect” actress was facing criticism mostly from plus-sized fans who accused Wilson, who recently lost 80 pounds, of being biased against them. The followers were especially annoyed because Wilson used to be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/obesity">overweight</a> herself.
One of the most popular <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@itsyourdest/video/7170318508625104133">videos</a> came from TikTok creator Destiny Ann. 
She said, “I don’t understand how someone who is plus size for the majority of her career and the majority of her life — someone who knows how hard it is to be fat, to shop for clothing and actually find it in your size — I don’t understand how someone with that background, that knowledge, can release a brand that only goes up to an XL.”
She also called the lack of plus-sized options “so disheartening.” 
“[T]he irony of [R]ebel dropping a clothing line that she wouldn’t have even been able to shop at a few years ago,” the video caption said.
Wilson responded to all the criticism in her Instagram stories on Wednesday. The “Bridesmaids” star said she and partner Ramona Agruma “are experimenting with this limited capsule collection of only two pieces in limited sizes” and that if they prove successful, the pair “are planning on doing more colors and sizes.”
She encouraged followers to request the “colors or sizes” they would be “interested in for sweats.” Wilson also reported that the current collection is “Almost SOLD OUT.”
Wilson <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rebel-wilson-says-her-team-didnt-want-her-losing-funny-fat-girl-status-amid-weight-loss">previously said</a> her team was apprehensive when she told them she was planning to lose weight. The actress had made a name for herself playing overweight characters in comedies at that point, like “Fat Amy” in the “Pitch Perfect” franchise.
“I got a lot of pushback from my own team actually, here in Hollywood, when I said ‘Okay, I’m going to do this year of health, I feel like I’m really gonna physically transform and change my life,’” Wilson said during a 2021 interview with BBC.
“And they were like, ‘Why? Why would you wanna do that?’ Because I was earning millions of dollars being the funny fat girl and being that person,” she continued.
The actress recalled switching to healthier habits during her “year of health” and stopping the use of food as a coping mechanism for difficult emotions.

British Vogue And Tiffany & Co. Celebrate Fashion And Film Party At Annabel’s

Rebel Wilson Responds To Accusations Of Fatphobia For Lack Of Plus Sizes In New Clothing Line

Celebrities

Fat Acceptance

Rebel Wilson

In the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/movies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cult-classic</a> &#8220;Stripes,&#8221; the late, great, heavyweight actor John Candy told his fellow &#8220;recruits&#8221; that he joined the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-army" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Army</a> so he could lose a few pounds and &#8220;walk out of there a lean-mean fighting machine.&#8221;
Now, that same fitness plan could soon be a reality for millions of obese Americans looking to serve the good ol&#8217; U-S-of-A. According to several reports, the Army is <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/10/12/no-more-tape-test-only-soldiers-crush-fitness-test.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">considering</a> dropping certain weight limits for recruits so long as he or she is able to pass the physical fitness test with flying colors.
Per Military.com, &#8220;Soldiers who score at least a 540 on the <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/09/29/armys-new-fitness-test-here-real-time-no-seriously-its-future-uncertain.html">Army Combat Fitness Test, or ACFT</a>, will be exempt from having their body fat measured.&#8221; The highest score possible on the fitness test is 600.
It is possible to be physically fit, albeit plus size — take any NFL lineman, for instance. It would be very difficult, as the physical fitness test is still challenging, but in theory, an obese person could skip the &#8220;tape test&#8221; if they crush everything else.
The potential plan — which could allow larger recruits to avoid a potential obstacle to training — comes as a beleaguered military is struggling to figure out why recruitment is down across the board.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Jimmy Byrne <a href="https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/what-if-they-gave-a-war-and-everybody-was-woke-military-recruitment-crt-training-obesity-reading-labor-market-11659108526" target="_blank" rel="noopener">observed</a> in June that “Nearly every branch has struggled to meet its recruitment goals for 2022, with some falling as short as 40%. Worse yet, only about a quarter of America’s youth meet current eligibility standards — and recent surveys show only 9% are even interested.”
As pointed out by Byrne, one explanation could be the &#8220;wholesale embrace of woke politics.”
Of course, if you ask anybody in the Biden administration — such as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-did-lizzo-go-from-being-oppressed-to-playing-james-madisons-flute-while-twerking" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Army Secretary Christine Wormuth</a> — there&#8217;s no woke politics in the military — just diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE) training.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/SecArmy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecArmy</a> Christine Wormuth gets heated while explaining the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs for soldiers. <a href="https://t.co/v9aOk4LFqc">https://t.co/v9aOk4LFqc</a> <a href="https://t.co/eo3Ccv4Zjy">pic.twitter.com/eo3Ccv4Zjy</a>
&mdash; Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) <a href="https://twitter.com/dcexaminer/status/1579558861090222080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In other words, the geniuses in Biden&#8217;s Pentagon cannot figure out why Americans are not interested in a military that mandates DIE-ing.
Earlier in 2022, the Army also ditched a gender- and age-neutral physical fitness test. That means women and older recruits have different requirements for physical fitness than men and younger Americans do.
In addition to woke Americans, other branches such as the Air Force have also been encouraging expectant mothers to sign up for the fight.
In September, the Air Force announced that it &#8220;has updated a policy to allow women, both enlisted and civilian, to apply and compete for an Officer Training School commission while pregnant.&#8221;
“We’re in a race for talent, and our policies need to reflect that,” Under Secretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones <a href="https://www.airandspaceforces.com/pregnant-candidates-can-now-apply-to-air-force-officer-training-school-without-a-waiver/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement. &#8220;This policy change will ensure we’re able to fully tap into the talent amongst our force as well as those looking to join us.&#8221;
It does not seem wise to have a military full of leftist pregnant women, but could it really be so bad if a bunch of folks like &#8220;Ox&#8221; in &#8220;Stripes&#8221; join the Army?
<iframe loading="lazy" title="John Candy in Stripes" width="500" height="375" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bD4xwK13lGk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Stripes

U.S. Army Reportedly Changing Controversial Body Fat Test. Good News For ‘Stripes’ Fans.

U.S. Army Reportedly Changing Controversial Body Fat Test. Good News For 'Stripes' Fans.

America

Biden Administration

U.S. Army

U.S. Military

Woke Culture

Wokeness

America is not only considered an indulgent culture, America is an indulgent culture. 
What got me thinking about this was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-4-my-secret-addiction-america-s-problem-with-over-indulgence-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">my own strange addiction to paper towels</a>. I realized when I cook dinner I use nearly an entire roll of paper towels. I’ve been using paper towels like a psychopath. It’s a small, indulgent behavior, but just because it’s small doesn’t mean I should be engaging in it.
And, as it turns out, I am not alone. A report from <a href="https://www.euromonitor.com/usa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Euromonitor international</a> says the U.S. spends more on paper towels than every other country in the world combined. But to indulge &#8211; this is what we do! We use more and more, in excess and excess. We like wealth, and we like money. Perhaps this is a result of living in a free-market capitalist society, but it is definitely a result of being a part of a society that glorifies Hollywood so much.
It’s worth paying attention to where we are specifically seeing this type of indulgent culture. Enter: Lizzo.
Lizzo, to me, is so emblematic of our society of excess. In fact, she might be the first artist to be unbelievably fat and simultaneously claim that being fat is delicious. She proclaims her audience should want to be more like her — and be more fat — because it’s amazing. Whether she’s taking photos half naked in front of a private plane or sitting on the sidelines at a basketball game, she’s saying that she’s wealthy, fabulous, fat, and happy.
But Lizzo doesn’t just stop with the fact that she’s fat and happy: She thinks you should be fat, too! And people applaud her for this — all the time. They love it, and rather shockingly, they want more of it. But what is it that people are wanting more of, exactly?
Ironically, people seem to be wanting more of less. Lizzo is pitching a lack of substance and persuading her followers to want more of, well, nothing. But Instacart recognized her brand and her powers of persuasion and capitalized on them by making her the face of their company.
In their latest commercial, Instacart has Lizzo in a bathtub ordering everything her heart could possibly desire while surrounded by food, fairies, and luxury. And why is this the featured commercial? Because this. Is. America. We want more, we want excess, and what we don’t want is the truth.
Because the truth is, Lizzo isn’t actually happy — and having “more” won’t make you happy either. Lizzo is clinically obese. It’s worth recognizing how exhausting it is to carry around such weight all day.
I recently had my own experience with overindulgence. I was in Los Angeles and went to In and Out Burger. The taste was fabulous and the instant high from bad food seemed almost worth it, but afterward, I felt disgusting. Couple that with sitting on a plane for four hours, and I desperately felt like I needed to move my body. Impulsive behavior followed by instant gratification is never really worth the long-term consequences of feeling so bad.
That temporary high isn’t really happiness, but that’s what Lizzo is selling you. It’s a lie. And what Instacart is selling you is a lie. These indulgences don’t make us happier. 
Whether it’s the little rush of bad food or the short-term kick from a purchase, you don’t really have money for  it never leads to true happiness. You end up uncomfortable or financially stressed. Anxiety and angst always follow, and that’s what Lizzo experiences every day.
I do not doubt that Lizzo has to be suffering from some form of depression, if for no other reason than the amount of weight she is carrying. Her apparent happiness is a lie. This commercial is a lie. And what do these lies lead to?
When we are told that having “more” will lead to happiness, we are a society primed perfectly for socialism. Why do you think people respond so well when politicians say, “this should be free!”? Because it’s not just that we’re told we should have “more” — that “more” should be free.
And if you can’t afford it, the message becomes that it’s the upper 1% who should afford it for you because they’re the real problem anyway. They have too much! Tax them! We’re told to forget responsibility. This is someone else’s responsibility. “Give us more free stuff.”
That is the incredibly unfortunate state of American politics today. So, what’s the answer to this? Where does it end?
Well, if it’s left up to the Left, it won’t end until the irresponsible are given their “free stuff.”
So, take note, and caveat emptor.

Candace_216x9 copy 8

Lizzo, Instacart, and America’s Problem With Overindulgence

Candace Owens

Lizzo

Readers Pass

If nanny state bureaucrats want their citizenry to be underweight and compliant, then they need a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/federal-government" target="_blank" rel="noopener">government</a> that is large and in charge, according to a new study.
In 2017, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/philadelphia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Philadelphia</a> Mayor Jim Kenney (D) turned his attention to obesity. The city government placed a tax on sugary sweetened beverages in hopes that it would deter sugar consumption. According to researchers from the University of Georgia, Philadelphians wound up consuming more sugar from other food items and even traveled across state lines to buy sodas after that tax was implemented.
As <a href="https://news.uga.edu/soda-pop-taxes-dont-reduce-sugar-consumption/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">flagged</a> by Georgia Today, the surprising behavior &#8220;almost entirely offset the decrease in sugar intake from colas and other sweet drinks.&#8221;
Researchers concluded that the answer is not for folks like Kenney to simply stop trying to socially engineer certain policy outcomes, but for big government to step in and circumvent local authority and self-governance.
&#8220;Can we influence behavior through taxation? Yes, but only if you enact a policy at broader levels of government, such as at the state or national level that prevents people from cross-border shopping,&#8221; Felipe Lozano-Rojas, a lead author of the study and an assistant professor in the School of Public and International Affairs, <a href="https://news.uga.edu/soda-pop-taxes-dont-reduce-sugar-consumption/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement.
&#8220;The answer is no if you’re enacting these policies at a local level,&#8221; he added.
If that line of thinking sounds familiar, it is because the solution to life&#8217;s problems is always the same for leftists: a bigger government with more power. Americans can never be trusted to make their own decisions because we are stupid, they imply not-so-subtly.
Similar to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/c-s-lewis-tyranny-for-your-own-good" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID lockdowns</a> or whatever social ailment currently plagues society, the usual suspects have a penchant for advocating a national policy that removes decision-making away from the individual.
Their answer to America&#8217;s problems is always varying forms of socialism: Experts in charge, tasked with centrally planning &#8220;success&#8221; based on science and data, while arrogantly thinking that they can predict the future and control human behavior.
Even in coming up with alternative solutions, the answer isn&#8217;t lowering taxes or a smaller government, according to researchers.
&#8220;If we were to subsidize healthier options, especially for these groups, the tax might work better,&#8221; Lozano-Rojas remarked. &#8220;Subsidizing water, making it more accessible, particularly in places where tap water is not drinkable, these are things that might make going with the healthier choice easier. I think this issue requires more of a magnifying glass into these populations to determine the causes driving excessive sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.&#8221;
It does not appear that deregulation or lowering federal sugar subsidies is even on Lozano-Rojas&#8217; radar, but why would it be? That sort of idea would limit government power.
These folks do not realize that humans are creative. Humans find new ways of getting what they want. There is always an unintended consequence — whether it be good or bad — that stems from government policies and human choices. Those unintended consequences are always surprising.
Centrally planning — whether it be an economy or the amount of sugar that humans absorb — fails because it cannot account for such surprises. The only thing that can account for surprises is capitalism.
As legendary tech guru and economist George Gilder <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/capitalism-vs-socialism-economist-george-gilder-weighs-in" target="_blank" rel="noopener">once</a> put it on Mark Levin&#8217;s TV show, &#8220;Creativity is the foundation of capitalism. And this is &#8212; and socialism is based on planning. It&#8217;s based on the assumption that we&#8217;d already know all we need to know in order to plan our future, and so it leads to tyranny, and that&#8217;s really the difference.&#8221;
&#8220;Liberty versus tyranny as someone once put it,&#8221; he said to the author of &#8220;Liberty vs. Tyranny.&#8221;
Indeed, with this soda tax study and subsequent conclusions, we see how quickly folks on the Left go from liberty  — allowing individuals the choice of which drinks to buy without added taxes — to tyranny — advocating a nationwide policy that includes preventing people from &#8220;cross-border shopping.&#8221;
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

spilled soda Stock photo

Philadelphia’s Soda Tax Has Been A Total Disaster, According To Study

Philadelphia's Soda Tax Has Been A Total Disaster, According To Study

Federal Government

Food

Georgia

Philadelphia

Socialism

A nation’s average life expectancy is a crude but useful way to measure whether health is improving or deteriorating. In the United States (and most developed nations), fluctuations in average life expectancy have been almost entirely upward <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040079/life-expectancy-united-states-all-time/">for the past 150 years</a>.
But not anymore. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr023.pdf">published</a> shocking data: U.S. life expectancy has declined three years since 2019. This followed marginal declines in 2015, 2016, and 2017. The projected lifespan of an American – 76.1 years (and 73.2 years for males) – is now at its lowest point since 1996.
Why the decline? The CDC attributes half of it to COVID, while the other leading factors were unintentional injuries (16%), heart disease (4%), liver disease (3%), and suicide (2%). The remaining 25% of the decline was chalked up to “residual” factors. Curiously, there’s no mention of dietary patterns, which underlie so much of the chronic disease and early death that may also contribute to Americans’ lagging life expectancy.
COVID was a global phenomenon, of course, so it’s instructive to look at how other countries have fared over the past two years. The answer? The United States has done worse – much worse.
Let’s start with other developed countries. Their life expectancy only declined modestly from 2019 to 2020 (0.55 years). It then increased modestly from 2020 to 2021 (0.26 years), according to research <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.05.22273393v4">published</a> in June. (Even pre-COVID, U.S. life expectancy was <a href="https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/#item-le_total-life-expectancy-at-birth-in-years-1980-2017_dec-2019-update">nearly four years lower</a> than other similar countries, and it’s also <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/">below several developing countries</a>.)
Now let’s look at the COVID mortality rate, among countries of all income groups. Here, the United States has the world’s <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality">sixteenth-highest COVID mortality rate</a> (per 100,000 people). The list of countries with much lower mortality rates is long, spans the globe, and includes places with much less developed health-care systems, including Bolivia, India, Iraq, Libya, Russia, and Zambia.
Why is the United States an outlier?
The answer is not, as <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-the-covid-death-rate-in-the-u-s-is-so-much-higher-than-other-wealthy-nations">some have asserted</a>, simply the low vaccination rates in the United States. About 79 percent of Americans are fully or partially vaccinated against COVID, which is on par with other high-income countries. (See the world’s vaccination rates in <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations">this nifty chart</a>.)
It seems that something more fundamental must be handicapping Americans, and – curiously – it’s something most media coverage has glossed over: the poor health of the U.S. population.
When a country is saddled with extremely high rates of chronic disease — <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2020/20_0130.htm#:~:text=Research%20has%20shown%20increases%20in,27.2%25%20had%20multiple%20chronic%20conditions.">more than half of all American adults have such a disease</a> — it shouldn’t be a surprise that an agent like COVID would ravage the population (particularly when <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2022/05/10/the-five-pandemics-driving-1-million-u-s-covid-deaths/">we know</a> that the most vulnerable populations fit into one or more categories: old, poor, and rural). Among Americans, obesity — the underlying cause for so many chronic conditions — is 40% or higher in all three of those categories.
Research <a href="https://now.tufts.edu/2021/02/25/study-estimates-two-thirds-covid-19-hospitalizations-due-four-conditions">published</a> last year by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science at Tufts highlighted the magnitude of chronic disease risk. The study showed that 64% of COVID-related hospitalizations were a product of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart failure.
Amid that gloomy outlook, a key question facing policymakers and the public health community in the United States is what to do about the ongoing deterioration of Americans’ health.
David Choksi, a former health commissioner of New York City, looks to history to identify two different responses to health crises. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/31/opinion/us-life-expectancy.html">Writing recently</a> in The New York Times, Choski suggested that following the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918, there was no wholesale response to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.
He contrasted this with “a great sanitary awakening” that followed the 19th century outbreaks of typhus, smallpox, dysentery, and cholera, which he described as having “changed the way society thought about protecting health as a public responsibility.”
He has a sobering assessment of the U.S. response so far, saying it is akin to the Spanish flu experience. “We are at risk of a similar collective amnesia after Covid-19.”
That doesn’t bode well for reversing the life expectancy decline of the past two years. But even when life expectancy begins to rise again, the U.S. population will remain dramatically unhealthier than people in other peer countries (and many developing countries).
The best way — and perhaps only way — to reverse that trend, and prevent most of America’s <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm">leading causes of death</a>, will be through a dramatic improvement in the abominable U.S. diet.
Americans get <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/3/e009892">nearly 58% of their calories</a> from ultra-processed food products, which are typically very high in salt or sodium — think packaged snacks and pre-prepared foods — and very low in nutritional value. And people with diets high in processed food consumption have a 79 percent higher risk of developing obesity than those whose diets are low in processed food consumption, according to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-020-02367-1">one study</a>.
The most sobering dietary data point may be that 99.4 percent of Americans consume more sodium every day than what the American Heart Association recommends, according to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3417219/">federal data</a>. No wonder 47 percent of Americans are afflicted with high blood pressure, or are taking medication for it, according to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/facts.htm">the CDC</a>.
Alas, improving the American diet is all but absent from the national public policy agenda. That’s good news for the major food and beverage companies, and fast food chains, given that high-profile scrutiny of the products they’re peddling (and the ways in which they’re peddling them) would trigger calls for greater regulation.
Until dietary patterns change, American waistlines will continue expanding and American life expectancy will continue declining.
Matthew Rees is a former White House speechwriter and the founding editor of <a href="https://www.foodandhealthfacts.com/facts1">Food and Health Facts</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

business collapse

‘Lowest Since 1996’: Life Expectancy Plummets Thanks To Abysmal American Diet

COVID

Organic Food

There is a video of Lizzo climbing the steps to a private jet while baring her entire butt by wearing cutout leggings from her Yitty shapewear line.
The 34-year-old rapper shared the short clip earlier this year knowing that the comments section would be filled with messages of affirmation and support. She expected it because, over time, Lizzo has become the poster child for the body positivity movement.
More recently, the singer shared a surprising message with followers during her acceptance speech at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards. Lizzo claimed that she’s “oppressed.” But is she?
Melissa Viviane Jefferson enjoyed a meteoric rise to superstardom that most aspiring singers could only experience in their dreams. It’s no coincidence that her first bona-fide hit single, “Good As Hell” (2016) is an anthem celebrating self-love and body acceptance. This has become Lizzo’s image over the years and it’s something her fans have come to expect from her. Rather than hiding her feelings about her size, Lizzo has turned her figure into a money-making brand.
“Your vote means everything to me, it means everything to making a change in this country &#8230; When you’re voting for your favorite artist, vote to change some of these laws that are oppressing us,” the singer said during her speech at the VMAs.
Lizzo never clarified how, precisely, she is being oppressed, which earned her a lot of backlash on social media. However, she did express her frustration at people making negative comments about her physique.
“You know what? I’m not gonna say nothing,” she also said during the speech. “They be like, ‘Lizzo, why don’t you clap back? Why don’t you clap back?’ ‘Cause, b***, I’m winning, ho! Big b**** is winning, ho!” she yelled to the cheering crowd.
Most viewers assume those statements were directed at comedian Aries Spears, who had previously questioned why Lizzo has become a role model for women.
“I can’t get past the fact that she looks like the s*** emoji,” Spears said during an interview with “The Art of Dialogue.”
“She’s got a very pretty face, but she keeps showing her body off. Like, come on, man. Come on, yo.”
“I’m sorry,” he continued. “Listen, I ain’t the most in-shape n**** in the world, but I still — when you funny and you got swagger and confidence and you decent looking &#8230; I think I’m at least handsome — you get p***y. But a woman that’s built like a plate of mashed potatoes is in trouble.”
He questioned Lizzo’s health specifically.
“You know what kills me about women is the hypocrisy and the contradiction,” Spears went on. “F*** diabetes, f*** heart problems, f*** heart disease, cholesterol. Y’all claim womanhood and about sisterhood and support for your sister, you know, when it comes to that ridiculous s***. But if you really gave a f***, why wouldn’t you go, ‘Black girl, we love your confidence, boo boo, but this ain’t it. This ain’t it.’”
“That’s the real love! Y’all jump on me for making jokes, but y’all won’t be f***ing real and go, ‘Sister, put the eclair down. This ain’t it. It’s treadmill time,’” he concluded.
It’s difficult to keep track of just how many times Lizzo has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lizzo-bares-her-entire-butt-in-revealing-new-instagram-promo-for-yitty-shapewear">shown off</a> her plus-sized physique.
In 2019, she debuted some thong underwear in a black cutout dress that left nothing to the imagination while dancing to her song “Juice” at a Minnesota Timberwolves/LA Lakers game. Lizzo declared it was “a** crack summer” after posting a series of photos of herself in a skintight purple dress that exposed her behind again.
“Who I am, and the essence of me and the things I choose to do as a grown a** woman, can inspire you to do the same,” the singer told Page Six in response to criticism.
“You don’t have to be like me. You need to be like you. And never ever let somebody stop you or shame you from being yourself. This is who I’ve always been,” Lizzo said. “Now everyone’s lookin’ at it, and your criticism can just remain your criticism. Your criticism has no effect on me. Negative criticism has no stake in my life.”
She continued, “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been … I’m surrounded by love, and I just wanna spread that love — and also spread these cheeks. And if you really, really don’t like my a**, you can kiss it.”
By the language standard of the left, no one is allowed to criticize Lizzo or suggest that celebrating morbid obesity is a dangerous pursuit. Some people are starting to think the “Truth Hurts” singer is the opposite of oppressed since even basic rules of health don’t apply to her.
“It’s hard to think of a less oppressed figure than Lizzo,” The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiro-lizzos-mtv-victim-rant-does-democrats-fat-lot-of-good">said</a> in response to the speech. “This is a danger to Democrats. The more they preach that, the more they lose.”
Lizzo has ventured into political propaganda too. She donated $500,000 to Planned Parenthood just after the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June and has spoken about other social issues, including the trans agenda.
“I’m proud to rep Houston, but I’m not proud to rep Texas politics right now,” Lizzo <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mind-your-business-lizzo-calls-texas-abortion-ban-atrocious-says-trans-rights-are-human-rights">told</a> the crowd at SXSW in March. “Mind your business. Trans rights are human rights.”
During the same event, she called Texas’s abortion ban “atrocious.”
“Stay out of my body. This is not political,” Lizzo said, while claiming conservative politicians were “all up in your uterus.”
Lizzo isn’t the only one promoting obesity in the culture. Recently, fashion brand Abercrombie &amp; Fitch went viral for publishing photos of a larger than average plus-sized model wearing their clothing, and Victoria’s Secret has taken a similar approach with their brand. Lizzo appeared on the cover of Vogue in 2020.
And during that cover interview, she addressed her icon status. Lizzo says she doesn’t want to become the poster child for body positivity. She just wants obesity to become the norm. A statement like that doesn’t promote kindness, or freedom, or eliminate any type of oppression. It just seems to try and replace the current standard of health with a new, illogical one.
“It’s commercialized,” she said of the trend. “Now, you look at the hashtag ‘body positive,’ and you see smaller-framed girls, curvier girls. Lotta white girls. And I feel no ways about that, because inclusivity is what my message is always about. I’m glad that this conversation is being included in the mainstream narrative.”
She continued, saying larger women are getting overshadowed by people who aren’t fat enough.
“What I don’t like is how the people that this term was created for are not benefiting from it. Girls with back fat, girls with bellies that hang, girls with thighs that aren’t separated, that overlap. Girls with stretch marks. You know, girls who are in the 18-plus club,” she continued. “They need to be benefiting from&#8230;the mainstream effect of body positivity now. But with everything that goes mainstream, it gets changed. It gets—you know, it gets made acceptable.”
“I think it’s lazy for me to just say I’m body positive at this point,” Lizzo told <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/lizzo-cover-october-2020">Vogue</a>. “It’s easy. I would like to be body-normative. I want to normalize my body. And not just be like, ‘Ooh, look at this cool movement. Being fat is body positive.’ No, being fat is normal. I think now, I owe it to the people who started this to not just stop here. We have to make people uncomfortable again, so that we can continue to change. Change is always uncomfortable, right?”

US-ENTERTAINMENT-MUSIC-GRAMMY-PRESS ROOM

Probably Not Oppressed: Lizzo Is A Key Player In Normalizing Obesity

Grammys

Music Industry

Abercrombie &amp; Fitch faced backlash last week over an image it posted of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/obesity">plus-sized</a> woman modeling the brand&#8217;s shorts.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fashion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">photo</a> quickly went viral, with critics accusing the fashion retailer of promoting unhealthy lifestyles and glorifying obesity. This is a complete turnaround from a company that was once shunned for discriminating against women of average weight.
“Is this a joke? Who aspires to this look?!” someone else asked.
“She has a pretty face, too bad society told her not only was it healthy to look like this but it was also brave and empowering,” another person on Twitter agreed.
A spokesperson for Abercrombie &amp; Fitch said that the post was not an ad. “Abercrombie is often tagged by our customers on social media and we love to celebrate them by reposting their images to our channels. This is one of those occasions. The post was never removed from any of the channels to which it was posted,” the spokesperson said.
“New Abercrombie &amp; Fitch ad just dropped…. This season they are featuring diabetes and heart attacks,” one person responded on Twitter to the original photo. 

&nbsp;
Many followers questioned if the image was real or the product of some clever photo editing skills. But on Tuesday the company appeared to defend the photo in a Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/abercrombieofficial/">post</a>.
“We love when you tag us in your pics and we love celebrating you in our customer photos,” the post read. “Recently, we observed some unfriendly comments about community members we posted. Let us be clear: we love and appreciate our community members exactly as they are and won’t be changing. We will continue to delete and block those who don’t pass the vibe check. To everyone else, you’re loved and appreciated.” 

Meanwhile, in 2013, the CEO of Abercrombie went viral for making comments about overweight customers wearing the brand after the retailer was accused of refusing to sell XL- or XXL-sized clothing.
Robin Lewis, author of “The New Rules of Retail,” explained the CEO’s thoughts on the brand, Elite Daily <a href="https://www.elitedaily.com/news/world/abercrombie-fitch-ceo-explains-why-he-hates-fat-chicks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
“He doesn&#8217;t want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people,” Lewis said of then-CEO Mike Jeffries. “He doesn&#8217;t want his core customers to see people who aren&#8217;t as hot as them wearing his clothing. People who wear his clothing should feel like they&#8217;re one of the ‘cool kids.’”
Jeffries himself said as much in 2006. “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he told Salon in an interview.
“Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don&#8217;t belong [in our clothes], and they can&#8217;t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don&#8217;t alienate anybody, but you don&#8217;t excite anybody, either,&#8221; he concluded. 
Jeffries retired in 2014. There was a renewed interest in the decline of Abercrombie’s popularity following the release of the Netflix documentary “White Hot: The Rise &amp; Fall of Abercrombie &amp; Fitch” earlier this year.
Correction: A previous version of this article erroneously reported that the Abercrombie &amp; Fitch post was deleted. It was not deleted.

Abercrombie & Fitch Reports Weak Quarterly Earnings

‘Diabetes And Heart Attacks’: Abercrombie Gets Mocked After Posting Photo Of Plus-Sized Model

Abercrombie Gets Mocked After Posting Photo Of Plus-Sized Model 

Fashion

Instagram

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/bill-maher">Bill Maher</a>, host of HBO&#8217;s &#8220;Real Time with Bill Maher,&#8221; slammed the media and society in general for effectively celebrating people for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fat-acceptance">being fat</a>, warning that the trend is a legitimate national security concern for the United States as the U.S. Military is having a harder and harder time finding candidates who can meet the physical requirements to serve.
&#8220;There&#8217;s a disturbing trend going on in America these days, rewriting science to fit ideology or just to fit what you want reality to be,&#8221; Maher said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve gone from fat acceptance to fat celebration. That&#8217;s new. That is new. To view letting yourself go as a point of pride.&#8221;
&#8220;We used to at least try and be fit and healthy, and society praised those who succeeded,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Now, the term &#8216;body positivity&#8217; is used to mean &#8216;I&#8217;m perfect the way I am because I&#8217;m me.&#8217; It&#8217;s Orwellian how often &#8216;positivity&#8217; is used to describe what&#8217;s not healthy. Of course you can get away with anything bad for you when you&#8217;re young. But let me ask you this: have you ever seen a fat 90-year-old? Scary, isn&#8217;t it? ‘Healthy at any weight’ is an unchallenged lie that people tell themselves so they can go on eating whatever they want, which is fine.&#8221;
Maher noted that poor diet is a leading factor in many of the top causes of mortality in the U.S., including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
&#8220;It&#8217;s literally a national security issue now,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Military recruitment is down by the most since the end of the draft because mainly 17 to 24-year-olds are too fat to fight. At some point, acceptance becomes enabling, and if you&#8217;re in any way participating in this joyful celebration of gluttony that goes on now, you have blood on your hands, full stop.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="New Rule: Fat Acceptance | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yfiWjnStE3w?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>BILL MAHER, HBO HOST: And finally new rule, everybody should be allowed to let themselves go a couple of times a year, like now. The dog days of summer, schools out, rules out, it&#8217;s hot, vacation time. No one should have to diet on vacation — and the holidays, that&#8217;s the other, &#8216;Okay, I&#8217;ll let myself go&#8217; time a year. 
And who can blame us? It&#8217;s the end of the year. It&#8217;s structured around feast days. No one should feel bad about opening up the pants after Thanksgiving dinner and doing that thing where you undo the top button and try to hold it together with just the belt. That&#8217;s all fine. But not all year round. And that&#8217;s what&#8217;s kind of happened to America, letting ourselves go now as an all year round thing, doing the Thanksgiving pants thing every day.
They actually sell a business suit now with drawstring pants. I swear, I saw this in the mall, and I said to the salesman, “This is pathetic; it shows how much we&#8217;ve given up.” And he said, “No, people love it.” Of course they love it. You can have a mongoose for lunch and then give that big presentation. There&#8217;s a disturbing trend going on in America these days, rewriting science to fit ideology or just to fit what you want reality to be. We&#8217;ve gone from fat acceptance to fat celebration. That&#8217;s new. That is new. To view letting yourself go as a point of pride?
We used to at least try and be fit and healthy, and society praised those who succeeded. Now, the term “body positivity” is used to mean “I&#8217;m perfect the way I am because I&#8217;m me.” It&#8217;s Orwellian how often “positivity” is used to describe what&#8217;s not healthy. Of course you can get away with anything bad for you when you&#8217;re young. But let me ask you this: have you ever seen a fat 90-year-old? Scary, isn&#8217;t it? “Healthy at any weight” is an unchallenged lie that people tell themselves so they can go on eating whatever they want, which is fine. 
I&#8217;ve done many self-destructive things, too, but no one pretended there was “positivity” in smoking. Fat activist Ted Kyle, founder of Kunshan Health, says, “The media and public needs to stop catastrophizing obesity.” Okay? A, they&#8217;re not catastrophizing it, and B, they should be because it&#8217;s a full blown catastrophe. 
Poor diet is the leading cause of mortality in the United States, New York Times. Of course, we&#8217;re talking about heart disease and cancer and diabetes, but also as COVID has taught us, obesity is horrible for the immune system, which is why those numbers were off the charts during the pandemic. That&#8217;s a catastrophe. It&#8217;s literally a national security issue now. Military recruitment is down by the most since the end of the draft because mainly 17 to 24-year-olds are too fat to fight. At some point, acceptance becomes enabling, and if you&#8217;re in any way participating in this joyful celebration of gluttony that goes on now, you have blood on your hands, full stop.
You can make believe you&#8217;re fighting some great social justice battle for a besieged minority. But what you&#8217;re really doing is enabling addicts, which I thought we decided was bad. It&#8217;s not just the drawstring business suits — companies like Nike, Sports Illustrated, Victoria&#8217;s Secret, companies that are specifically about fitness nevertheless promote people who are plainly not into fitness. People like Adele face shame campaigns for losing weight. This is madness. There&#8217;s a reason the first thing your doctor does is make you step on a scale. Well, it used to be; there&#8217;s a card now that you can give your doctor and it says, “Please don&#8217;t weigh me unless it&#8217;s really medically necessary.” It&#8217;s always necessary. It&#8217;s like asking your dentist not to look at your teeth.
There&#8217;s a popular t-shirt that says, “I don&#8217;t owe no man a flat stomach.” Okay, no one said you did. You do you. But you&#8217;re not a freedom fighter because you want to keep eating donuts. USA Today actually wrote the sentence, “Science hasn&#8217;t yet figured out how to solve obesity.” And Ted Kyle concurs, saying, “We don&#8217;t know how to blunt the rise in obesity because we don&#8217;t know precisely what the factors are that are causing it.” Yes, what could it be? Dammit, this is a hard one! People say to me, “Oh, come on, Bill. People struggle with this.” Of course they do. Everything&#8217;s a struggle; life&#8217;s a struggle. But somehow, 50 years ago, this country looked entirely different. You don&#8217;t think it was a struggle for them? You think cake wasn&#8217;t delicious in 1969?
And that&#8217;s the saddest part. We can do this, I think. But by lying about it and making excuses, psychologically, it&#8217;s telling ourselves that letting ourselves go is the best we can do. And I gotta believe that as Americans, we can still do better than that.</blockquote>

2019 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones – Inside

Bill Maher Unloads On American Society For Encouraging People To Celebrate Being Fat

Bill Maher

National Security

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