Eric Perner

American children should not be obese. American children should not be diabetic. But today, America has the most obese and diabetic children of any society in human history. Our current medical culture is the result of a breakdown in our medical incentives that have led the @AmerAcadPeds to advise parents that childhood obesity isn’t their fault and do simply give 12 year olds Ozempic. These incentives led the @AmDiabetesAssn to advise children that they DO NOT need to limit sugar intake for Type 2 Diabetes if they take drugs (only in 2018 did the association acknowledge a link between T2D and food). These medical guidelines have led doctors to not weigh patients in many cases or warn parents and children about the disastrous impacts of metabolic dysfunction. This culture led previous administration to cut the Presidential Fitness Test because it was “too competitive.” Patients must take health into their own hands. We must re-instill simple concepts like movement and healthy eating into our daily lives. We must recognize over medicalization as the urgent health threat it is. Major policy reforms are happening thanks to the fearless leadership we have in place, but the greatest accomplishment of MAHA will be the resurgence of patient empowerment that is happening on an individual level. Americans are reading food labels more. They’re demanding better food at local schools. They are more skeptical of the recommendations from pediatricians when it comes to chronic disease. They care ignoring media messages trying to obfuscate the fact that we are the most chronically sick and depressed country in the developed world. These are good things. The re-instatement of this fitness test, and the overall cultural change that is leading to a resurgence in patient empowerment, is a history-defining development.

The USDA Nutrition Guidelines Committee is secretly planning to declare a war on meat after the election. PA, WI, GA, + MI are capitals of meat production. The panel’s members are funded by Coca-Cola, Nestle, Novo Nordisk, and Bill Gates. It should be abolished. From the article; “The recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which are reevaluated every five years, are slated to arrive by the end of the year after the 2024 election. In the meantime, though, the plan to downgrade animal-based proteins could hurt Vice President Kamala Harris’s chances with swing state voters in farming communities.  Although the panel’s final report is not expected until late December, the committee’s preliminary directive on protein was announced earlier this month during a more than five-hour meeting hosted by the National Institutes of Health.”