Matt Walsh almost gets it right but stops short of connecting the dramatic rise in obesity rates within the past few decades with America's growing reliance on ultra-processed food supply saturated in added (refined) sugars and hydrogenated oils for daily caloric intake. Instead, his simple tradcon mind that glosses over nuance and looks for simple solutions to problems he thinks are simple from only having a cursory knowledge of the subject he is opinionated about, which occurs anytime he climbs past the low hanging fruit of the culture war, chalks it up to lifestyle choices.
My answer to most things are simple because as you know I’m a simple man and I see simple solutions to problems most people seem to think are complicated (i.e. multivariate like the rest of reality) and I think most problems are not complicated (multivariate) and most solutions to most problems are simple.
You could stop at “life-style choices” if you weren’t aware that congress determines which foods will be the cheapest and most widely available through the annual farm bill. As I mentioned in How Congress Created Our Obesity and Mental Disorder Epidemics, more than half of the daily calories Americans consume are derived from subsidized agricultural commodities (Siegel, Bullard, Imperatore, Kahn, Stein, Ali & Narayan, 2016). Current agricultural subsidies are focused only on a handful of commodities, mainly corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, sorghum, dairy, and cattle (Siegel et al., 2016). Much of these are used to produce high trans fat, high refined sugar processed foods, refined grains and soft drinks. For instance, 50% of domestically grown soybeans are used to produce oils, such as hydrogenated oil prevalent in fast food, and 5% of domestic corn is used to produce high-fructose corn syrup, used to sweeten soft drinks and junk food (Siegel et al., 2016). About 70% of the fats and oils we consume are produced from soy oil and another 8% are produced from corn oil (Wallinga, 2010). Americans also consume 24% fewer servings of vegetables daily than what the USDA recommends (Wallinga, 2010). Of course, vegetable and fruit production does not qualify farms for emergency payments and is prohibited in some farm bill programs (Wallinga, 2010). Not only is the federal government incentivizing the consumption of these toxic ultra processed foods but the food industry itself has built up a bulwark of professional associations, nutrition “experts”, and industry sponsored science to divert attention away from their product lines and scapegoat sedentary “lifestyle” choices and consuming too many calories, as if all calories are equal. I covered how the ultra-processed food industry has literally bought favorable research and legislation to deceive the public into thinking their industry bears no responsibility for the dramatic uptick in chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes (which are in fact DISEASES and not suicide attempts or injuries caused be negligent discharge of firearms) in three separate parts of the series When The Media Says “Experts” They Mean Paid Corporate Shills. As I mentioned in (Part 1) the food, agro-chemical and Pharma industries have established a revolving door between prestigious trade organizations such as the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, that routinely partners with the NIH on research and lobbies congress on food regulations, and employment and/or consulting positions with themselves. That specific trade organization was exposed running a quid pro quo system of putting organization leaders in key positions within pharma, food and agribusiness corps, investing their funds in ultra-processed food and beverage co stocks and selling sponsorships to these same corps that entail “specific rights and benefits”, such as exhibitions at trade events and input on internal policies, at the right price. As I mentioned in (Part 4), a peer reviewed study of 239 public health events (e.g. conferences and exhibitions) found that Coca Cola provided funding for 158 of them including 38 that dealt with obesity, 34 with physical activity, 21 with nutrition science, 12 with collaboration between academics and corporations, 9 with sweeteners, 6 with pediatrics, 3 with diabetes, and 1 with a soda consumption tax. Coca Cola didn’t always directly fund event organizers but used affiliated nonprofits (i.e. front groups) to fund organizers or bought lecturers and research teams directly for most of the events. Coca Cola also uses prestigious trade organizations and professional associations such as the aforementioned Academy of Nutrition and Dietics as well as the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics as intermediaries between the public health institutions and scientists participating in conferences. Coke requested that their sponsored researchers talk directly to the media about the findings of Coke funded studies on the causes of obesity during 9 conferences including the international study on childhood obesity, lifestyle and the environment, and the energy balance study. The main conclusion, limited by the terms of reference and study parameters, of Coke funded research is that physical inactivity, not high fructose corn sludge beverages, is the main cause of obesity and focus was placed on quantity instead of quality of caloric intake. In fact, the sole purpose of all their paid shills was to steer blame for chronic health problems away from their brand which sometimes entailed discussing the dangers of food additives and refined sugar in a limited hangout manner. As I mentioned in (Part 20), Coke’s favorite and by far most influential front group is the International Life Science Institute whose grasp on the official narrative about diet and exercise extends beyond the U.S. with 18 branches on 5 continents to ensure their client’s bottom-line is upheld in the dietary guidelines and food legislation of other countries. Of course, your average overweight and pre-diabetic or diabetic American would be completely unaware of the nutrition science racket I just divulged and not only unaware of it but bombarded with a deluge of conflicting messages asserting and denying their autonomy over this chronic disease and yes a disease is still a disease even if it’s a self-inflicted disorder that results from blind trust in multinational food capitalists.
Virtually Every Medical Expert is Lying to You About Obesity: Here is the Proof