President Trump: Making America Great Again...

[PaloAltoCougar]

I'm feeling grumpy this morning, wondering if RFK Jr. will push for better health care for women who may hang themselves after reading their husband's diaries of cheating on them with dozens of other women.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I think vaccines are a miracle. I don't believe they cause autism. I also support body autonomy and people's right to refuse vaccinations, regardless of whether I agree or disagree with their reason.

I understand but wrestle with your second sentence. I'd rather have fewer, not more, governmental mandates, but those who refuse vaccines, just like those who smoke, overeat, don't exercise, etc., can put others at risk or raise costs for everyone. Line drawing with respect to governmental intrusion is hard!

[Jeff Lebowski]

I don’t want RFK jr. as our Health Secretary as I’m sure many other people are more qualified, but it’s safe to say that with over 40% of US adults being obese, previous Health Secretarues aren’t exactly doing a great job. We could probably eliminate a significant portion of our health care costs if people weren’t so freaking fat. Maybe it’s time to try something different

Shame on you for fat shaming!

[Northwestcoug]

Muh free speech!

More than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites have been taken down since Friday afternoon, a New York Times analysis has found, as federal agencies rush to heed President Trump’s orders targeting diversity initiatives and “gender ideology.”

The purges have removed information about vaccines, veterans’ care, hate crimes and scientific research, among many other topics. Doctors, researchers and other professionals often rely on such government data and advisories. Some government agencies appear to have removed entire sections of their websites, while others are missing only a handful of pages.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/u...ing-pages.html

[Moliere]

Obesity is one issue. Medical care, prescriptions, food safety.
Even if I was sold on his character, I think he will approach healthcare problems like he is solving them with an abacus and not a computer. These issues aren't simple. I think a lot of this Trump administration is like that.

Obesity is the one issue that will cripple our health care system. Solving obesity won’t cure all diseases but it would have the far biggest impact on our health care system then solving any other disease. And the funny thing is that obesity is easy to solve at the personal level…you eat fewer calories than you burn.

[Moliere]

Shame on you for fat shaming!

I knew you’d be offended, Fatso!!

[Jeff Lebowski]

YO, on the other hand, sees only the good. He is such an optimist, and you all are such pessimists. Temu orders are down, and that means we are MAGA!!!

Hey, I appreciate his perspective here. He is an optimist on America surviving MAGA v2.

Yet he balances that with doom and gloom about how China is kicking our ass every way imaginable.

[frank ryan]

Obesity is the one issue that will cripple our health care system. Solving obesity won’t cure all diseases but it would have the far biggest impact on our health care system then solving any other disease. And the funny thing is that obesity is easy to solve at the personal level…you eat fewer calories than you burn.

I'm aware of the impact of obesity buts its reductive to think addressing that (how the hell does he plan on doing that?) isn't close all that needs to be addressed

[Northwestcoug]

Obesity is the one issue that will cripple our health care system. Solving obesity won’t cure all diseases but it would have the far biggest impact on our health care system then solving any other disease. And the funny thing is that obesity is easy to solve at the personal level…you eat fewer calories than you burn.

Obesity as an epidemic is the end result of the overabundance of food in this period of human existence. When food is abundant, there will always be a proportion of people who don't have the same satiety triggers or the 'efficient' metabolic makeup that most others have.

[myboynoah]

I don’t want RFK jr. as our Health Secretary as I’m sure many other people are more qualified, but it’s safe to say that with over 40% of US adults being obese, previous Health Secretarues aren’t exactly doing a great job. We could probably eliminate a significant portion of our health care costs if people weren’t so freaking fat. Maybe it’s time to try something different

Fully agree on our obesity problem. So many fat people in the U.S. I don't know how we can put that on previous Health Secretaries. It lands squarely on individuals. You want obesity to go down, heavily regulate what and how much people eat. Then run for the exits.

[SteelBlue]

Obesity is the one issue that will cripple our health care system. Solving obesity won’t cure all diseases but it would have the far biggest impact on our health care system then solving any other disease. And the funny thing is that obesity is easy to solve at the personal level…you eat fewer calories than you burn.

Just picturing the folks who couldn't be bothered to wear a mask during a pandemic being told in any meaningful way what they can and can't eat. That's going to go really well.

[frank ryan]

Just picturing the folks who couldn't be bothered to wear a mask during a pandemic being told in any meaningful way what they can and can't eat. That's going to go really well.

Super valid point.

[Goatnapper'96]

Obesity as an epidemic is the end result of the overabundance of food in this period of human existence. When food is abundant, there will always be a proportion of people who don't have the same satiety triggers or the 'efficient' metabolic makeup that most others have.

I wish this is what Private Pyle responded to Drill Gunnery SGT Hartman in "Full Metal Jacket." Instead of "Sir-I have a weight problem." He should have said "Sir-I just don't have the safety triggers or an efficient metabolic makeup......" LOL! The kid who was the First Captain my senior year did Air Assault School with me. He was a genius who studied Mechanical Engineering at West Point-I think he was chosen as a Rhodes Scholar. In the sling loading phase of the class an instructor asked why the load had to be balanced in some way or some distance away from the chopper hauling it and he gave some Mech Eng answer that I am sure Jeff Lebowski would love that finished with harmonic oscillations being avoided...or something like that. The Air Assault SGT eyes just about came out of his skull. I thought it was funny-but maybe you had to be there.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Obesity as an epidemic is the end result of the overabundance of food in this period of human existence. When food is abundant, there will always be a proportion of people who don't have the same satiety triggers or the 'efficient' metabolic makeup that most others have.

Funny how other developed countries have managed to have food abundance without the massive obesity epidemic we have here in the US. Why is that?

One of the things we can do is stop subsidizing the the corn farmers and getting rid of cheap high-fructose corn syrup with is super unhealthy. RFK Jr has said he is against so much corn syrup in our diet. The problem is, this solution would require us to import cane sugar to make up the deficit. But making people pay market rates for sugar would be a good thing. That corn subsidy is a subsidy for obesity. It is crazy.

[Northwestcoug]

Funny how other developed countries have managed to have food abundance without the massive obesity epidemic we have here in the US. Why is that?

One of the things we can do is stop subsidizing the the corn farmers and getting rid of cheap high-fructose corn syrup with is super unhealthy. RFK Jr has said he is against so much corn syrup in our diet. The problem is, this solution would require us to import cane sugar to make up the deficit. But making people pay market rates for sugar would be a good thing. That corn subsidy is a subsidy for obesity. It is crazy.

The US is glaringly worse than many developed countries, but obesity is all over. Here's the ignominious list:

https://data.worldobesity.org/rankings/

I have no doubt that getting rid of cheap sweeteners would help, but obesity truly is a complex chronic health problem. There will always be a need for a multimodality approach, including drug therapy and bariatric surgery for those who need it most.