The presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been unique in modern American history in a number of ways. For one, he has campaigned on issues that most politicians don’t touch, including our nation’s health and nutrition, his primary focus.
While many pundits highlight his controversial stance on vaccines, his own emphasis has been the rise of chronic illness among Americans, particularly the young. When identifying causes, he points a finger at what our nation eats. He argues that our dependence on processed foods and sugar and other harmful foods like seed oils has led to a health crisis of catastrophic proportions.
I think RFK is right to highlight our poor nutrition and its impact on our physical health, but I would go further. I would argue that our modern American diet also has dire consequences in both the political and spiritual realms.
Political Consequences
First, let’s consider the political world. To maintain the common good our modern American system of government requires a constant “pushback” by the people toward the government. A too-compliant people will inevitably give rise to a more authoritarian government—exactly what our founding fathers wanted to avoid.
This is the reason for the first two amendments in the Bill of Rights. The first—freedom of speech—gives citizens the freedom to voice their discontent, and even contempt, for their government leaders without fear of political persecution. The second—the right to bear arms—gives the first amendment some teeth, acknowledging that citizens have a concrete way to resist government tyranny.
So what does this have to do with our modern diet? Our overdependence on processed foods and sugar impacts our bodies—and our brains—in a myriad of negative ways, making us more prone to brain fog, listlessness, and sloth which result from the insulin spikes and drops as well as from the excess weight these substances promote.
The typical processed-food-eating American is in a continual flux of sugar-high and sugar-crash throughout the day. His diet is a leash that leads him from sugary drink to nutrient poor meal to junk food snack on a perpetual cycle. Barely able to think beyond what tasks he has right in front of him, little energy remains at the end of the work day for anything but watching a mindless show or scrolling through his social media. No settling in with Dante or exploring Aquinas in an evening, or debating the merits of voluntarism with his wife, let alone tackling a rigorous hike in order to be rewarded with a beautiful sunset. And he does what would have been unthinkable to our ancestors: he consumes calories from the moment of rising to the moment his head hits the pillow at night. He’s on a leash after all.
Most people know high-sugar and ultra-processed foods are unhealthy. Why not just quit eating them? The fact is that these types of foods are also highly addictive, making us dependent on our dealer: Big Food—the companies who produce this slop and are heavily subsidized by the government to do so.
What a recipe (pardon the pun) for totalitarianism. The more we become docile and dependent, the more we will simply go along with what our government leaders—backed by Big Food-sponsored “experts,” of course—tell us. Who’s got the will to resist government encroachments on freedom? We just want to know when we can grab our next can of Coke and bag of Doritos.
Of course, our poor nutrition is not the only factor causing the rise of totalitarianism in our country, but it greases the wheels. It makes it more possible for actual violations of our rights to occur without protest. A fat and lazy populace is an easily controlled populace.
In short: if I were a dictator, surely I’d work to set up the food supply exactly like America’s current food supply.
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While many pundits highlight his controversial stance on vaccines, his own emphasis has been the rise of chronic illness among Americans, particularly the young. When identifying causes, he points a finger at what our nation eats. He argues that our dependence on processed foods and sugar and other harmful foods like seed oils has led to a health crisis of catastrophic proportions.
I think RFK is right to highlight our poor nutrition and its impact on our physical health, but I would go further. I would argue that our modern American diet also has dire consequences in both the political and spiritual realms.
Political Consequences
First, let’s consider the political world. To maintain the common good our modern American system of government requires a constant “pushback” by the people toward the government. A too-compliant people will inevitably give rise to a more authoritarian government—exactly what our founding fathers wanted to avoid.
This is the reason for the first two amendments in the Bill of Rights. The first—freedom of speech—gives citizens the freedom to voice their discontent, and even contempt, for their government leaders without fear of political persecution. The second—the right to bear arms—gives the first amendment some teeth, acknowledging that citizens have a concrete way to resist government tyranny.
So what does this have to do with our modern diet? Our overdependence on processed foods and sugar impacts our bodies—and our brains—in a myriad of negative ways, making us more prone to brain fog, listlessness, and sloth which result from the insulin spikes and drops as well as from the excess weight these substances promote.
The typical processed-food-eating American is in a continual flux of sugar-high and sugar-crash throughout the day. His diet is a leash that leads him from sugary drink to nutrient poor meal to junk food snack on a perpetual cycle. Barely able to think beyond what tasks he has right in front of him, little energy remains at the end of the work day for anything but watching a mindless show or scrolling through his social media. No settling in with Dante or exploring Aquinas in an evening, or debating the merits of voluntarism with his wife, let alone tackling a rigorous hike in order to be rewarded with a beautiful sunset. And he does what would have been unthinkable to our ancestors: he consumes calories from the moment of rising to the moment his head hits the pillow at night. He’s on a leash after all.
Most people know high-sugar and ultra-processed foods are unhealthy. Why not just quit eating them? The fact is that these types of foods are also highly addictive, making us dependent on our dealer: Big Food—the companies who produce this slop and are heavily subsidized by the government to do so.
What a recipe (pardon the pun) for totalitarianism. The more we become docile and dependent, the more we will simply go along with what our government leaders—backed by Big Food-sponsored “experts,” of course—tell us. Who’s got the will to resist government encroachments on freedom? We just want to know when we can grab our next can of Coke and bag of Doritos.
Of course, our poor nutrition is not the only factor causing the rise of totalitarianism in our country, but it greases the wheels. It makes it more possible for actual violations of our rights to occur without protest. A fat and lazy populace is an easily controlled populace.
In short: if I were a dictator, surely I’d work to set up the food supply exactly like America’s current food supply.
Read the Whole Article
The post The Dire Political and Spiritual Consequences of our Health Crisis appeared first on LewRockwell.
The post <a href=https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/09/no_author/the-dire-political-and-spiritual-consequences-of-our-health-crisis/ target=_blank >The Dire Political and Spiritual Consequences of our Health Crisis</a> appeared first on Conservative Angle | Conservative Angle - Conservative News Clearing House
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