I’m sure even those isolated Indigenous People who try to kill missionaries have heard about Ozempic by now. The weight loss drug designed to be used by diabetics has taken the world by storm—especially America’s version of the world.
James Gregory, the self-proclaimed Funniest Man in America, used to say that Americans would do anything to lose weight, except stop eating. Truer words were never spoken, not even in jest. In 1930, obesity rates in the U S were 2 percent for girls and 0 percent for boys. By 1993, the girls rate had increased to 12 percent and boys obesity percentage was 14 percent. Statistics for overweight children increased even more. Most serious studies into these figures blame two things—sedentary life styles and processed food.
We could reduce the amount of sugar in processed foods or encourage people to eat fresh, garden grown vegetables, but that would negatively affect our national religion—capitalism. So we just keep buying what we’ve bought for several decades and try to find a way to lose weight without sweating or cutting back.
I remember participating in President Kennedy’s Fitness Program at Stafford Elementary School in Tuscaloosa. A student teacher named Vito Capizzo ran all the boys through calisthenics and other fun activities.
Modern day exercise involves health club memberships, digitally controlled Peloton machines, and liver detox. Sweating to the Oldies is no longer necessary. Especially since rich skinny women found out about Ozempic, which is a GLP-1 receptor agonist.
I won’t bother to explain what that means because no one cares. Folks with weight-related illness have been taking Ozempic, Wegovy, and several other nonsensically named medications that stimulate the body’s natural GLP-1 hormone, which helps regulate blood sugar and appetite. This benefits those with weight-related illnesses, but those that think no one can be too rich or too skinny are now buying much more of these products—which is causing stocking issues.
In addition, some of the traditional weight loss methods that are popular are having trouble as Americans race to find an easy way to have their cake and eat all of it, too. Yesterday I read that Weight Watchers is filing for bankruptcy. I’m sure part of this is because WW Inc. can’t decide what its name should be.
The corporation keeps jumbling the corporate title a little so no one knows who they’re dealing with. Weight Watchers was created in 1963 and has proven effective for losing weight. In a comprehensive 2015 study, WW Inc. users were losing two percent more weight than doing nothing. While Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem bested those results, that’s still pretty spiffy, especially when one considers the overall health mindset of Americans.
I’m in favor of fighting health problems with science, but are we really sure we want to do that? Our track record on improving nature isn’t very good. We keep finding new drugs to counteract side effects from the old drugs we were already taking and descend further into our devices looking for apps that will reduce caloric intake and simultaneously increase heart rate. A few daily pushups and regular pushing plates away can work wonders.
Too bad it requires some effort.
Loading Comments