Unraveling the Healthcare Quandary: A Deep Dive into Chronic Conditions and Lifestyle Choices

The Magnitude of Healthcare Expenditure

If the American healthcare system was a country, it would have the 3rd largest GDP in the world at $4.5 trillion. 93% of that is spent to treat chronic, PREVENTABLE, lifestyle induced conditions. That means that 1 out of every 25 bucks spent IN THE WHOLE WORLD is spent to fix medical problems in America that people don’t have to have.

That's 4 times more than Americans spend on the food that made them sick in the first place.

It's 80% of America's tax dollars.

Exploring Root Causes

So what got us here?

Are people just lazy bums who would rather be sick than put the work in to eat decently enough, and exercise just enough, to prevent metabolic conditions? Or is it just that hard to get in, and stay in shape? Is there some complex formula? Does it require too much of a time investment for the average American to be healthy?

Probably not.

Navigating Contradictory Information

In fact, most people have the time and they will. They would absolutely do what was necessary if they just knew what that was. The problem, though, is they don’t have a clue. How could they know? They’re being bombarded with an insane quantity of contradictory information, propagated by Big Food, Big Pharma, government agencies that make policies on behalf of lobbyists for Big Food and Big Pharma, well-meaning but misinformed people of all manner of health and fitness related professions, and… maybe… just maybe… there’s some solid advice sprinkled in there.

The Dietary Landscape

We’ve seen the food pyramid, the Food Compass, the low-fat diet, the vegan diet (which has gone by a slew of names), the ketogenic diet (which has also had a veritable buttload of names), the carnivore diet, the Mediterranean diet, the Paleo diet, diets to induce a different pH like the Alkaline diet, the pescatarian diet, the flexitarian diet, the gluten-free diet, Eat Lancet, the South Beach diet, Weight Watchers, juice cleanses, detox teas, fat burners, pills, injections, a bevy of secret-formula concoctions, and 1,000 different types of exercise programs… and if you’re looking for confirmation bias, you will easily find 10 studies with suspect sources of funding and zero scientific rigor that will corroborate the asinine theory that the one you decide on is the right one.

The Cycle of Fad Diets

Then, when it doesn’t work, another Instagram influencer who’s promoting another fad diet and exercise program will convince you to try their program. You’ll read 10 other studies with suspect sources of funding and zero scientific rigor that will corroborate the asinine theory that the NEW one you decide on is the right one.

Rinse.

Repeat.

Breaking the Cycle: A Different Approach

Here’s the point in the article where most companies would then tell you about the diet and exercise plan THEY want you to buy into and give you 10 more studies with suspect sources of funding and zero scientific rigor that will corroborate the asinine theory that their diet is the right one.

That’s not how we roll, though. We do cite studies all the time (ones that employ real scientific rigor). We also often opine on studies with suspect sources of funding and zero scientific rigor.

This time, we’re sharing no studies. Apart from the intro where we talk about the absurd amount of money spent on luring the public into eating terrible food and the even larger sum spent on treating the results that stem from consumption of that terrible food, we’re not going to give you a single fact or figure.

Encouraging Observation and Intuition

Instead, we’re going to ask you to observe the world around you. Use some sense.

Let’s start with exercise.

There are hundreds or thousands of exercise programs out there. We actually have one we hope you try. If you don’t, it’s all good. The ONE thing that all good training programs have in common is that they involve some combination of resistance training and cardiovascular exercise. Pick one. Stick with it. It’s really that simple. If you do that, you’ll be better for it. You’ll have more muscle and less fat. You don’t need to read studies, facts, figures, or dissertations by scientists to simply pick up and put down heavy things, and to run or ride a bike or do some form of cardio. Now if you’re trying to play a sport or optimize around a particular endeavor, that’s a different story. You might want to get more granular, but for the sake of just being healthy instead of being metabolically ill, just pick a program and start. Right now. Don’t quit. 

Now to the diet…

Again, we’ll cite exactly zero studies. 

Why? 

We don’t need a laboratory and funding from an agenda-driven corporation or governmental regulatory agency (that’s funded by agenda-driven corporations) to tell us what nature has told us from human inception. It’s as simple as this: there are near zero metabolic conditions found currently and throughout history in cultures who prioritize meat and organs and subsidize that with what they can pick or otherwise acquire from the land, like seasonal fruit and honey… if they’re available. That’s it. No obesity. No diabetes. No problems stemming from chronic inflammation. No heart disease. None. 

There’s not a dietitian, doctor, regulatory agency, corporation, or anyone else who can refute that. It’s verifiable, observable, and irrefutable.

We didn’t arrive at the idea that we should adopt an ancestrally aligned lifestyle haphazardly. We looked around.

The data supports the claim, but we don’t need it. 

Stop trying to outsmart nature with new science. We'll never be smart enough to do that.

So... to become the BEST version of yourself...

Just observe and act accordingly.

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