Dear USA: "Why do you eat like your healthcare is free?"

Chinese Roasting us on Rednote

Jan 19, 2025

What is RedNote? TikTok 'refugees' surge to popular Chinese app ahead of ban

It seems that TikTok has gone dark in the U.S. I would not care at all, but TikTok challenges actually partially led to the resignation from education by my daughter—who was an award-winning middle-school teacher.

How did TikTok contribute to Carly’s exit from the classroom? The year she was driven out, there was a TikTok challenge that had students do pretty unspeakable things to their teachers to be recorded and posted on TikTok for clout. The ones that I remember are to steal from your teacher—mostly dedicated instructors who put a lot of money into their classrooms. Yes, Carly had things stolen that she purchased herself. Another one was, to throw Halloween candy at your teacher when his/her back was turned.

Of course, TikTok itself didn’t promote those challenges, but the app was just a conduit for 13-year-old-little-sh!ts to torment their teachers further. There were other things that pushed Carly out and they were bigger: including, lack of parental and administrative support.

Anyway, the title for this post comes from a Chinese person who posted it on RedNote—the new Tiktok, I guess:

Artemis Moonchild
@PierreGoddess13
19h
So the jokes the folks on Rednote had about us Americans was “why do you eat like your healthcare is free?” And you know what….

Isn’t that about the truest, wisest, and funniest thing you’ve ever read in a mere nine-words?

I’ve written a moderate amount about the SAD (Standard American Diet) and the heavy (pun-intended) cost to the metabolic health of 71% of USAians who are overweight/obese. These individuals have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 or above. With obesity comes a long list of metabolic failures, including:

Heart disease and stroke: Obesity can lead to high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which are risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
Type 2 diabetes: Obesity is associated with type 2 diabetes.
Breathing problems: Obesity can cause breathing problems like asthma and sleep apnea.
Joint problems: Obesity can lead to joint pain and stiffness, such as osteoarthritis.
Cancer: Obesity can increase the risk of several types of cancer, including breast, colon, and endometrial cancer.
Liver and kidney disease: Obesity can increase the risk of liver and kidney disease.
Pregnancy complications: Obesity can increase the risk of pregnancy complications like gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia.
Mental health issues: Obesity can increase the risk of mental health issues like clinical depression and anxiety.
Fertility issues: Obesity can increase the risk of fertility issues like reduced fertility and erectile dysfunction.
Sexual function issues: Obesity can increase the risk of sexual function issues like erectile dysfunction and infertility.

Obesity can also increase the risk of metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity.

The great news about all of this mostly preventable illness is something that few will hear from their Western “health” care providers: if things don’t go too far, many of the above health issues can be reversed by dumping highly-palatable, ultra-processed foods and sugar; plus get sunshine, fresh air, and MOVE YOUR BODY, as much as you are able. Take it from me: I am not in the “health” care industry at all, but I am an active, metabolically healthy 67-year old with a BMI of 22 who walks (on a slow day) 10k steps per day.

After the teaching profession lost an amazing educator, Carly moved to San Francisco and is employed by a law firm in The City. Even though 36% of the U.S. is obese (29 or above BMI), San Francisco is only about 19% which is far below the national average.

Carly and many of her friends and colleagues are appalled that the health department of SF is hiring a “fat activist” named Virgie Tovar to help normalize obesity in the city—Tovar’s job will be to teach companies and citizens how to relate to fat people.

My position is that people should be as unhealthy, or as healthy as they want to be. However, obese patients put an unwelcome strain on an already pathetic health care system.

According to research, obese patients typically cost around twice as much in healthcare compared to non-obese individuals, with studies showing an average annual excess medical cost for obese individuals ranging from $1,800 to $3,000 per person, depending on the severity of obesity.