What RFK Jr. and My Wife Convinced Me Of

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and my wife have done the impossible -- make me want to buy organic food.

Kennedy's long-shot presidential bid came to an end on Friday. Third-party candidates face a nearly impossible task. After Democrats forced President Joe Biden to give up the nomination, Kennedy's polling plummeted.

While he didn't win the election, Kennedy used his campaign to draw attention to the "chronic disease epidemic." When you step back and look at health trends, it's hard to miss.

U.S. children born in 1992 had an autism rate of 1 in 150. For those born in 2012, it was 1 in 36. In the late 1950s, the U.S. National Health Survey put the rate of diabetes at 9 cases per 1,000 people. Today, the House Diabetes Caucus says there are 93 cases of diabetes per 1,000 people. More than 70% of U.S. adults are overweight, with around 42% being obese. That's triple what it was 60 years ago.

There have been amazing advances in fighting cancer. Death rates from the disease have dropped steadily. The same can't be said for new cancer cases. Since 2005, they're up more than 45%. The U.S. population has grown by less than 15%.

There isn't room to detail the rapid increase in things like ADHD, infertility and depression.

In 15 years of debate about Obamacare, there's been comparatively little talk about Kennedy's insight. If Americans were healthier, paying for health care would be a much easier task. Instead, health expenditures have grown rapidly. In 1984, the U.S. spent under $1 trillion in inflation-adjusted dollars on health care. In 2022, it was more than $4.4 trillion.

The country is spending more on health care and getting sicker. That's a problem. But it isn't a unique one. A similar thing has happened in education. In response to low achievement, Nevada has spent decades increasing education spending. It doesn't work in education, because the system is broken. The obvious parallel is that something is broken in health care, too.

Kennedy doesn't receive credit for pointing this out. Instead he's routinely dismissed as a kooky conspiracy theorist. During the coronavirus pandemic, Instagram shut down his account. The Biden White House and other Democrats even asked social media companies to censor him. Now we know that much of the official narrative was wrong. The virus almost certainly came from a lab leak. COVID vaccines don't prevent infections -- just ask the thrice-infected Anthony Fauci. Masking was a joke. The Great Barrington Declaration had it right.

Yet, the national mainstream media doesn't seek to destroy the reputations of the many "experts" who spread their own conspiracy theories and suppressed the truth.

With those thoughts stewing in the background, I recently listened to Tucker Carlson interview siblings Casey and Calley Means. Casey trained to be a surgeon at Stanford. Calley is a former lobbyist for pharmaceutical and food companies. They left those lucrative careers, convinced many chronic diseases stem from dietary choices and environmental toxins. I intend to read their book "Good Energy."

They laid out steps to better health -- like avoiding processed foods and buying organic -- my wife has become more interested in recently. She's struggled with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and had some other health challenges. She's convinced food quality has a direct impact on health.

A few years ago, I would have been quite skeptical. Why pay more for produce that doesn't look as appealing? Foods with high fructose corn syrup taste great. Frozen pizzas are so convenient. But as is often the case, it turns out my wife was right.

You can't control governmental policy, but you can take steps to improve your health. If you see me buying organic apples or -- gulp -- shopping at Whole Foods, blame my wife and RFK Jr.

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Victor Joecks is a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Email him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or follow @victorjoecks on X. To find out more about Victor Joecks and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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