Parents, this is on you, which means it’s on me too.

And, before I lay out the reported numbers and government estimates, these numbers will be as dramatically misrepresented as the “flu who shall not be named” when we look back at the real impact of our idiocracy over the last three years.

The last valid data set I could find on the US population’s weight ranges showed 42.4% of American adults were considered obese in 2018. 

One thing that caught my eye was the number of people living with type two diabetes under twenty years old had increased by 95% in 2017. 

Wow, that was called “adult-onset diabetes” for half a century. 

The US monthly reported BMI rate almost doubled to 1.93 times the pre-pandemic rate, while the 2-19 year old’s BMI escalated to match by nearly double compared to the previous year. It was the 6-11-year-olds who were already overweight that gained the most. (Longitudinal Trends in Body Mass Index Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Persons Aged 2–19 Years — United States, 2018–2020)

US children were increasingly becoming obese at a rate of 0.07% the month before the pandemic, only to see a jump to 0.37 once the “big bad bug” was invented. 

That’s a 500% jump in incidence that even with the circus show going on, there’s nothing to suggest it was due to the current events. A one-month to the next-month jump like that is just too quick.  

In August of the year before, the official estimate was 22% of US children and teens in the obese category, up from 19% earlier.  

Kids at a healthy weight reported gaining 3.38 lbs at the same time the year before, only to report a 5.39 lbs gain this year. The moderately obese saw an increase from 6.49 to 11.99 lbs, and the severely obese 8.8 to 14.2 lbs. 

35% of residents in southern California reported an increase in obesity in 2020, but it’s hard to say whether that was carry-over C-19 weight. The US does hold a particular status as a larger country with a very high but surprisingly balanced obesity rate of 26.5% for men and 26.6 for women. 

We have known for a long time that epigenetic traits, characteristics, preferences, and lifestyle behaviors can be passed down from one generation to the next without changing any of the hard-wired DNA genes directly. 

They even passed a fear that was “taught” to momma rats to express when they smelled cherry blossoms onto her cubs, who would elicit a strong fear response when they smelled the same blossoms without any direct reason, passing down that fear in the rat-family line for six more generations. 

Insulin resistance is passed down from parents to children, just like the cherry blossom fear. 

The research tested children of people with diabetes and other diagnosed insulin-resistant conditions and found that their children displayed significantly reduced markers for insulin resistance. 

A child with one obese parent has a 50% risk of becoming obese themselves, which raises to 80% if both parents are obese. 

The compounding effect of two parents with health issues breeding susceptibility in their children who meet and find another susceptible mate and do the same again is more than I can calculate on my fingers. 

Still, someone will do the math, and it won’t be good when they do.

The harsh reality is that our species is de-evolving due to the non-existence of natural selection and our extremely high percentage of men becoming fathers. No other species on the planet enjoys the high rate of men finding mates and mating that we do. 

As the prediction for 2030 rolled out in 2019, pre-pandemic, saying 1 in 2 adults will be obese, 1 in 4 severely obese, and the most common BMI for women, black men, and low-income males, I can see that it wasn’t just a pessimistic hypothetical construct but rather a very real scenario rolling out in our society right now. (Obesity and severe obesity forecasts through 2030)

Now more than ever, we need to hold a higher health standard and make immediate changes in how we appear in this scenario. 

We are causing it, part of it, and have contributed to it. That is a very unnerving reality for me to accept, especially as someone that I felt was ahead of the trends and on top of at least this one thing we call health. 

I must step up my game and make myself more available to help. 

That’s why I have started creating different health series based on my work and the recent research supporting it so I can make that information available to anyone who wants or needs to change. 

Please let me know how I can be of service or what info you think I could help extend to you or your situation. Feel free to brainstorm in the comments or message me directly if that works.

Individual success in health and healing will not change this tidal wave.

Community health education and standards will make or break us as a whole. 

Count me in. 

I’m not just complaining here and want to know what more can be done, what more I can do before there’s not much anyone can do. 

We can do better!

Dr. Don