The Myth of America's Healthier Past
The nostalgic slogan "Make America healthy again" evokes a romanticized vision of a bygone era when Americans supposedly enjoyed better health. However, a thorough examination of historical data reveals this notion to be fundamentally flawed. There was never a period in American history when the population was healthier than it is today, except in the realm of collective imagination.
The Grim Reality of Historical Health
Consider the year 1900, when life expectancy hovered around a mere 47 years. During this period, one in five children failed to reach adulthood, succumbing regularly to tuberculosis, diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, and diarrheal diseases from contaminated water, milk, and food. Those who survived childhood faced adulthood threatened by tuberculosis, pneumonia, typhoid fever, and various other infectious diseases. Polio crippled countless individuals, and childbirth often proved deadly. These were hardly "healthy days" by any modern standard.
By 1950, life expectancy had increased to 68 years, thanks to significant public health advancements including water chlorination, milk pasteurization, improved hygiene practices, antibiotic treatments for infections, widespread vaccinations, and a safer food supply enabled by preservatives and refrigeration. However, this longevity brought new challenges as people began living long enough to develop chronic conditions like heart disease, exacerbated by smoking, reduced physical activity, unhealthy diets, and undiagnosed hypertension.
Modern Health Advancements
Today, U.S. life expectancy stands at approximately 78-79 years, primarily due to the dramatic reduction of infectious diseases that once claimed lives prematurely. Modern medicine has transformed previously fatal conditions into manageable ones: infections from wounds are no longer death sentences, cholera transmission through drinking water is no longer a concern, botulism from food is rare, toxic molds in grains can be controlled, and effective medications exist for high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, diabetes, and various cancers.
Is there truly a desire to return to an era when snake-oil salesmen peddled dubious "cures," syphilis was treated with mercury compounds, radium was mistakenly believed to cure arthritis, the mentally ill were confined to asylums, polio victims spent their lives in iron lungs, and tuberculosis patients were committed to sanatoriums? The evidence clearly indicates otherwise.
Contemporary Health Challenges
Rather than looking backward to a mythical healthier past, we must focus on addressing the health conditions that have emerged alongside increased longevity. These include an obesity epidemic, rising rates of Type 2 diabetes, increasing cancer diagnoses in young adults, and the emergence of metabolic syndrome—a cluster of conditions including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess abdominal fat, and high cholesterol that elevates the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
A more realistic slogan than "Make America healthy again" would be "Make America healthier," as there remains substantial room for improvement. Among developed nations, the United States ranks approximately 30th in life expectancy (Canada exceeds this by three to four years), suffers from one of the worst infant mortality rates among wealthy countries, and exhibits some of the highest rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and hypertension—all conditions that can be addressed through lifestyle modifications.
The Vaccination Controversy
Despite these challenges, the U.S. excels in medical care, particularly in screening for breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers and providing first-rate treatment after diagnosis. In essence, America struggles with preventing illness but excels at treating it once it occurs.
This dichotomy is particularly evident in the current political landscape. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who occupies his position despite lacking relevant scientific background, has mounted a curious crusade against established vaccination recommendations. This stance is especially puzzling given that vaccination represents one of history's greatest scientific triumphs: smallpox has been completely eliminated, global polio cases have been reduced by 99 percent, and diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, rubella, whooping cough, and mumps have become rare.
Measles, a potentially deadly disease, was nearly eradicated until Andrew Wakefield published his scientifically flawed paper linking the MMR vaccine to autism. Additional vaccines against shingles, meningitis, pneumonia, human papillomavirus, and rotavirus have proven highly effective. According to the World Health Organization, vaccines prevented tens of millions of deaths during the 20th century alone. Kennedy's pseudoscientific attempts to alter proven vaccination schedules border on criminal negligence, potentially costing Americans both their health and financial resources through expensive treatments for preventable diseases.
Dietary Guidelines Analysis
Kennedy finds somewhat firmer ground with the recently released "Dietary Guidelines for Americans," which opens with the statement: "Under President Donald Trump's leadership, we are restoring scientific integrity and accountability to federal food and health policy." This claim appears ironic given Trump's documented consumption of multiple Diet Cokes daily, disdain for vegetables, and regular dining on burgers, pizza, fried chicken, and well-done steak.
Nevertheless, the guidelines do contain evidence-based recommendations, including emphasis on portion control and steering people away from highly processed foods—advice that seems to have escaped the president's personal attention. The guidelines appropriately stress avoiding added sugars, curbing refined carbohydrates, increasing fiber intake, consuming fermented foods to support gut microbial diversity, and reducing alcohol consumption (though they fail to specify recommended amounts).
Guidelines' Shortcomings
Thankfully, the guidelines do not recommend consuming raw milk, which Kennedy mistakenly believes offers nutritional benefits. However, several recommendations lack scientific backing, including increasing protein intake to 1.2-1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight and consuming three daily servings of dairy. Independent reviews have suggested that several members of the guidelines committee have ties to the beef and dairy industries.
Kennedy's misguided pledge "to end the war on saturated fats" has resulted in placing red meat and high-fat dairy at the top of the accompanying inverted pyramid, while fruits and whole grains are relegated to the bottom. Although the guidelines maintain the recommendation to limit calories from saturated fat to 10 percent of total calories, this contradicts suggestions to eat more meat and cook with beef tallow and butter—the latter falsely claimed to contain essential fatty acids.
While some evidence suggests saturated fats in dairy may not impact heart disease as significantly as those from other sources, promoting meat as containing "healthy fats" lacks scientific basis. The guidelines also fail to highlight the established link between processed meats and poor health outcomes.
Moving Forward
While the new dietary guidelines are not entirely disastrous, they deviate from longstanding recommendations to choose mono- and polyunsaturated fats over saturated fats—essentially advocating for more plant-based foods. If Americans follow the advice to reduce consumption of highly processed foods and refined carbohydrates, they can indeed progress toward better health.
As for those supposedly healthier bygone eras, people may have been thinner, but they were definitely not healthier. The romanticized vision of America's healthful past dissolves under scientific scrutiny, revealing that today's population enjoys health advantages unimaginable to previous generations. The true path forward lies not in nostalgic myth-making but in evidence-based approaches to addressing contemporary health challenges while building upon the remarkable medical advancements that have brought us to this point.
