Earlier this year, I reported on the news that British children between the ages of two and five are now getting two-thirds of their daily calories from processed food. This was bad news indeed, and although the situation elsewhere may not be quite so dire as it is in Britain, the general picture, across the developed world, is of a younger generation being systematically failed by those who should be doing their utmost to nurture and protect them.
Processed food has been linked to more or less every one of the prevailing diseases of the modern age, from obesity and diabetes to cancer and even behavioural conditions like ADHD and autism. A child raised on this junk is likely to become an adult damned by their parents to addiction, unable to stop gorging on salty, sweet, crunchy and chewy snacks that are deliberately made to be as hard to resist as any drug you’d buy on a street corner.
The idea that we are setting our children up to fail came to me again this week when I considered a new study showing a worrying link between boyhood obesity and adult male infertility. Infertility is a hot topic at the moment, largely because of books like Shanna Swan’s Countdown and the Tucker Carlson documentary The End of Men. The predictions are nothing short of apocalyptic. According to the so-called “spermageddon” scenario outlined by Professor Swan in her book, by 2045 we may, as a species, be unable to reproduce by natural means. The median man will have a sperm count of zero, meaning that one half of all men will produce no sperm, while the other half will produce so few as to be functionally infertile.
Gaulsstin / Flickr / Edited
Professor Swan’s prediction isn’t wild speculation, but simply a projection of current trends in male fertility. And, in fact, there are now indications, as a result of further research conducted by Professor Swan and others, that these trends in infertility are actually speeding up.
Much of the blame for this catastrophic decline in male potency is laid at the feet of hormone-disrupting chemicals. Over the last 70 or so years, our exposure to such chemicals, many of which are associated with the manufacture of plastics, has grown enormously. These chemicals interfere with men’s delicate hormonal balance, usually by mimicking the effects of the “female” hormone estrogen. Too much estrogen has feminising effects, reducing testosterone levels and sperm quality and quantity, promoting weight gain and generally making a man’s life a living hell. There are whole subreddits devoted to just how awful it is to be a man with low testosterone. They make for grim reading indeed.
It’s worth noting, though, that these chemicals are affecting women’s reproductive health too. A new study out of Singapore showed that women exposed to higher concentrations of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) have as much as a 40% lower chance of conceiving and bringing a live baby to term. PFAS are known to have estrogenic properties, and were one of the principal chemicals Tucker Carlson focused on in his documentary.
Chemicals aren’t doing all the work though. The new study of boyhood obesity reminds us that weight gain is also clearly implicated in declining fertility, and not just weight gain in adulthood. Researchers from Italy looked at data for around 250 boys between the ages of two and 18, and discovered that boys of normal weight had testicles that were 1.5x larger than those of boys who were carrying excess weight. Children with normal levels of insulin, the hormone implicated in diabetes, had testicles up to 2x larger than children with excess levels of insulin.
The “war on obesity” needs to end, because like the war on drugs, the war on crime, the war in Vietnam and the war on X, it simply isn’t working.
As the researchers note, “childhood and adolescence represent an important time window for testicular development.”If your testicles do not develop properly during childhood, you are likely to suffer serious reproductive-health problems as an adult, including reduced fertility and low testosterone. This study is one of the first to demonstrate the serious potential long-termreproductive consequences for overweight and obese boys. Previously, we had little understanding of the effects on adult testicular function of carrying too much weightas a child and suffering from insulin resistance or diabetes.
So there we have it: fat boys are likely to become infertile men. What’s more, this almost certainly applies not just to fat men who were fat boys, but to men of normal weight who were fat boys but managed to lose their extra childhood weight. If your testicles don’t develop properly during adolescence, they’re not going to function properly even if you’re the right weight as an adult. While losing weight is likely to make the problem better – if there’s a problem, losing weight usually helps – certain processes only happen once.
I’ll say it again: set up to fail.
Children snack on broccoli (DoD Photo)
The treachery against our children is only made worse by those who claim that “diet culture”, not obesity, is the real enemy today. Virginia Sole-Smith’s new book, Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture, argues precisely that. Children are raised to believe “fat is bad”, the blurb tells us. “But it’s not out kids – or their weight – that needs fixing.” So what does? Our “body biases” and our belief that “thinness is a survival strategy in a world that equates body size and value”. The “war on obesity” needs to end, because like the war on drugs, the war on crime, the war in Vietnam and the war on X, it simply isn’t working.
Weight gain is a complicated thing. It’s certainly more complicated than calories-in-calories out: I’d be the first person to admit this. Many of the endocrine-disrupting chemicals responsible for fertility decline, including PFAS, are also known to be obesogens, meaning they encourage weight gain in various ways, from interfering with appetite-regulating systems in the body to reducing the body’s caloric expenditure. Processed foods can do similar things by destroying the beneficial microorganisms in our gut and allowing harmful strains to grow.
But the truth is that there are identifiable causes of weight gain. Our ancestors weren’t like this, because they didn’t eat like we do, they weren’t as inactive as we are, they weren’t exposed to the harmful chemicals we are… Something – some things – have changed, and by discovering and addressing those things, we absolutely can bring ourselves and our children renewed health and happiness. I’d go so far as to say this is our sacred duty.
“Fat acceptance” is nothing more than the worst form of double-betrayal: first, because it allows our children to become fat, encourages them to become fat; and then because it lies to them and tells them everything is okay. They know it isn’t. We all know it isn’t. And what’s becoming deadly clear now is that when we set our children up to fail as individuals, we’re setting ourselves up to fail not just as a society, but as a species too.
This op-ed features opinion and analysis from Raw Egg Nationalist, the popular health and fitness author recently profiled in the Tucker Carlson Originals documentary, “The End of Men“. His book, The Eggs Benedict Option, is available on his website and from popular book sellers, and his magazine, Man’s World, is available online.
