Introduction: A Nation of Excuses
In America today, excuses dominate our conversations about health.
The Left says:
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“The poor can’t afford healthy food.”
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“They don’t have time to cook.”
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“They lack the education to make good choices.”
The Right says:
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“Big Pharma keeps us sick.”
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“Big Food poisoned the system.”
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“Seed oils and the Food Pyramid ruined our health.”
At first glance, these camps seem like opposites. One blames capitalism, the other blames conspiracies. But if you peel back the rhetoric, they’re united by one common theme: it’s not your fault.
And that’s where the Libertarian perspective cuts through the noise. Excuses — no matter which side they come from — deny the most fundamental truth about health: your life, your body, and your choices belong to you.
The Liberal Helplessness Narrative
Liberals have perfected the art of painting people as victims of circumstance. Their script goes like this:
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Cost: Healthy food is too expensive.
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Time: The poor don’t have time to cook because they’re too busy working.
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Education: People don’t know enough about nutrition to make good decisions.
It’s a story designed to justify government intervention. But the facts tell a different story.
The Economics of Eating Healthy
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Dry beans: $1.50/lb, yields 6–7 cups cooked. That’s multiple meals for pennies.
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Potatoes: A 10-lb bag often sells for $5 or less. Each potato is a meal in itself.
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Bananas: As little as 25¢ each.
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Oats & Rice: Among the cheapest staples in any grocery store, filling and nutritious.
These foods aren’t exotic. They’re in every grocery store, food pantry, and corner market. They’re not just affordable — they’re the cheapest calories available.
The Time Myth
Batch cooking obliterates the time excuse. A pot of lentils or rice-and-beans takes under an hour and provides meals for days. Crockpots and Instant Pots make it easier still — throw in ingredients, walk away, come back to a week’s worth of food.
Meanwhile, Americans spend:
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2.8 hours per day watching TV (BLS data).
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Over 4 hours per day on smartphones (Statista, 2023).
The issue isn’t lack of time. It’s misplaced priorities.
The Education Myth
Claiming the poor are too uneducated to eat healthy is perhaps the most insulting excuse of all. Everyone knows soda and potato chips aren’t healthy foods. Nutrition apps, YouTube channels, libraries, and government guidelines are freely available. Pretending otherwise demeans people’s intelligence.
The truth: Liberals cling to the helplessness narrative because it reinforces dependency on government. If individuals can take responsibility for their health, the justification for endless programs evaporates.
The Conservative Conspiracy Narrative
On the Right, excuses take a different form — but the effect is the same. Conservatives point fingers not at poverty, but at shadowy forces supposedly ruining everyone’s health.
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The Food Pyramid of the 1990s is blamed for the obesity crisis.
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Seed oils are demonized as toxic sludge destroying society.
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Big Pharma and Big Food are cast as villains conspiring to keep us sick.
But this, too, is smoke and mirrors.
The Food Pyramid Myth
Yes, the 1990s Food Pyramid emphasized grains. But let’s be honest: Americans weren’t dutifully eating 11 servings of whole wheat bread. They were eating pizza, fast food, and soda.
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From 1971 to 2014, U.S. calorie intake rose 23%, mostly from processed snacks and sugary drinks.
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Obesity didn’t rise because of oatmeal. It rose because people ate more junk and moved less.
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The pyramid has been gone for over a decade, replaced by MyPlate, which recommends fruits, vegetables, protein, and whole grains.
Blaming the pyramid is like blaming a dusty old poster for a nation’s self-control problem.
The Seed Oil Panic
Yes, highly processed oils aren’t ideal in massive quantities. But they’re not the great poison conspiracy either.
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Research data: 57% of U.S. calories now come from ultra-processed foods — soda, chips, pastries, fast food. That’s the real culprit, not the tablespoon of soybean oil in stir fry.
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Dose matters. Demonizing canola oil while ignoring pizza, ice cream, and soda is distraction theater.
Premium Food Elitism
Right-wing health influencers often dismiss beans, oats, rice, and lentils as “peasant food,” insisting true health requires grass-fed beef, wild-caught salmon, avocados, and imported olive oil.
But beans and grains are some of the most studied, evidence-backed foods on Earth:
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Beans & Lentils: Linked to lower heart disease and diabetes risk (Harvard).
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Whole Grains: Improve cholesterol and gut health (AHA).
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Tubers: Nutrient-dense, inexpensive, and sustaining.
Civilizations thrived on these foods. Calling them “peasant food” isn’t science — it’s elitism.
The truth: Conservatives betray their own philosophy when they cry, “The government made me fat.” Responsibility is the bedrock of conservatism. When they abandon it, they sound just like the Left.
The Libertarian Truth: Responsibility Above All
Here’s where Libertarians part ways with both tribes. We recognize that systemic pressures exist — marketing, subsidies, cultural habits, and convenience foods. But those systems don’t control your hand. They don’t lift the fork. They don’t drive you to the drive-thru.
You do.
And that’s the liberating truth.
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You don’t need subsidies to buy beans.
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You don’t need conspiracies to explain your soda habit.
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You don’t need elitist steak dinners to avoid diabetes.
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You need discipline, ownership, and responsibility.
The government didn’t make you unhealthy. Corporations didn’t sneak into your kitchen. Algorithms didn’t cook your dinner. You did.
And because of that, you have the power to change it.
Evidence That Responsibility Works
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Exercise: 150 minutes of moderate activity per week reduces chronic disease risk by up to 50%. That’s just 30 minutes, 5 days a week.
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Dietary Shifts: Cutting ultra-processed foods by just 20% lowers obesity and heart disease risk significantly. Small steps matter.
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Blue Zones: Populations with the highest longevity eat beans, grains, vegetables, and modest amounts of meat. They thrive not on conspiracies or subsidies, but on consistent habits.
The evidence is overwhelming: responsibility works.
The Philosophy of Liberation
Excuses are chains. They tell you that your health belongs to someone else’s decisions. That you’re powerless. That you must wait for systems, corporations, or bureaucrats to save you.
Libertarianism offers the opposite: the radical belief that you own yourself. You own your choices. You own your habits. You own your health.
Yes, the system pressures you. Yes, corporations market junk food. Yes, government subsidies distort the food supply. But none of those things can force you to drink a soda, skip a workout, or ignore the produce aisle.
Responsibility is liberation. Because once you accept that you are the cause, you realize you are also the solution.
Conclusion: The End of Excuses
Liberals blame poverty. Conservatives blame conspiracies. Both miss the point. Yes, big pharma wants your money.
The truth is simple, powerful, and uncompromising: Your health is your responsibility.
Stop outsourcing blame. Stop clinging to excuses. Stop waiting for others to change.
The most radical act in today’s culture of victimhood is also the simplest: take responsibility for yourself.
That is the Libertarian truth. That is freedom. That is the liberation of responsibility.
Take responsibility for your own health in style! 👇