Olympic Gold Medalist Claims North Korea Successfully Tackled Obesity Crisis

Though most Americans haven’t heard of him, James Cracknell is very well-known in in the UK. He’s an accomplished athlete who has won two Olympic gold medals for competitive rowing, and in recent years he has tried to make a move into politics. He’s currently hoping to run for parliament in 2020. As part of his campaign he is promising to tackle obesity, which has become a serious problem in the UK.

During a recent interview with Sky News, the topic of obesity came up, and Cracknell presented North Korea and Cuba as examples of countries that don’t have an obesity crisis. He said that a “behavioral change” had been made in those countries to reduce obesity. At first the hosts of the show thought he was making a joke. However, it quickly became clear that he was not kidding.

Of course, Cuba and North Korea don’t “have a handle” on obesity. Their people simply don’t have as much access to food. In North Korea’s case, their population is on the brink of starvation at any given moment, due to the communist policies of their government. Saying they have a handle on it, makes it sound like they had a problem with obesity to begin with.