Ted Nugent recently took to X to share his thoughts on healthy diets by posting a past interview he had with Conan O’Brien, where he made a risky comment on people with obesity calling them ‘cute.’
“Well, you know, we could be funny about it because fat people are kind of cute,” the singer said in the old clip, “but it’s the number one cause of death in the free world. There’s obesity and bad diets, you know.”
He went on sharing his own diet and lifestyle: “I’m just a guitar player, and I’m 52 years old, and I’m kind of limping and over the hill, but my family only eats what we kill ourselves. We eat venison and ducks and geese and quail, and it’s so pure and natural. I’ve never touched alcohol, drugs, tobacco, or fast food. My idea of fast food is an elk, you know.”
Nugent’s post made it clear that his views on the matter haven’t changed much over the years, as he repeated the phrase ‘My idea of fast food is an elk’ in the caption.
The singer has spoken openly about obesity rates in the U.S. on different platforms as well. In 2022, he harshly called out on the issue while discussing former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s warning about declining U.S. military recruitment.
Esper wrote in a Fox News op-ed that a small fraction of Americans were fit to serve in the military because many were overweight, on substances, or had criminal records. Nugent criticized said people by saying they were “destroying [their] sacred temple with toxic non-food with ingredients which you can’t pronounce in portions that would sink the Bismarck.”
A year later, the singer came up with possible solutions to overcome the obesity epidemic, suggesting finding a government agency dealing with the problem.