Medical ethicist Art Caplan had some choice words about President Donald Trump’s belief that exercise depletes the body’s finite energy resources.
“It’s false,” he said on Boston Public Radio Tuesday. “He’s got his own little delusional health theories.”
Caplan was responding to a New Yorker article that said Trump found exercise "misguided, arguing that a person, like a battery, is born with a finite amount of energy.”
“The battery theory ... [is] the idea he has that you are born with ‘X’ energy and you wear it out, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” explained Caplan.
Caplan said Trump’s theory is false, and explained the human body can build energy through exercise and proper diet.
“You’re not assigned a finite amount of energy in your lifetime,” he said. “That is not true. You can renew, restore, sometimes add [energy].”
Caplan also said people build their capacities to process oxygen through intense exercise regimens like marathon training or mountain climbing.
When asked about where Trump might have gotten this theory from, Caplan said he couldn't be sure.
“People believe all kinds of stuff,” he said. “They just do.”
Art Caplan is the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair, and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center. He’s also the co-host of the Everyday Ethics podcast.
