The Boston Globe recently posted an opinion piece by Mark Hyman and Dariush Mozaffarian, stating that many COVID-19 hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and deaths could be prevented if Americans had a better diet.
Here’s what they said: “ Doctors and scientists are discovering two common characteristics among many of those who are losing their battle with COVID-19 — they are overweight or obese and suffer from a chronic disease. Ninety-four percent of deaths from COVID-19 are in those with an underlying age-related chronic disease, mostly caused by excess body fat.”
This makes sense to me because excess body fat is not only on the outside of the body. Internal visceral fat presses on organs, and if diseased lungs are struggling to breathe, having constriction from excess fat will make it that much harder.
Drs. Hyman and Mozaffarian go on: “COVID-19 has pulled back the curtain to reveal just how unhealthy we are as a nation. Only about 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy, are without a large waist, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, or high cholesterol. The major driver of poor metabolic health, which increases the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19, is the nation’s diet — rich in starch, sugar, and processed foods and low in unprocessed food, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, good fats, seafood, nuts, and seeds.
Make a Pledge While You Have Time at Home
So many of us are home now , social distancing to limit the spread of Covid-19. You may see many humorous memes on social media about spreading waistlines due to overeating while confined to the house. But now, realizing the potential consequences of being overweight, wouldn’t this be a better time to commit to shifting your food to a healthier way?
If you’re not used to cooking, you now have time and many resources for learning while at home. I recently wrote a post called Covid-19 Cuisine - it’s a step by step guide for preparing many simple dishes, staring with grains and including vegetables, seafood, etc. Head on over through this link and give it them a try. You don’t have to eat perfectly, but if most of your food is simple and unprocessed, you will be healthier and won’t have to worry about your weight. Try the 90/10 formula which I describe in my book Food Becomes You. With 90/10 your goal is to eat well 90% of the time and relax for the other 10%. Being less than perfect is achievable.
Help Yourself and Future Generations
When you help yourself by changing your food for the better, you help everyone. You help your family by providing a better example. You help your farmers, the ones who are producing cleaner food instead of the agri-business that pollutes groundwater and produces meat in ways that abuse animals and contaminates the meat with hormones and antibiotics. You are helping the soil maintain minerals to grow nutrient rich foods for future generations. You are reducing the burden on health care and increasing your quality of life. There is nothing more powerful than the effect of changing your food for the better. Use this time of confinement and social distancing to reflect on the effect that changing your food will have in so very many ways. You are worth it. Your family is worth it. The planet is worth it.