Today’s Facepalm Award goes to David Leonardt of The New York Times. In an article entitled
A Covid Mystery, he misses an obvious possible cause for why Covid has killed far less than expected in poorer parts of the world, and this miss is very symptomatic of America’s continuing failure to address the continuing health crisis of its horrendous diet, and the economic drivers behind that.
David Leonardt proposes several explanations for the lower death rates among the world’s poorest, but just doesn’t address the fact that 80% of Covid deaths have been in countries where at least 50% of the population is overweight, and how our general lack of health has contributed mightily to the death toll. Until this country gets serious about Big Food, we will just get sicker and sicker and need more medical care. Make no mistake - they are deliberately addicting you with fried fats, sugars, whole labs dedicated to maximizing “mouth feel.” Trigger a binge response in people and get a bonus! Then there’s the ad industry. Whoever manages the Coca Cola account has to be a sociopath.
Covid has hit those with diabetes very hard. The poorer you are, the poorer your diet is going to be, and the sicker you’ll get generally. And we can’t even talk about weight because it’s shaming. I am here to tell you it’s not your fault. Who’s our Surgeon General? We don’t know anymore. Let’s stop being consumers, no more considered than the cattle that are led to slaughter. We should as much as possible become locavores - eat food grown locally. It does the world no good to have 3000 mile salads or 10000 mile organic grapes.
Big Food knows what it’s doing, but like Big Tobacco it doesn’t care. What we are feeding our children is horrific and they sell it with a smile. Imagine what would happen to health care if we actually were healthy?Somehow nothing can be done because….Corn.
Which cattle shouldn’t be eating anyway.
India doesn’t have a lot of overweight people, and it’s been postulated thats indeed why the mortality rate hasn’t been what was feared. Body fat contributes to inflammation. That’s what kills people when struck with Covid.
We have agency here. We can begin to own our own health. But not once in a year were we advised to address diet. Instead, we were encouraged to eat and drink.