“Structural interventions are urgent because the underlying problem isn’t just about individual choice, says Daphene Altema-Johnson, program officer for food communities and public health at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for a Livable Future. While Americans of all economic classes eat meals loaded with added sugars and fats, dietary quality correlates inversely with income. For the millions of Americans in underpaid front-line jobs with the highest risk of coronavirus exposure, ultraprocessed food is cheap and convenient. “
Source – motherjones.com
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How the American Diet Turbocharges COVID-19
The pandemic’s toll is further proof that we’re eating ourselves sick.
Before the coronavirus hit in early 2020, a quieter epidemic was already taking its toll across the United States: the near-universal prevalence of diet-related maladies. More than half of the calories Americans consume come from “ultraprocessed” foods that are shot through with added sugars and fats and are associated with weight gain. Pile those on top of our sedentary lifestyle, and the result is that almost 90 percent of adults have a sign of metabolic dysfunction—including high blood pressure, cholesterol, or blood sugar—and more than 40 percent are obese. In the pandemic’s first five months, the US had a 39 percent higher mortality rate than Europe, where the obesity rate is half ours.
This mess made us vulnerable to the worst aspects of the coronavirus: In the first…
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The Most Revolutionary Act 
I would say: Counter a sedentary lifestyle with regular adequate exercise. spend at least 30% of the money you use for your food purchases on fresh fruit and vegetables, use sugar and fat only in small amounts, and avoid buying processed food as much as possible! I’d say even people on low incomes can follow these rules if they really make up their minds to it! Let’s hope, that in future more and more people are going to adopt healthier lifestyles! 🙂
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Aunty I would amend that advice to remove the word “fat.” Animal fat isn’t bad for you. This is a myth that was started in the 1950s on doctored evidence. It’s vegetable and trans fats (oil and coconut oil excepted) that are strongly linked to cancer. And research shows the low fat, high carbohydrate diet is directly linked to the current epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes. See https://stuartbramhall.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/the-taboo-against-animal-fat/
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That is interesting. I never buy margarine, only ‘real’ butter, and for oil I only use olive oil. I think animal fat is alright, but I try to use it only in small amounts! 🙂
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