Walking through the grocery store right now is like something out of a horror movie, where everyone is wearing gloves and a mask while avoiding each other like the plague.
It seems funny enough that in each cart of these zombie doctor patrons there are items that contribute to poor health.
During a health crisis people will go through extreme measures to protect the outside of their bodies, but neglect the inside.
Buying up high fat processed foods and sugary drinks associated with diabetes and coronary heart disease isn’t a great defense against COVID-19, where pre-existing conditions make you more vulnerable to the virus.
According to the New York Times, tens of millions of pounds of fresh food and 3.7 million pounds of milk a day are being wasted because of restaurants, hotels, and schools being shut down.
Some of this is being distributed to the needy, but not on such a large scale because of limited storage space.
In a momentous revelation, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, told the New York Times that fewer than one adult in five is metabolically healthy.
It has to do with what people are filling their grocery carts up with on a weekly basis.
Poor food choices over the course of years, Dr. Mozaffarian explains, has put many individuals in a compromising position with the deadly coronavirus holding this country in a vice grip.
“Only 12 percent of Americans are without high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or pre-diabetes,” he said in an interview with the New York Times.
“The statistics are horrifying, but unlike Covid they happened gradually enough that people just shrugged their shoulders. However, beyond age, these are the biggest risk factors for illness and death from Covid-19.”
Metabolic syndrome is characterized by excess fat around the middle, hypertension, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and poor cholesterol.
These factors hinder your immune system from being able to fight off infections, and trigger an inflammatory response that blocks the body’s defenses against pathogens.
And as Dr. Mozaffarian says, “Covid kills by causing an overwhelming inflammatory response that disables the body’s ability to fight off pathogens.”
So how are we supposed to eat healthy when our flight or fight response is in constant overdrive from stress?
For starters, it is not too late to begin eating a clean, plant-based diet to improve your health and prepare you for any virus that may come your way.
Take a look in your shopping cart next grocery visit and make sure you have more broccoli than biscuits.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle that begins by stocking the fridge with good choices of food is essential in protecting you and your family against the coronavirus, and any other attack against the body in the future.