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Less than 1 in 5 Americans aren’t healthy according to Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Freidman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Poor diet is the leading cause of poor health in the United States and is responsible for over half a million deaths each year.
This could be the biggest risk factor for Coronavirus illnesses and deaths due to underlying conditions like cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
“Only 12 percent of Americans are without high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or pre-diabetes,” he said in an interview last week. “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.”
Stay-at-home orders cause many to depend on canned and packaged foods high in fat, sugar and salt, not to mention the emotional distress Coronavirus has caused with people wanting to eat “comfort food.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has also shed light on people of color who may not have access to nutritious foods that are needed to sustain metabolic rates and a healthy immune system.
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