COVID-19 and Obesity
During the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak, the focus for high risk factors was on age, race and sex. This list has now expanded to include Body Mass Index (BMI). According to a study performed by the CDC in 2015-2016, more than 70 percent of Americans are overweight, and almost 40 percent of those being obese with a BMI of 30 or higher [1].
The CDC warns: “Severe obesity increases the risk of a serious breathing problem called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which is a major complication of COVID-19 and can cause difficulties with a doctor’s ability to provide respiratory support for seriously ill patients. People living with severe obesity can have multiple serious chronic diseases and underlying health conditions that can increase the risk of severe illness from COVID-19” [2].
The numbers don’t lie:
- 35.8 percent of the first 393 COVID-19 patients admitted to two hospitals in New York City were obese [3].
- In a study of 5,700 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in New York City, 41 percent were obese and over 33 percent had diabetes [4].
- In study of 3,615 people who tested positive for COVID-19, those with a BMI between 30 and 40 were approximately twice as likely to be admitted to acute and critical care than those who had a BMI of less than 30. These patients were also three times more likely to die from infection than those with a health BMI [5].
- The COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network states that obesity is the most prevalent underlying condition in patients 18–64 years [6].
To make matters worse, hospitals are ill equipped to support a high influx of overweight and obese patients [7]:
- Many hospitals only have a set number of special beds for the obese.
- It is more difficult to intubate the obese.
- Imaging machines have weight limits, making it challenging to obtain diagnostics for the obese.
- The obese can be difficult to position and transport.
With stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders still in place across most of the country, a healthy diet can be hard to manage, thus compounding weight issues. Most people are gravitating toward foods with a higher shelf life such as canned goods or frozen meals. These dishes are often loaded with preservatives and high in sodium, neither are good for the body and both ensue undesired weight gain. This combined with the fear of leaving the house and the ease of just sitting on the couch to binge the next Netflix series creates a dangerous recipe for obesity.
If ever there was a time to get smart about what you eat, it is right now. Eating well builds better immunity. Your body works better when it is fed better. Good food can help balance the three systems in your body (digestion, detox, or neuroendocrine), and weight loss can be achievable.
Don’t buy fast food or processed goods simply because they last longer. Shop the borders of the grocery store instead--produce, meat, fish and dairy. If you are doing most of your shopping online these days, just picture a store in your mind as though you were really pushing a cart. Stick to the basics (check out my blog: Good, Better and Best: How to Navigate Your Grocery Store).
If you feel anxiety about the current state of the world, especially if you have concerns about your weight and increased risk factor because of it, please contact me. There are so many fad diets and trends out there that it can be confusing to know where to start. I don’t believe in fad diets. They often don’t work because most people have an underlying condition that is the cause of their weight issues.
I will listen to you. I will come alongside you and together we will make a plan for your health. Together we will keep you on track to obtain a normal BMI and reduce your risk for COVID-19. Sign up for a 20-minute Health Discovery Session with me for $49 and we’ll get you started on a path toward better health today.
Curious about your BMI? The following is a calculator provided by the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/english_bmi_calculator/bmi_calculator.html
Sources:
- https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm
- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/groups-at-higher-risk.html
- https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2010419
- https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765184?guestAccessKey=906e474e-0b94-4e0e-8eaa-606ddf0224f5&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=042220
- https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa415/5818333
- https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/comment/obesity-covid-19-risk/
- https://www.worldobesity.org/news/statement-coronavirus-covid-19-obesity
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Heidi Toy Functional Medicine Blog
Did you know most people didn’t have refrigerators in their homes until well into the 1900’s? It wasn’t even invented for large scale commercial use until the mid 1800’s [1]. So how did people keep their milk cold and make their food last longer? Fermentation. It sounds like a gross concept, because we often associate fermentation with a bad odor, but foods like cheese, yogurt, sauerkraut and pickles are all fermented foods. And those aren’t gross, are they? Well, some might disagree with me about sauerkraut, but that’s beside the point. Fermented foods are digestive aids. Microscopic living organisms in fermented foods help extend the food’s shelf life, enhance flavor, and help the body absorb minerals. These organisms pre-digest the food, getting rid of harmful components, and create more vitamins and enzymes than the food began with. Enzyme-rich foods have many benefits including [2]: Increase digestibility of food we eat Boost immune system Increase alkalinity; neutralizing pH levels Provide a healthy balance of friendly flora in the gut (Learn more about your microbiome in my other blog posts ) Tone the colon and help with elimination Control cravings for unhealthier foods Eliminate toxins and undigested wastes in the body In the “old days,” people use to ferment all kinds of foods through pickling, canning, pasteurization and added salt. Nowadays, however, large scale fermentation has lost many of its nutritious benefits due to the need for speed to get the product on the shelf as fast as possible and as cheap as possible. The only true fermented foods you will find are sauerkraut, kombucha, yogurt and kefir, beans, wine and beer, some meats (such as salami and pastrami), legumes and nuts (such as tofu, soy sauce and miso), sourdough bread, and various kinds of vegetables [3]. Fun facts about sauerkraut: The Germans “stole” it from the Chinese! Sauerkraut (probably not labeled as such for the Chinese, but the same recipe) was one of the main foods for those who built the Great Wall of China. Genghis Khan brought it to Eastern Europe during an invasion. It also contains high levels of vitamin C, and sailors often took it on long journeys to prevent scurvy.
How can we best keep blood sugar stable? Do what our body is designed to do – use fat for energy. Our species did not survive the Ice Age because of vanilla coffee lattes and cheesecake. Throughout most of our history, we ate a diet that was likely 50-70 percent fat. Look at the old family photo albums, specifically pictures of people in the first half of the 1900s, before we had so many processed foods. You won’t see many fat people--in fact, most look darn skinny. If they lived on the farm, they ate lots of eggs, meat, milk, and vegetables out of their own backyards. “Diet foods” were non-existent. Heart disease was almost non-existent. Our metabolism is designed to work much better with fats better than with sugar. Fats provide the slow and steady fuel our body likes to use for energy. Think of fats as a slow-burning log on the fire. One log (i.e. one meal containing fats) lasts for hours. Starchy carbs, on the flip side, are like kindling. You constantly have to throw more twigs (chips, pasta, bagels) to keep the fire burning. The first step is to know your sugars by reading the labels, and then avoid said sugars as much as possible.
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Omega-3 and Omega-6 are considered “essential” fatty acids because they cannot be produced by the body--we get them from the food we eat. They are biologically active upon ingestion, which means the body utilizes them right away and cannot store them up for later. They are essential because they help with both inflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses.
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