Covid-19 and Obesity
HEALTH
Covid-19 and Obesity – a Lethal Combination
by Dr. Steve Hoody
COVID-19 has killed 4.5 million people worldwide as of the writing of this article. It got the attention of policymakers and the public, forced the rapid creation of numerous successful vaccines, and made mask-wearing ubiquitous. COVID-19 is the pandemic that changed how we live in 2021. But according to the World Health Organization, 2.8 million people die each year from another silent pandemic, obesity. Since COVID-19, nearly 5.8 million died of obesity. These two pandemics have joined forces, producing even deadlier results. Obesity is the number one cofactor determining the severity and potential mortality of COVID-19.
A March 8, 2021 study by the CDC noted that 78% of people hospitalized, needing ventilators or having died from Covid were overweight or obese.
To Reduce COVID Deaths, Reduce Obesity
The single most important factor determining the severity of someone’s COVID-19 symptoms or how deadly it might be, is not a history of lung disease, cardiovascular issues, cancer, or high blood pressure. It is obesity. Science provides a few ways to reducing obesity, whether it’s for an individual, a community, or the whole planet.
Dr. Hoody’s Rule of 3s
The single best way to change your life is to adopt what I call, “Dr. Hoody’s Rule of Threes.” Simply put, eat three times more greens than proteins, and three times more proteins than grains. If policymakers did nothing else but develop policies to promote the Rule of Threes, the world would see fewer deaths from COVID-19 and obesity.
Three times more greens than proteins is important because our bodies do not digest greens, the bacteria in our gut does. That bacterium is responsible for 90% of our immune system. Take care of that bacterium, and it will take care of you.
Three times more protein than grains is important because our body needs protein to build muscle and provide energy. Why so few grains? The body processes grains as sugar and stores it as fat. Grains were important when humanity was on the verge of starvation, and we needed to store fat because we never knew when we would eat again. Today food is everywhere, but too many of us still eat and process food as though we are about to experience a famine.
The rule of 3s begins the process of resetting your metabolism. This helps our bodies burn fat for energy the way they were meant to. It makes our immune system capable of handling most of life’s challenges. Once you reset your metabolism, chocolate cake is burned off as energy and not stored as fat. Contact us if you need help.
COVID-19 has made the obesity epidemic more acute. Policymakers and health professions would be wise to heed the call. Let’s start with World Healthy Weight Day and shed our excess pounds and health-related ailments.
It is too preventable not to.
Dr. Steve Hoody is an award-winning Nutritionist and weight loss expert. He is the CEO/Founder of Healthier2gether, a company dedicated to Health and Wellness through nutrition and education.
