It’s So Simple

Column #254

A politician finally offered some good advice regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s drop dead obvious. It’s drop dead simple. Everyone can do it. It will increase longevity. It will decrease healthcare costs. It will make people more attractive. And for a fact it greatly increases the odds of surviving a case of COVID-19.

On top of the staggering number of possible positive cases, it may take way more than a 50% infection rate to eventually reach herd immunity. John Hopkins says: “Depending how contagious an infection is, usually 70% to 90% of a population needs immunity to achieve herd immunity.” A full 70% would be 228 million American cases.

It’s estimated that vaccine manufacturers supplied about 165 million doses of influenza vaccine for the 2019-2020 season. Yet each year it’s reported that about 45 million Americans get the flu. Add those two numbers together and that’s means 210 million people developed immunity which may be sufficient for herd immunity. So you can see, no matter what people do, before a vaccine is available the odds are high that eventually nearly everyone will end up getting COVID-19 whether they know it or not.

For that reason alone we should all heed the advice being dished out by Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He’s been there and done that with COVID-19 which means he has “learned a thing or two.” And his message is: “Lose Weight.”²

How do you determine if you are overweight? My favorite measuring stick is a 1950's Height and Weight Chart. Usually for people over 55 years old the body weight numbers should be less, not more.

Today obesity is so common that advertisers use super-sized actors to make fat people feel like they’re in style. That’s crazy. Look at the younger people who get really sick or die of COVID-19. Most are overweight and some are obese. Generally, youngsters are not as obese as adults which may account for why so many rarely know they have the virus when infected.³

Getting overweight is caused more by the chemistry of the foods consumed rather than the quantity consumed (although quantity can play a role). Other factors such as one’s genetics and ethic background have no bearing on obesity. If we look back 15,000 years ago, well before the invention of farming, all humans on every continent were thin by today’s standards.

Well, guess what? Today it’s a fact that a much higher percentage of overweight people die of COVID-19 than thin people. Being fit has its advantages. What’s amazing is that people are scared to death of COVID-19, but they’ve been gaining weight instead of losing it since the shutdowns started. You would think their fear of COVID-19 would inspire them to get healthier. Instead they prefer to hide and eat a lot of the wrong foods.

Losing weight does not mean you have to go hungry and run two miles a day. What works best is to limit your diet to only those whole food selections which combine all three of the most important nutritional traits. They are:
●    Low Glycemic
●    Nutrient Dense and Diverse
●    A 1:1 balance of Omega-6 to Omega-3 EFAs

^{People who limit themselves to the good foods reap other benefits, especially if they have diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, asthma, liver disease, multiple sclerosis, dementia, and many other chromic diseases. It’s simple, eating a proper diet can be a real win/win.}

^{To your health.}

^{Ted Slanker}

^{Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.}

^{Don’t miss these links for additional reading:}

^{1. Positive Covid-19 Tests Kept a Mom and Baby Apart for 55 Days. Experts See it as a Bigger Testing Problem by Helen Branswell}

^{2. Boris Johnson Warns ‘Fat’ Britons That They Must Lose Weight by Tim Ross from Bloomberg}

^{3. What Is Obesity? By Amanda MacMillan from WebMD}

^{4. Four-Decade Study: Americans Taller, Fatter by Live Science Staff}

^{5. Solution to Obesity: Let’s Eat by Ted Slanker}

^{6. Too fat? Eat Fat by Ted Slanker}

^{7. New Food Analysis Tables by Ted Slanker}