Blame SAD for a lot of the fatal outcomes

[yellowwoodII]

SAD The Standard American Diet
Look at the factors that correlate with the fatal outcomes--obesity, heart disease, diabetes.
I'm not blaming the victims. We are bombarded with ads for unhealthy food. The food industry manipulates food so that it is temptingly tasty, is highly caloric, but is not especially nutritious. (Mac and Cheese is not a health food.)
Many urban neighborhoods are "food deserts" where the source of food is a dollar store.
When have you seen an ad for broccoli?

[Bayard]

1. I have seen an ad for putting cheese on your broccoli

[MineralMan]

2. What all did you eat yesterday?

Yes, a lot of people have poor dietary habits. But, COVID-19 is what's killing them right now, not their diet.

Food-shaming is not cool, it seems to me.

But, hey, tell us everything you ate yesterday. Maybe someone will start following your dietary habits.

[yellowwoodII]

8. Food shaming

Not cool to criticize Mac and Cheese?

[GemDigger]

9. Not if that is the all some people can afford.

[Happy Hoosier]

11. Mac and Cheese is a gift from the gods. NT

[underpants]

28. You haven't tried Mac n Broc have you?

I didn’t think so.

[MineralMan]

14. There is nothing wrong with Mac and Cheese.

You should try mine sometime. Really.

Now, once again - What did you eat all day yesterday? Tell us about your healthy diet so we can follow your lead.

[Tracer]

19. Coincidentally, Mr. MM...

... I made broccoli soup last night for dinner --- with a sprinkle of cheddar cheese on top. We also had homemade garlic bread to go with. Tasty as can be.

[MineralMan]

20. I love broccoli soup, but it plays havoc with my digestive tract.

I eat broccoli only sparingly. Oddly enough, I can eat as many Brussels sprouts as I wish. Makes no sense, really.

[onecaliberal]

3. Some type 2 diabetics do not have the ability to properly metabolize

Sugar. My husband eats only fresh meat and veggies, has a completely normal A1c because of his diet. That said, if he has a dietary excursion his blood sugar will rise significantly. He’s not on any meds or daily insulin. He only utilizes insulin when he’s going to “cheat”

[handmade34]

4. ...

[MineralMan]

6. Here's my favorite food video:

[yellowwoodII]

22. Love it!

[milestogo]

5. SAD: Seasonal Affective Disorder

[Tipperary]

24. That is what I thought it stood for too.

[customerserviceguy]

43. That was my first thought

as well. Because I was mistaken, for a brief moment there, I has a sad.

[unblock]

7. you're working for big broccoli! you've got a vegenda!

[yellowwoodII]

23. You've got me

Big Broccoli pays me well!

[customerserviceguy]

44. Vegenda

I like that term! It covers a lot of situations where health food freaks try to shame me out of what I enjoy eating.

[ck4829]

12. Unhealthy food is cheaper and tastes better than healthy food

Rationality has its limits.

Maybe make a better broccoli?

[ismnotwasm]

13. My husband has MS

In my hospital we do stem cell transplants and chemo. Studies into autoimmune diseases have found more treatments most of which are immunosuppressive. Diabetes type 1, is an autoimmune disease that can have horrific consequences. There is a condition called primary hypertension, which means there is no known cause, that tend to disproportionately affect Black males. Healthy people have also died.

Now, while preventative medicine always includes healthy diet choices, and when facing a novel virus, it will certainly help, but I wouldn’t go so far as to “blame” diet.

[Codeine]

15. Absurd.

Show me a single study demonstrating a connection between COVID-19 mortality and dietary intake.

[Alex4Martinez]

16. True. HFCS, starches, deep fat fried, high carbs, highly processed foods. Props to Dollar General!

I am sorry to see negative responses to your post, some folks are defensive of this indefensible diet.

And food deserts abound. Credit, however, to a few of the dollar stores that have great produce sections right up front!

Dollar General!

[ck4829]

18. Props to late stage capitalism

HFCS, starches, deep fat fried, high carbs, highly processed food also means:

Cheaper
Longer shelf life
Needs less rigorous preserving methods
Quicker to prepare, quicker to eat

These types of food are unfortunately a necessity in our paycheck-to-paycheck, rat-race economy.

[RhodeIslandOne]

38. It's also helpful in this situation where trips to the grocery store are a luxury.

[OhZone]

29. I never saw a Dollar General like that but -

Dollar General is not a Dollar store.

They have many items way way over a dollar.

Same goes for Family Dollar.

Not a dollar store.

Dollar Tree is a Dollar Store. 99% of their stuff is exactly one dollar!

Actually, even DollarZone has some items creeping up to 1.50 or 2$, but most of their items are a dollar so I'll still call them a dollar store.

[MLAA]

17. Agree that SAD certainly makes people more vulnerable to corona virus

Whether by choice or necessity poor diets were killing Americans before corona virus and are now even more vulnerable with it.

Meat and dairy industry spend hundreds of millions to convince Americans eating meat, cheese, butter and milk are healthy and necessary for a strong healthy body. They are not, they cause heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and some cancers.

I feel for communities that don’t have access to healthy fruits and vegetables.

With time on your hands here is a terrific movie that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan are executive producers of:

The Game Changers ( on Netflix and iTunes)

[customerserviceguy]

46. If that were true

then surely Trump would have caught the virus by now. He clearly does not practice social distancing at his rallies, er, "press conferences".

[Jamastiene]

21. Somebody's bored and wants to kick a hornet's nest.

[mathematic]

25. Mac and cheese is a perfectly healthy food

Pasta? Cheese? On what planet are these not healthy? High in protein and micronutrients.

A box of pasta is a dollar, by the way.

[Mosby]

32. Why Refined Carbs Are Bad For You

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/why-refined-carbs-are-bad#section1

[mathematic]

36. 1. That's bullshit, 2. Whole wheat pasta exists

That little piece of nonsense you linked to talks about the glycemic index and how bad it is to eat high GI foods. Well, guess what, pasta is a low GI food, not a high GI food.

It also says refined pasta is low in fiber. It's not. It's low compared to whole wheat pasta but it's not low. If you ate all your day's calories in regular pasta (not recommended, btw) you'd have the daily recommended amount of fiber. You'd also have more than the daily recommended amount of protein.

Regular pasta has significant amounts of B vitamins, iron, magnesium and other minerals.

And when you add cheese to all this you balance out the macronutrients and the micronutrients.

[Mosby]

40. Healthline is a very reputable site, uses peer reviewed research

Which is all footnoted in the articles.

Refined wheat flour has very little fiber, a 1 cup serving of cooked spaghetti provides about 220 calories and 2.5 grams of fiber, that's barely 8% of the daily suggested amount of 30 grams per day. Further, most of the fiber is insoluble, not soluble fiber.

Whole wheat flour is a little better, a 1 cup serving of cooked whole-wheat spaghetti delivers 6.3 grams of fiber, though again, most of that is just bran, not dietary fiber.

Compare that to a cup of kidney beans, which contain 8.5 grams of fiber per cup. Unlike refined wheat, it contains a great deal of soluble fiber, which is a prebiotic and is fermented by your gut bacteria.


Your assertion that pasta has a low GI is utterly wrong, it's very high in fact, which is why doctors the world over tell their diabetic patients to avoid ALL refined grains, including rice flour.

[mathematic]

47. The cites don't support the argument against pasta. Read them.

And "onlineFitnessCoach.com" is wrong about pasta's GI.

Here's a link from Harvard Medical School that says spaghetti is 49+-2, which is low.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/glycemic-index-and-glycemic-load-for-100-foods

You're just factually wrong on other accounts too.
Both soluble and insoluble fiber are dietary fiber. You need both.
Kidney beans are mostly insoluble fiber. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK326737/table/lipids_lifestyle-changes-lipids-and-lipoproteins.T._8/?report=objectonly

[Mosby]

48. Harvard

For most people with diabetes, carbohydrates should account for about 45% to 55% of the total calories you eat each day. Choose your carbohydrates wisely — ideally, from vegetables, whole grains, and fruits. Avoid highly refined carbohydrates such as white bread, pasta, and rice, as well as candy, sugary soft drinks, and sweets. Refined carbohydrates tend to cause sharp spikes in blood sugar, and can boost blood triglyceride levels.

Fiber comes in two forms: insoluble fiber, the kind found in whole grains, and soluble fiber, found in beans, dried peas, oats, and fruits. Soluble fiber in particular appears to lower blood sugar levels by improving insulin sensitivity, which may mean you need less diabetes medicine. And a number of studies suggest that eating plenty of fiber reduces the chances of developing heart disease — and people with diabetes need to do all they can to lower their risk.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/healthy-eating-for-blood-sugar-control

[Polybius]

39. While I agree that it shouldn't be not eaten...

Cheese is certainly not good for you.

[Mosby]

41. Depends

Cheese made from grass fed cows is much higher in omega 3s and EFAs like epa and dha.

Semi formed cheeses like cottage, feta and ricotta are considered prebiotics, which feed your gut bacteria.

On the other end, cheeses aged for more than 6 months are loaded with healthy enzymes.

It's the ones in the middle you need to eat in moderation.

[Polybius]

42. Yeah, there are definitely healthy cheese options

But can you make mac n' cheese with them? Not sure how they would taste. The mac n' cheese I make once or twice a year is high in cholesterol and loaded with calories, but I don't have it often at all.

[genxlib]

26. Is Soylant Green considered healthy

Just checking

[SpankMe]

27. This is so true that it needs to be at the top of the national agenda

...with the economy/jobs, energy independence, health care and climate change.

A morbidly obese person in their 40's will cost the taxpayer over $1M before they die.

I agree with the OP that we're not blaming the victims. It's american food culture and poor national leadership on human health.

[ck4829]

30. It's not just american food culture, it's culture period

There is a reason these foods exist and there is a reason there is a demand for them.

There is no time for cooking, no time for eating, no time for making smart decisions on purchasing food, certainly no time to grow your own food, and so on.

The food being talked about here is both a product and a sustainer of a late stage capitalist economy.

[LakeArenal]

31. Blame Bush. He was only 94 when he died.

https://m.

[Tipperary]

45. Ha!

Perfect!

[Silent3]

33. How many is "a lot"?

Got any stats on diet vs. outcome of exposure to COVID-19, or did you just pull that out of your ass because you "just know" it has to be true?

[janterry]

34. Where is your evidence?

If I were to guess, there are several factors that contribute. But in the MIDDLE of a pandemic, data is often very confusing. So, hypothesize if you want. But wait until we have all the data.

For what it is worth, ICNARC data suggests that you might be wrong.

That data come from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre. It studied 2,700 patients in the ICU in England

.7% had BMI under 18.5
25.9% had BMI 18.5-25
35.7% had BMI 25-30
30.7% had BMI of 30.7
7% had BMI of 40 or more

But here's the thing. There are several pretty prominent confounds even with this data. (Age, being the most obvious).

data and hypotheses work best when we have a complete picture. Otherwise, it's often just noise.

ETA: I think it's a valid question. But at this point, I think it's best to frame it as a question

[Ex Lurker]

35. This is going to run smack dab into the body positivity narrative

a lot of them aren't going to like this message, but the virus doesn't care about their agenda.

[ck4829]

37. More like run smack dab into the "SOCIALISM is bad" crowd

There is a reason these foods exist and there is a reason there is a demand for them.

There is a reason it's the *Standard* American Diet, it is called that because there is a market for it.

Our precarious existence and paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle demands foods that are easy to produce, purchase, prepare, and consume.

Go after late-stage capitalism if you really want change. I will be rooting for you.