Categories: News

The U.S. is lagging behind in addressing diet-related risks for COVID-19

Banning junk food advertisements on television before 9 p.m. Requiring warning labels on foods with high levels of sugar and salt. Levying a tax on fast food and soda. The pandemic has sparked governmental efforts around the world to address diet-related diseases like obesity and diabetes that put people at a significantly higher risk of dying from Covid-19. In the midst of a global push to improve diets and prevent more pandemic-related illnesses, the United States stands out for both its weight problem (nearly 75 percent of Americans are considered overweight or obese) and the seeming unwillingness of the federal government to address the crisis in a meaningful way, writes Politico. Part of the problem may be a lack of national will to tackle the problem through governmental intervention. Many Americans still view obesity as a character flaw, rather than the complex disease that science has shown it to be. 

Related Post
The Counter
Share
Published by
The Counter

Recent Posts

Is California giving its methane digesters too much credit?

Every year, California dairy farms emit hundreds of thousands of tons of the potent greenhouse…

2 years ago

Your car is killing coho salmon

Highway 7 runs north-south through western Washington, carving its way through a landscape sparsely dotted…

2 years ago

The pandemic has transformed America’s dining landscape into an oligopoly dominated by chains 

One of the greatest pleasures I had as a child growing up in the Chicago…

2 years ago

California is moving toward food assistance for all populations—including undocumented immigrants

Undocumented immigrants experience food insecurity at much higher rates than other populations, yet they are…

2 years ago

Babka, borscht … and pumpkin spice? Two writers talk about Jewish identity through contemporary cookbooks.

Writer Charlotte Druckman and editor Rebecca Flint Marx are both Jewish journalists living in New…

2 years ago

How some big grocery chains help ensure that food deserts stay barren

Last fall, first-year law student Karissa Kang arrived at Yale University and quickly set out…

2 years ago