The focus on cholesterol missed the actual issue, which is inflammation. Once we look at the problem with that realization, seed oils look very bad indeed.

And the added sugar to replace some of the "unhealthy artery-clogging" saturated fat. "Less than half the calories of fat", they said - true, but not if you consume 4-10X more to feel satiated.

As a kid I remember Ethel Mertz as being the fattest woman on TV. Seeing I Love Lucy now, she probably had a BMI of ~27, the high end of normal, and skinnier than the average American woman today.

How to lose weight and cut your Covid risk

https://life.spectator.co.uk/articl...our-covid-risk/

And it was not her usual size, either. She put on the weight to appear older next to her much older "husband."

I am seeing more studies that indicate the COVID-19 virus looks like something "coated in sugar" to our bodies. I wonder if this is connected to the insulin resistance problem leading to more complications and higher risk.

Are there more such receptors if someone is overweight? Does this fool the immune system somehow, resulting in the cytokine storm of overreaction?

Wear Bear, Did you see this article? That Covid may Cause diabetes in people not previously diagnosed. Explains the possible mechanism.

Is Covid-19 causing diabetes?



https://asweetlife.org/is-covid-19-causing-diabetes



DEMI,

Thanks for that Spectator article. It sounded as though it was written by Dr Malhotra...but it is Tarak Arab. I’ve not heard of that author before, but both his articles on losing weight were very good and inclusive of many healthy eating styles.

My bolding.

For those with ADD /ADHD, dopamine is low. This causes a malfnction of the frontal cortex which manifests as poor inhibitions. With an increase in dopamine levels thru addition of L -tyrosine or uptake inhibitors like ritalin and Concerta, life is better because the frontal area is functioning closer to "normal" .

I have often wondered why more and more people are diagnosed, both adults and children using the diagnostic method, if there is a change in the tissue during pregnancy or the very early years of childhood. I now wonder if our SAD diet or other environmental exposure triggers a change in the brain tissue during development.

Reguardless of the cause, my brain needs a boost in dopmine, and sugar and breads are a double edged sword. I prefer to use L-Tyrosine, and that requires several doses thru every day. Concerta is a controlled drug, requiring a new prescription every month IF primary doc sees a need, and often a regular pee in cup testing like a drug addict IF that doc decides that is required.

Eating sugar and breads is far less humiliating....... to boost dopamine.... and addictive.

Then again, what is "normal"? Today's crowded offices and noisy workplaces, or the constant stream of public facing interactions in retail, all on top of a diet creating all sorts of mayhem in hormone regulation, means it's not just those with ADD or ADHD who are affected.

Interesting ideas which may prove to be the case. My first thought was just, oh, it's greater awareness and better diagnostics, but I think you may be on to something about those negative changes in diet. I grew up with a sibling who clearly by today's diagnostic standards suffered severe ADHD among other things, but way back then all the doctors and teachers seemed to be able to do was blame a mother for "causing" the problem and the kid for being underachieving/lazy/undisciplined when obviously smart. Some of my own children had challenges and I was so grateful for school people who said, yes there's something wrong, let's get it diagnosed and get your child the help they need rather than judging them as misbehaved.

I did not! Thank you. It's a stark reminder that Insulin Resistance affects every system in the body. Especially the parts about monitoring a COVID-19 patient's blood sugar, and perhaps providing the kind of support a Type I needs.

Conditions such as ASD/ADD/ADHD have long genetic heritages. However, I'd agree that SAD creates a poorly working brain which makes these conditions harder to cope with under adverse conditions.

We are so used to thinking "here's a norm, and over there is what doesn't work" we could lose track that this same thing was used on us: "so-and-so stays slim eating the SAD, why can't you?"

These brain states have advantages, too: they are less likely to be seen that way when operating in environments that stress skills such brains don't tend to have, like a school which expects everyone to learn the exact same ways.

What the SAD does to our brain is the same, though: foggy thinking, fatigue, memory problems, executive function loss, depression, and anxiety. It's just going to affect people in different ways.

To bring it back to the topic, it's not overweight per se that makes a person so vulnerable to COVID-19. It's the underlying metabolic disorder that prevents the immune system from working as it should.

And not just insulin: there's such a thing as resistance to other hormones! I ran at such a high stress rate, for so long, my big problem was Cortisol Resistance. (And as Dr. Jack Kruse says, the next stage is Death.)

If our bodies deal with too much insulin by lowering their response, that same pathway would work for other hormones. And now we've got real issues and life-threatening inflammation: all before a coronavirus invasion sets up a challenge such a body cannot handle right.

Right now there's increasing reports of children reacting to this virus with Kawasaki Syndrome; a runaway inflammation response. And we know people are being diagnosed with Type II diabetes and younger and younger agest, to the point it isn't being called "adult onset" anymore.

Another update for Italy:

Italy Says 96% of Virus Fatalities Suffered From Other Illnesses




https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...other-illnesses

Where there is media coverage in the UK about obesity, ultra-processed foods, etc. and studies of Italy's death rate with co-moribidities, the US mainstream media has almost nothing about how being metabolically healthy can improve your chances of not getting severe symptoms and ending up in the hospital.
A good opinion piece by Dr Jeff Volek, but in the political paper, The Hill.


Nutrition policy must be at the center of the conversation

https://thehill.com/opinion/healthc...he-conversation

Thanks, Janet. Good opinion piece and information that must be shared widely especially now. While many have debated nutrition and argued about the most effective diets to achieve health, we've never had a situation where poor dietary habits risk immediate death until now.

The population has been dangerously lulled into nutritional complacency thinking that due to the symptoms associated with metabolic disease taking such a long time to manifest, that it's always someone else, usually older. This slow deterioration of health by eating encourages the "this won't happen to me" attitude until the symptoms become reality. It takes a good portion of a lifetime to understand how damaged one can be from dietary choices, and even then, there are pills we can take to get rid of the "diseases" that obscure the real causes. Today, however, we have a massive ramp up in childhood diabetes and obesity that, in normal circumstances, should get the attention of everyone. But it doesn't. We are living in a new normal where kids who should be healthy and of normal weight aren't.

We are distracted by advertisements for prescriptions that never address the root cause and support the thinking that it must be "me" and my genetics, that I need so many drugs to be healthy. We are distracted by food advertisements that make meals quick, easy, and deadly (never part of the message) forcing people to redefine eating that is so different from how people used to eat a mere 40 years ago. Let's hope messages like Volek's are published more widely and by more media sources, as The Hill's audience is limited and likely doesn't know or care to take action. Off my soapbox now . . .