Dear Catered Fit Familia,
2020 has got to be the absolute strangest trip around the sun we have ever had. When quarantine first began it was going to be “fifteen days to flatten the curve”. I thought our country was going to take the two weeks and come together amidst all the unknown we were about to face. Welp, that didn’t quite happen; not even close. Instead COVID shined a spotlight on just how different our beliefs have become. In a country where everything is debatable, (now even science), the story that hasn’t gotten enough attention is the role good nutrition plays in preventing us from getting sick and then how good nutrition is active in a road to recovery. The elderly and immunocompromised have been adversely affected by this disease. This fact cannot be disputed. While I do believe the massive discrepancy of the number of US COVID cases has something to do with the simple fact that we test more people than other developed nations, it does not explain why so many of our countrymen have gotten so sick. One key reason, that is not discussed nearly enough, if even at all, is the state of our current public health to understand why we have been such a prime victim to the disease.
According to the CDC over forty percent of US adults are obese, that equates to over eighty MILLION people. Thirteen percent of all US adults have type 2 diabetes, that equates to thirty-four MILLION people. Fifty percent of all US adults are hypertensive, that equates to one hundred and eight MILLION people. What do all of these American’s have in common? They all have weaker immune systems than their counterparts and are therefore substantially more susceptible to getting sick, especially with something as virulent as COVID. Why is that? Diabetes, hypertension and even obesity can all be referred to as comorbidities. That sounds scary, and to some degree it should. It is a big reminder that underlying health issues can make it even harder for your body to do what it needs to when the time comes to fight off a virus such as this one. The scariest part? That so much of it has to do with how we live our lives and the diets we keep. America is THE most unhealthy nation on Earth. Period. One lesson I hope our nation learns from COVID is just how critical building and maintaining a healthy immune system really is and that it isn’t that hard to do it. Like many of us, I know more than a few people who have contracted the virus. The contrast in how the virus affected each of them is telling. My thirty something friend is active and maintains a healthy weight. She got COVID and had some flu like symptoms for a few days but was otherwise unaffected. One of my forty something associates who is inactive and overweight was sick for nearly two months, spent a week in ICU and nearly died from the virus. This is the real story that needs to be told!
The good news is that this horror story can have a happy ending. What COVID should be teaching us is that our diet and lifestyle can either be a blessing or an absolute curse. We need to eat less heavily processed foods, fried foods, junk foods and sugary drinks. We need to say no to foods that survive on grocery store shelves for eons and foods that are handed through a drive through window. We need to add more plant-based meals to our diet. That is one of the reasons I started Catered Fit more than 10 years ago. I wanted nutrition to be accessible, maybe not through a drive through window, but rather doorstep delivered. In today’s world I am even more proud of the role we can play in your lives to help keep your bodies healthy. We are here to keep your bellies full, but we still need to get up off our asses and hit the gym, ride a bike, walk around the neighborhood and stop allowing our health to be priority number two.
Health is Wealth
Adam Friden / CEO