Several new studies point to obesity itself as a significant risk factor for being hospitalized with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Young adults with obesity appear to be at particular risk, studies show. One way that the food industry has contributed to high rates of obesity and diet-related diseases among vulnerable populations is by targeted and predatory marketing of obesogenic products to vulnerable populations
A recent study published in JAMA reported that 42% of 5700 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in New York City were obese, 57% had hypertension, and 34% had diabetes as co-morbidities, suggesting that the previous failures of New York City, the nation, and the world, to reduce high levels of diet-related disease now further exacerbates the burden imposed by COVID-19. Though people with obesity frequently have other medical problems, according to The New York Times, several new studies point to obesity itself as the most significant risk factor, after only older age, for being hospitalized with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Young adults with obesity appear to be at particular risk, studies show. The research is preliminary, writes The Times, and not yet peer reviewed, but it buttresses anecdotal reports from doctors who say they have been struck by how many seriously ill younger patients of theirs with obesity are otherwise healthy.
One way that the food industry has contributed to high rates of obesity and diet-related diseases among vulnerable populations is by targeted and predatory marketing of obesogenic products to vulnerable populations.
In a 2018 interview with Vox, Aarti Ivanic, an associate professor of marketing at the University of San Diego’s School of Business said, “Healthier foods are promoted to whiter, affluent people, and some of the research shows that unhealthy food tends to be marketed in venues where you’ve got lower-income people, where you’ve got African Americans, where you’ve got Hispanics.” Other recent reports document the extent of racially-targeted marketing of unhealthy food.
As public health and social justice activists begin to imagine a post-COVID world, they will need to imagine ways to transform the profit-driven global food system that promotes what Canadian social scientist Gerard Otero has called the “neoliberal diet” of highly processed food products to one that makes healthy affordable food available to all.
Corporations and Health Watch 