We Have An American Death Penalty And The Effects Are Devastating

In the past 18 months, American deaths from the Coronavirus outpaced other rich countries like France, Japan and Canada.

What’s more concerning is that this trend isn’t limited to Covid-19. Based on a recent study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, American life expectancy has been falling behindsimilar wealthy European countries since 1990. To put it bluntly, there is an American death penalty.

Here are some of the shocking findings, compared to Europeans:

• American babies are more likely to die before age 5,

• American teenagers are more likely to die by age 20, and

• American adults are more likely to die before age 65. 

This trend is occurring in middle-class, middle-aged Americans, ostensibly those who have adequate access to healthcare. And it’s also occurring at every other age and in every single cause of death. 

There are many different causes behind these stats: heart disease and stroke, diabetes, drug overdoses, and accidents. They are all contributing to the death penalty. And, there are always geographic, economic, nutritional, and racial disparities at play here. Not to mention the millions of Americans who have little access to healthcare. Regardless, Houston, we have a problem. 

The Quiet Killer

So what could be the difference between the United States and Europe that is driving this American death penalty?  First, according to the 2021 edition of the CEOWORLD magazine Health Care Index, the United States healthcare system is ranked 31st out of 89 countries. But it’s not the healthcare system that’s causing the death penalty.

It’s obesity that is causing the death penalty in the United States. We are simply heavier, more sedentary, and less healthy than our European counterparts.

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The World Health Organization recently published research that correlates a rise in fast food sales to the increase in American Body Mass Index (BMI). And, we Americans love fast food. What many of us don’t realize is that some entrees at fast food and fast-serve restaurants are absolute gut-bombs. Consider the seemingly healthy, yet delicious, Chipotle Carnitas Burrito with White Rice, Black Beans, Roasted Chili-Corn Salsa, Queso, Sour Cream, Cheese, and Guac. That sucker packs more than a day’s worth of salt and fat and weighs in at a whopping 1,520 calories. It oughtta be called The Widowmaker.

Another big contributor to obesity is portion size. According to Dr. Stephan Guyenet, the American diet has changed dramatically both in terms of quality and quantity. Looking back fifty years ago, Americans consumed 2,160 calories per day. That number today is closer to 2,700 calories per day. We are eating 20-25 percent more calories than we did 50 years ago.

The 2020 CDC Adult Obesity Prevalence Maps illustrate that thirty-five states have adult obesity rates greater than 35 percent. Meaning that roughly one in three people in the state are obese. We are obese and getting more obese as a country, with over 40% of all Americans now qualifying as obese.  

The obese in the United States has paid a heavy price over the last eighteen months. And, the news media have largely avoided this ultra-sensitive topic for fear of being labeled as fat-shamers on Twitter.  

According to the CDC, over 900,000 adults were hospitalized in the US for Covid-19 between the start of the pandemic and November of 2020.  Retrospective studies suggest that 30.2% of those hospitalized were obese.  For Covid-19 patients under age 18, having obesity was associated with a 3.07 times higher risk of hospitalization. They had a 1.42 times higher risk of admission to Intensive Care Units and/or invasive mechanical ventilation, or death.

In an August 2020 meta-analysis published in Obesity Reviews, an international team of researchers found that people with obesity who contracted the Covid-19 virus were 113% more likely than people of healthy weight to land in the hospital, 74% more likely to be admitted to an ICU, and 48% more likely to die.

The two physiological culprits are an overall weakened immunity in the obese and an increased propensity for blood clotting.

You might think that the vaccination fixes all that. Not so fast. Vaccinated people with obesity have twice the risk of contracting the virus.  

Even with three vaccines and a sampling of booster shots, the obese continue to pay a heavy price. As of last week, more Americans have died from COVID in 2021 than in all of 2020.

Happy Meal Prizes

There’s irony in a recent survey conducted by OnePoll in collaboration with Walgreens. Two-thirds of Americans believe they’d be more motivated to pursue a healthier lifestyle if there were a material reward like concert tickets or a trophy. (You can’t possibly make this up.)

Okay, how about this for a material reward for a healthier lifestyle: you are less likely to die of Covid-19. And, if you take better care of yourself, you are likely to live a lot longer once this virus is over.  Isn’t that the most valuable reward possible?

It’s Bigger Than MeSince we haven’t been able to get our collective arms around this obesity epidemic, American Pharmaceutical Companies are coming to the rescue. Get ready for a massive campaign starring Queen Latifah. She’s gonna be everywhere for a while.

The campaign is called “It’s Bigger Than Me”. The multi-million dollar “altruistic” campaign will innocuously suggest we need to start a dialog about obesity in the US. Latifah will be on every talk show from The View to The Ellen Show, There will be laughs, there will be tears, there will be #biggerthanme hashtags. It’s a great start, right?

Not so fast. The campaign is sponsored by Novo-Nordisk. Novo-Nordisk is a Danish multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Bagsværd, Denmark, with annual revenue of $122 Billion.

They’re pushing a new drug called Wegovy and it costs a whopping $16,000 a year. It helps control appetite but you have to take it (pay for it) for the rest of your life.

You might think I’m just being mean by talking about obesity. Or, that I’m trying to body-shame people. Look, I know that there are a lot of factors and pathologies behind obesity.  

And, that more than six million obese and morbidly obese people are likely to have suffered physical, sexual and/or verbal abuse during their childhoods, according to the CDC’s ongoing ACE Study.\” I get it. But it’s time we start to address this epidemic and its resulting death penalty. And, we don’t need Queen Latifah and a $16,000 drug to do it.

Rather than bury these important Covid-19 facts, we should have put them front and center. We should have made the case that Covid-19 is killing overweight people at a higher rate. Maybe, just maybe, we could have started some of the 40% of obese Americans down a road less traveled. 

A road leading away from our high-sugar, high-fat diet and inactive lifestyles. And maybe we could have saved some from the American death penalty.  

We need to envision a world where we are collectively passionate about taking care of ourselves. Where we see food, sleep and exercise as our first medicine. A world where we prioritize wellness over diseases. It’s long overdue.

So what do you think? Am I totally insensitive? I want to know what you think. Leave me a comment below. I promise you’ll hear from me.

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