Go to Yahoo. Turn on the TV. Pick up any newspaper. Read the headlines and you’ll see daily doses of selling COVID Fear and Hysteria.
On 14 January, The New York Times, as it has been doing since the coronavirus first became the #1 story of the past year, published the dramatic headline:
400,000 More U.S. Deaths than Normal Since COVID-19 Struck
This number, 400,000, makes for an important comparison. Supposing that many Americans truly died from the virus (as we have detailed, people who died of other chronic diseases but had tested positive for the virus are listed as COVID victims), the same number of Americans are dying every year from eating a junk food diet advertised incessantly on mainstream media.
This was confirmed in a study conducted by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics, titled, “Unhealthy Eating Linked to 400,000 US Deaths Per Year.”
Add to this junk food’s link to heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, among the major comorbidities responsible for the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths in the United States. Where is The New York Times (or, for that matter, any of mainstream media) when it comes to publishing emotionally-charged headlines about the dangers of junk food?
Indeed, as reported by Woodruf Lab, the vast majority of adults in America are overweight or obese, and more than half will suffer from diabetes or pre-diabetic conditions, according to Northwestern Medicine researchers at the American Heart Association (AHA).
They note 72 percent of men and 63 percent of women are overweight or obese and 62 percent of men and 43 percent of women have dysglycemia (either diabetes or pre-diabetes). Again, people suffering from these conditions are major COVID victims.
They also note that less than five percent of Americans currently are considered to have ideal cardiovascular health.
Media Profits from Junk Food
The same mainstream media pumping out continuous headlines about COVID surges and fatalities profit handsomely from billion-dollar junk food advertising campaigns. (A 2019 report released by the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Connecticut stated, “$8.8 billion of advertising was spent on sugar-infused sodas, fast food, candy, and unhealthy snacks.”)
Even worse, the Rudd Center notes, “Food companies target children, teens, and communities of color with marketing for their least healthy products.”
These corporate junk food advertisers are selling products that are a major reason over 34 million suffer from diabetes, with another 80 million with pre-diabetes, which the CDC states greatly increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
How the U.S. Government Supports Junk Food Culture
In August 2016, a report was published by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which showed the link between billion-dollar government subsidies and the food crops processed into unhealthy junk foods. The research showed:
- “The majority of government subsidies go towards commodity crops – corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, sorghum, milk, and meat – which are most often processed into foods we know are linked to obesity.
- These foods constitute the largest source of calories in the American diet, including breads, sugary drinks, pizza, pasta, ice cream, and grain-based desserts like cookies, doughnuts, and granola bars.
- From 1995-2010, the federal government spent $170 billion to finance the production of these foods.”
U.K. Junksters
It’s not just Americans who are dying from the junk food/COVID crisis.
The British Medical Journal published the article, “Food Industry Shares the Blame for Severity of COVID-19,” which reported on research conducted at the Queen Mary University of London. Researchers say COVID has “made tackling the obesity pandemic even more urgent,” and they call on food industries around the world to “immediately stop promoting, and governments to force reformulation of, unhealthy foods and drinks.”
The article also confirmed that similar to the U.S., about 65-70 percent of the U.K. population is excessively overweight.
TRENDPOST: Given the massive amounts of junk food consumed in the U.S. and the U.K., it’s no mystery why both nations suffer among the highest death rates from COVID-19 in the world… no matter how severely the governments impose lockdowns.
Instead of destroying millions of businesses and hundreds of millions of lives and creating unprecedented mental health issues due to isolation, there should be a lockdown on government subsidies… i.e, politicians stealing taxpayer money and giving it to junk-food bandits who pay them off with “campaign contributions.”
In the world’s mainstream media, vaccinations are the only lifesaver to the virus. Never is heard an encouraging word for people to get into shape, eat healthily, and build stronger immune systems.