Covid Pandemic Creating An Equally Dangerous Obesity Pandemic

By Frosty Wooldridge

Most people don’t remember when the “junk food revolution” started, but I remember those 20 cent hamburgers at McDonald’s just off my college campus back in 1965. Who didn’t carry a buck in their pocket for so much cheap “food”? You could buy three burgers, a packet of fries and a Coke for less than a dollar. If I had known better, I would have invested every dime in their stocks!

(Al Wilson, skiing hut to hut in the Mt. Holy Cross Range of Colorado)

Not to be forgotten, that’s when the “throwaway society” began as customers tossed their cups, bags and paper burger wrappers anywhere and everywhere onto the landscape. Today, we’ve trashed our lakes, rivers, beaches and woods. There’s not one clean highway in America. Every road in this country, every park, rest area, college campus and inner city stands eyeball deep in litter.

Once Micky D’s fast food caught on, Burger King, Burger Chef, Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, Papa John’s, Wendy’s, Chipotle’s, Q-Doba’s, Arby’s and dozens of other junk food joints spread like wildfire across the USA.

But something else “spread” across America: waistlines. From normal 33-inch waists in 1965, today, men feature 43-to-53-inch waistlines. Women carry more flab around their arms than Jabba the Hutt in the Star Wars movie. Young children sport pot bellies before they reach their teens. A full 2/3 of American society suffers from overweight by 40 to 50 pounds…and half of that number suffers morbid obesity.

From the 60’s to the roaring 20’s of 2021, this country faces an obesity epidemic among the baby boomers, X Generation, Woke Generation and beyond.

We’ve got 1,000,000 heart attacks annually. We’ve got another 1,000,000 cancer patients annually. We’ve got runaway diabetes into the millions. Arthritis cripples millions. Little known or appreciated, mental cognitive decline, aka, Alzheimer’s Disease affects millions of fat people as their brains don’t enjoy oxygenated blood which hastens their mental decline.

Then, we’re talking knees and hips that wear out. Thus, steel knees and hips. Our hospitals suffer packed crowds trying to maintain some kind of quality of life as they eat their way toward their morbidity.

Ironically, those fast-food joints spike their menus with MSG, a chemical that makes patrons eternally hungry…so they go back to the counter for another burger and fries.

Why am I writing about this situation? Last week, one of my lifelong friends died of a heart attack. Only 60 years old! But, 50 pounds overweight and a junk food junkie! As brilliant of a wildlife photographer as he was, as highly educated as he was…he couldn’t stop eating junk food. One day last week, I’m talking on the phone with Allen, and now, I’ll never hear his voice again.

Let’s examine America’s current addiction to fast food. Since the pandemic, we’ve raced to the junk food parlors. A “Chick Fila A” near my home sees a constant 10 car lineup for their fast-food.

“Americans’ love affair with food has never been a secret. Whether it’s for a cheat meal or comfort food after a hectic day or coping up with lockdowns during the pandemic, the love for fried chicken, tacos, pizza and burgers has always been on the rise. Some are more in demand than the others; new data shows that America is eating more burgers than any other fast food during the pandemic.” Raji Ali

Here’s an offline GPS data of millions of Americans’ visits to the 20 largest fast-food restaurants in the nation across four main categories (Burgers, Mexican Food, Fried Chicken, and Pizza). The aggregate data was compared with visits from last year to arrive at the increase in percentage of visits to each fast-food chain.

Consider this:

54.4% increase in visits to Burger Chains in 2021.
32.1% increase in visits to Mexican Food Chains in 2021.
29.5% increase in visits to Fried Chicken Chains in 2021.
16.2% increase in visits to Pizza Restaurant Chains in 2021.

All those fast-food joints sell non-nutritious, unhealthy, chemicalized and over-caloried food stuffs. Those “foods” do more damage to one’s body over the years because it’s a slow-motion process. The average American eats 140 pounds of white sugar annually. The amount of Coke, Pepsi and Mt. Dew screams off the charts. You can’t feel it, but each year, as you slap on another three to five pounds, by the time you reach 50, you’re sporting a 40-to-60-pound pot belly.

Your waistline expands, your blood pressure explodes…and you don’t know what to do about it or where to start. Essentially, you have been addicted to junk food and all the poisons inherent in that eating style. If you’re eating TV dinners or other packaged foods, you’re ingesting endless chemical dyes, preservatives, sucralose, aspartame, dextrin and more funny name ingredients than you could ever pronounce.

At some point, each of us may choose to eat healthy foods. We may choose restaurants that serve life-giving foods such as Modern Market Eatery, Mad Greens and Healthy Habits.

If you stay home, it’s easier to buy wholesome, nutritious organic foods at Natural Grocers, Whole Foods, Sprouts and other grocery stores that actually care about your health.

For those of you suffering from cognitive decline or any of the forms of Alzheimer’s Disease, I recommend two books: The End of Alzheimer’s—Stopping and Reversing Cognitive Decline by Dr. Dale Bredesen. Secondly, Brain Warrior’s Way by Dr. Daniel Amen. He and his wife also published a cookbook to give you guidance on your way back to health—Brain Warrior’s Way Cookbook by Daniel and Tana Amen.

With my dear friend Allen gone, and another friend with Alzheimer’s, I hope this information will give you the courage to eat well, exercise daily, and move your life toward healthy longevity so you can enjoy your family, friends and grandchildren. God bless and keep you.

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Frosty Wooldridge

Golden, CO

Population-Immigration-Environmental specialist: speaker at colleges, civic clubs, high schools and conferences

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Frosty Wooldridge, six continent world bicycle traveler, Astoria, Oregon to Bar Harbor, Maine, 4,100 miles, 13 states, Canada, summer 2017, 100,000 feet of climbing: