It took Covid-19\u2014and a brush with death\u2014to turn Boris Johnson into one of the world\u2019s foremost anti-obesity advocates.<\/p>\n
Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, endured a desperate struggle with Covid-19; the disease put him into the intensive care unit, and he was on the verge of requiring intubation. Before Johnson\u2019s recovery, his doctors reportedly began to discuss how they would announce his death.<\/p>\n
When Johnson emerged from the hospital, he did so with a new outlook on at least two political issues. First, the coronavirus itself: Johnson had previously been viewed as downplaying the crisis, but his brush with death understandably caused him to about-face on that issue. The other perhaps more surprising result is that Johnson, previously a known critic of the \u201cnanny state,\u201d had reinvented himself as one of the world\u2019s most highly placed advocates of government anti-obesity action.<\/p>\n
Why? \u201cI was too fat.\u201d Johnson blames his body\u2019s nearly fatal battle with the coronavirus on his poor health, especially his obesity. In remarks published by the Daily Express<\/a>, Johnson stated,<\/p>\n \u201cThe facts are simple: extra weight puts extra pressure on our organs and makes it harder to treat heart disease, cancer and\u2013as we have found\u2013Coronavirus\u2026 This was true in my case, and it\u2019s true in many thousands of others. It was a wake-up call for me and I want it to be a wake-up call for the whole country.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s revelation is a cause for celebration. The obesity epidemic (and the associated epidemics of diabetes and other preventable, diet-based illnesses) has already caused astonishing damage to the public health of the UK, as it has in America, other Western nations, and, increasingly, the developing world. These trends are getting worse, not better, and government action is called for. As our contributor Dr. Mariela Glandt stated<\/a>, \u201cour poor metabolic health \u2026 had already inflicted staggering financial and emotional costs even before the coronavirus breached our borders.\u201d That obesity exacerbates the damage of Covid-19\u2014a fact not much in dispute\u2014only makes the situation even more pressing.<\/p>\n At ASweetLife, we have been beating this drum since the early days of the pandemic. Dr. Glandt was one of the first international voices we are aware of to have highlighted the undeniable connections between diet, obesity, metabolic health, and the severity of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. On April 2, Dr. Glandt proclaimed that \u201cthe overlap between poor metabolic health and vulnerability to COVID-19 has become impossible to ignore<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n We are especially heartened to see the UK government make exactly the same connections in its press release: \u201cThe urgency of tackling the obesity time bomb has been brought to the fore by evidence of the link to an increased risk from COVID-19.\u201d The head of the National Health Service (NHS), Matt Hancock, stated that \u201cgiven the link between obesity and coronavirus, losing weight could be lifesaving.\u201d<\/p>\n The Prime Minister has now proposed<\/a> what would be some of the most aggressive anti-obesity regulations in the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the same day, Johnson also announced<\/a> a \u00a32 billion plan to construct thousands of miles of protected bike paths. The Prime Minister called the bicycle \u201ca giant, universal prescription\u201d to the nation\u2019s health woes, and the new cycleways \u201chuge, 24-hour gyms, free and open to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson had previously been an outspoken critic and skeptic of so-called \u201csin taxes\u201d aimed at curbing sugar consumption; it was just one year ago that he launched<\/a> an investigation on a tax on sugary drinks. At the time, he argued that to tax a milkshake would be to disproportionately punish poorer citizens. There\u2019s no question that those with lower income would bear the brunt of such taxes\u2014in America, for instance, sugary drink consumption increases as wealth declines. But it is not at all a coincidence that diabetes, obesity and Covid-19 infections are all also correlated with lower income levels.<\/p>\n The plan has already prompted much criticism. Opponents have derided the proposal as, for example, \u201can absurd nanny state crusade<\/a>.\u201d Johnson may be courting a fight with his own Conservative Party backers.<\/p>\n But do these sorts of measures work? Most experts believe that they do. Several studies have shown that advertising restrictions improve dietary habits, especially of children, and many more have shown that unhealthy food advertising invariably has a negative effect on eating habits.<\/p>\n With obesity emerging as a powerful risk factor for coronavirus, the time for action is now. In the early days of the crisis, when all of our data on the virus was still from China, obesity was not yet explicitly linked with severe Covid-19 outcomes. That changed, though, as the disease spread to Europe and (especially) to the United States. By late March, we had begun to wonder aloud\u2014Is Obesity a Risk Factor for Worse COVID-19 Outcomes?<\/a> The latest studies have removed any lingering doubt. A recent survey<\/a> found nine separate studies identifying obesity as a major risk factor.<\/p>\n\n