So what’s cooking with you? Chances are, you’re actually doing a lot more cooking these days, with restaurants mostly closed and budgets more limited. Has your increased presence in the kitchen changed the way you eat? Are you improvising with whatever ingredients you can get your hands on? For some, this may be an optimal time to rethink the way you’ve previously eaten and the types of food you’ve consumed, as many of us have set ourselves up for becoming bigger and sicker, largely because of what we eat.

Some basics: What does the data tell us about our prior eating patterns? According to Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, internationally recognized food and health experts, “COVID-19 has pulled back the curtain to reveal just how unhealthy we are as a nation,” and these experts largely attribute that to the way we eat. And the way we eat seems to have a lot to do with who suffers the most from COVID-19. With 75% of Americans overweight (and 42% categorized as obese), and 6 out of 10 adults with chronic disease, we have set ourselves up to be prone to illness and infection, largely through the starchy, sugary, and processed foods we consume. The result? Many of us are having a harder time fighting off the coronavirus attack, as our immune systems cannot handle this additional assault. And as Jane Brody added in a recent New York Times column, the excess belly fat, high blood sugar, high blood pressure and other sources of stress on our bodies from poor diets have left many with body-wide inflammation and increased risk of infection. Too many of us have created the perfect environment not only for succumbing to COVID-19 but also for setting ourselves up to age poorly even if we don’t become infected with the virus.

So how are we eating during this pandemic? The evidence suggests many are turning to comfort foods rather than healthy choices. Sales of hotdogs, mac ‘n cheese, and other processed foods are way up, as are alcohol and dairy product sales. And in an ironic twist, with declining budgets and food distribution problems, local and organic products may get tossed from the grocery cart in favor of cheaper, highly processed foods- thus underscoring the challenge our nation faces to improve our food selections for the sake of our health (and health care system). Studies continue to be published during this time that highlight the value of the Mediterranean diet vs. the risks of ingesting junk food, including the excess salt intake that comes from that burger with fries. But for a variety of reasons, as a nation, we seem unable to process this info and would rather indulge in highly-processed goodies. There may be some comfort in the short-run, but with this kind of diet indulgence, the long-term outlook for our individual and societal health looks perilous.