Last year, Whole Foods’ CEO John Mackey had a lot of sh-t to say about Americans and how we’re all fat and fat people are getting Covid and that people shouldn’t even need health care, and we should demand that everyone just take better care of themselves. It was all pretty problematic, especially since his company charges $15 for melon slices, and he doesn’t seem to understand that A) low-income people exist and B) food deserts exist and C) the pandemic was and is raging. I bring up Mackey’s 2020 comments because Jonathan Neman is this year’s version. Neman is the CEO of Sweetgreen, a restaurant chain which charges $9-15 for salads. Neman has some thoughts on fat Americans and Covid too.
On Tuesday, the CEO of Sweetgreen, a restaurant chain that sells salads for around $15 a serving, said that the underlying problem with the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 600,000 Americans so far is that most of them were fat.
“78% of hospitalizations due to COVID are Obese and Overweight people,” Jonathan Neman said in a Linkedin post. “Is there an underlying problem that perhaps we have not given enough attention to? Is there another way to think about how we tackle ‘healthcare’ by addressing the root cause?”
Neman is somewhat correct in that most people who were hospitalized or died because of COVID-19 also had comorbidities that made the virus more deadly, such as being overweight. A CDC report from March indicated that obesity was an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19 symptoms and death. But while Neman is on to something, it’s impossible to separate his comments from the fact that he profits directly from a particular (and costly) idea of “health.”
“COVID is here to stay for the foreseeable future. We cannot run away from it and no vaccine nor mask will save us (in full disclosure I am vaccinated and support others to get vaccinated). Our best bet is to learn how to best live with it and focus on overall health vs preventing infection. What if we focused on the ROOT CAUSE and used this pandemic as a catalyst for creating a healthier future?? We clearly have no problem with government overreach on how we live our lives all in the name of ‘health,’ however we are creating more problems than we are solving.”
“What if we made the food that is making us sick illegal? What if we taxed processed food and refined sugar to pay for the impact of the pandemic? What if we incentivized health?” he added.
SCOTUS literally just shrugged when Texas made a law creating a sinister civilian-enforcement law which will upend reproductive freedom in the state, but sure, let’s make it illegal to buy or sell fatty foods. Let’s criminalize sugar, I’m sure no one will have a problem with that. Let’s arrest people for eating carbs. Let’s prosecute everyone over a size 10. Do these men not understand how f–king stupid they sound? How maniacal? How controlling and fascist they sound? I’m all for people eating more salads and I don’t even think the prices at Sweetgreen are that bad, but this guy sounds like a f–king nutjob.
The part about “no vaccine will save us” is pretty stupid too because while people with comorbidities are dying at a higher rate from Covid, it’s also true that those same people who are dying are the unvaccinated ones.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Far doesn’t make you fat. Taking in more calories than you burn off makes you fat.
A lot of things can make you fat. Fat people with good overall health exist. Fat people who burn more than they take in also exist.
How about people just let fat people fucking exist without generalising and commentating on what makes them fat.
@mrsbanjo – thank you, yes!
Furthermore, there are problems with the “being fat makes covid worse” scenario, among them fact that fat people are often perceived as being less worthy and more to blame for their own health issues and as a result are often given subpar medical care.
Also? Why do rich white guys always think everyone else needs their advice in how to live their lives?
Thank you Mrsbanjo!
There’s so many valid reasons why people are the sizes they are without it leading back to unhealthy foods.
These people live in a bubble where they have all the answers on how to fix the world and intend to profit significantly from it.
My cardiologist would love to meet these people who apparently defy the laws of thermodynamics.
No there are not fat people burning more calories than they eat. That would require them to break the laws of physics and biology.
Every body is different. Medications, diseases, microbiomes, hormones can influence things in a multitude of ways.
And if people want to mention what their doctors and cardiologists say, there are plenty of those decrying the COVID vaccine and even prescribing heart dewormer, so the idea of one person’s medical resource as being the definitive form of medical information is one I’ll take with a grain of salt.
Umm you can’t physically be burning more than you take in and be obese, it’s scientifically impossible.
MsBanjo: that’s just not true in the vast majority of cases. It’s basic thermodynamics. If a person is gaining weight, they are taking in more than they are spending, and if they are losing, they are spending more than they are taking in. We can be against fatphobia without promoting anti-science misinformation.
If you can be fat while taking in fewer calories than you burn, you need to get yourself to either 1.) a doctor because you have a very serious metabolic disease or 2.) your local university physics department, because whoever figures you out is going to win the Nobel Prize.
It’s more than “thermodynamics” or “serious metabolic disease” – please do not oversimplify. You can be healthy and fat and you can unhealthy and thin. It’s so individual and harmful to state otherwise. Humans come in all different shapes and sizes. Fat people have always existed and always will.
A friend of mine is a metabolic specialist at Mass General and works with overweight people with cardiovascular conditions. Calories in and calories out is the most basic equation. He says you can have a diet of 100% Twinkies and still lose weight, but you’ll be really unhealthy. Exercise is good for overall health, but not as effective for weight reduction as cutting calories – but a thin person who is a couch potato can be unhealthy in many ways. So, his point isn’t to focus on fat, but on health.
Like many things, causes of obesity are multi-factorial. Basic thermodynamics does play a huge part, but that imbalance is typically symptom, not cause. There are several underlying causes of that imbalance, including genetics, hormonal issues, co-morbidities such as PCOS or thyroid issues, food scarcity/poverty, sugar addiction, alcoholism etc.
The thermodynamics are basic (and yes, there are many people who have a higher BMI or don’t fit the insurance actuarial tables who are very healthy and active–not all healthy morphologies express physically as slimness). But we need to understand and address why these imbalances are so wide-spread, particularly in the West, and specifically in America, and deal with the actual underlying causes. Fortunately, several of these areas of research are currently in progress.
Robyn: “you can be fat ad healthy.” Guess what – you can also be a smoker and be healthy. By your logic, does that mean we should throw out all the science re: smoking and disease? I’d hope not. Science is real whether you agree with it or not, and the science is pretty clear: Excess fat is unhealthy and the vast majority of overweight and obese people will, in their lifetime, suffer adverse health effects as a result of their size. If that upsets or offends you, your beef is with the medical establishment.
I believe in the scientific consensus on obesity and being fat – it is unhealthy. I also believe that we have giant structural barriers in this country that contribute to over 2/3 of Americans developing unhealthy weight during our lifetimes – namely, government subsidies that promote poor food choices, infrastructure that discourages physical movement, terrible work culture that pushes us to neglect our health, etc. There are many more. But none of that makes the facts above untrue.
@Sam The Pink – Really? Smoking? That’s a false equivalency and you know it. I’m fat and I’m healthy. And yes, I have the regular test results to prove it. I eat a great diet and exercise and I’M STILL FAT. We exist. WE EXIST. The science is complicated and causes of “obesity” are not well understood, but how you are speaking about fatness is problematic. You need to check your fatphobia.
@Julia,
There is also a little thing called genetics that come into play. It’s not just the food or lack of exercise, there is genetics and social economic conditions to consider. Is the MacShack on the corner closer and more affordable than the supermarket that’s out of reach unless you have a car? For example, why don’t you look up Whole Foods locations for the US. You’ll notice that they aren’t in neighborhoods that are poor or working class, they tend to be located in upper middle class to rich neighborhoods. The closest Whole Foods to me are located in Porter Ranch and Woodland Hills, two neighborhoods that top out with houses valued in the millions and apt rents that can run 2.5k/month and up. So before you fat shame people, why don’t you think about what others have to face in trying to buy healthy food in the first place.
Please read my post. I said, paraphrasing, that eating fat does not make you fat. How the bonkers did you come up with fat shaming over that sentence? Having said thst, the first part of your post does have merit.
Things that “…make you fat” suggests that fat is a bad thing to be – that’s the issue.
I live in a traditionally working class/low income inner ring suburb of Denver (although it’s rapidly gentrifying). We have several high-end grocery stores in my neighborhood, but it’s only because I’m six blocks away from a very wealthy suburb with multi-million dollar homes. That suburb prizes itself on maintaining its “rural” character — so they are happy to have the ugly, crowded grocery stores and parking lots literally across the road in the town that needs the sales tax and service jobs.
Yes, fat is actually good for you as long as it’s not transfat. Yes, health (particularly heart) problems have increased since the low fat myth was pushed decades ago. No, it is NOT as simple as calories-in-calories-out. Many things can cause adverse weight gain – thyroid, stress, body-regulated BMI, medication. Particularly medication.
Although this is anecdotal, it is well documented that Gabapentin can cause weight gain – up to 20% of one’s body weight. I gained 2st 10lbs when I was on it – despite exercising (and burning 550-850 calories) every day and sticking to a calorie controlled, high protein, low carb diet. I came off the medication last month and have already dropped two dress sizes. My story and experience is far from unique.
Please let’s stop with the calorie in, calorie out nonsense. There are many articles on Good Housekeeping about weight and its links to health. I suggest having a good read of them.
-Oh, and the oft cited BMI? Invented by a white Belgian man who was trying to create a formula to assess what constituted a perfect man. A perfect white man. It was never meant to be used as a baseline for health. It wasn’t devised for women and never was considered for anyone non-white. It’s highly prejudicial and completely inadequate as a way to gauge health.
I won’t disagree… as far as weight and cardiovascular disease, sugar is the culprit:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat
Also, spoken like a true anti-science jackass- claims food (generally) is making people more vulnerable to coronavirus. jfc
Yup, sugar is a major culprit, and sugar addiction is a genetic predisposition. There’s some interesting research being done by geneticists regarding sugar addiction as an underlying cause of alcoholism in a subset of alcoholics. Interesting stuff.
Ummm i definitely burn more than I eat and had been consistently gaining weight. Switched the meds I was on now i eat more and am losing weight. Conversations about people’s weight and health should be reserved for an individual and their dr.
The newest research is not about burning calories. It’s focused on Insulin retention and the havoc that causes.
He can try to pry my tater tots from my chubby little hands…I’ll never willingly surrender them.
Maybe he could try to focus on affordable access to healthy, natural food first.
What bothers me about his statement is that what he’s taking about will overwhelmingly screw over poorer people. That $6, 3oz bar of dark chocolate? That’s not a problem! Hell, it’s a health food, packed with antioxidants. But a person who wants to unwind with a 99 cent doughnut would be penalized. If he’s that concerned about public health, let’s hear about what he wants to do to *improve* access to quality food, not punish people for their choices.
Well said. It’s a poor tax, and I have never been more aware of that since I moved to LA. The food deserts in this city, where there is a farmers’ market somewhere every day of the week (don’t get me started on Whole Foods), yet there are entire neighborhoods where the reliance on fast food and convenience stores is STILL shocking to me, over a decade later. Work on that problem, Jonathan Neman, stop trying to tax people who don’t have access to your $15 salads, or hell, fruit choices that don’t involve convenience store bananas.
Ugh yes. It always ALWAYS comes back to affluent people thinking that affluence is a virtue, and, by that standard, poverty is a vice.
Thank you for doing the thinking this arrogant fool won’t do.
$15 for mediocre salads made by humans who get paid $10 and don’t give a sh*t about your health. Ahhh America.
They won’t be paying humans for long. Sweetgreen just bought Spyce, which is a robotics fast food restaurant started by MIT students. It’s across the street from me – I tried to get a salad there once, but the order kiosk was down and the only employee was in the bathroom.
Your comment perfectly encompasses everything that is wrong with the world.
It really does.
What a gross, hysterical little man. People who still think there are “good” and “bad” foods shouldn’t be allowed give their opinion about food to anyone and he sounds like a high school nutrition class could be of help with the things he’s lying about.
He’s downplaying vaccines, which absolutely save people, to plug his business. What a gross human being.
Exactly. Plus every communicable disease specialist in the whole world has basically said that masks and vaccines WILL, in fact, save us. 🤦🏻♀️
…and here we have the full blown hate that makes people feel so very hurt whenever the relationship between weight and health is brought up.
Let’s be honest: this guy is actually saying there are good and bad people: thin people and fat people. It’s emotionally charged, full of accusation, inaccuracy and just plain hate.
I really don’t get what his end game is here: does he want to spark a boycott of Sweetgreen? Cause I’m not going into a Sweetgreen again unless this guy is out of the picture.
#SweetgreenisCancelled
Yeah, I will choose not to frequent his establishments.
Your second paragraph is ON POINT and underpins so many conversations like this, whether straight size folks see it or not.
THANK YOU. Especially for that second paragraph.
I am fat. Part of that is choices I made years ago. Part of that is medicines that I have taken, before we understood the full implications of what they can do (and we don’t even understand the full implications now, we just know more than we did before). Part of it is issues inherent to my body; I am finally able to lose about a half a pound a week now that I have had all the bloodwork and know which vitamins I am deficient in. The way I am iced out in my very tony, very thin city is obvious, and disgusting. I’m fat. I’m not a bad person.
So infuriating. I listened to these a$$ hats telling me to just let my larger than average butt die for the economy. I am overweight (though finally loosing weight again) and have asthma. Now these same jerks are gulping horse dewormer and drinking bleach. This guy can go pound sand, or better yet, beat up a bag of baked kale.
Co-sign #Sweetgreeniscanceled
If you haven’t already, look at the ACEs study- we need more support for kids and families of those kids, obesity and many health problems come from trauma in childhood, we need to address that first in my opinion.
I was raised in a household that existed pretty much solely on “easy foods,” i.e. Shake n’ Bake and Hamburger Helper along with takeout. Both of my parents were overweight to the point of obesity at some points and exercise was a dirty word in our house. My father was not my biological father, but habits are taught by example, not genetics, so I didn’t have good modeling from either parent.
After having two heart attacks at age 38 my dad did change his eating habits and began to exercise . . . for a while. Eventually he backslid – hard. After being laid off and struggling to find work in his former industry he became a courier and holding on to his new healthy routine was pretty much done. He died of Congestive Heart Failure a month before his 58th birthday.
I have long had many, many health problems. My childhood was spent in doctors offices. I am 34, have no health care (thanks, Texas!), my untreated MS makes it impossible to exercise or maintain steady employment, and my economic constraints impede my ability to consistently make the healthiest dietary choices.
All of this to say . . . health has many, many, many factors and weight is just one of them. This dude would not look at 110 lb., 5′ 1″ me and think I was unhealthy – but I am. My little brother is skinny as a rail and has cholesterol through the roof. My best friend has always been larger, but until his kidneys began troubling him due to an undiagnosed genetic condition he was in incredible shape, despite being “heavier.”
Instead of regurgitating the same talking points that blame obesity on personal choice, a better, much more thoughtful thing for this dude to do would be to discuss the systemic issues that have allowed a culture to flourish where a corporation’s bottom line is more important to the lawmakers that are supposed to work for the good of all the citizens and not just the ones that line their pockets with reelection funds.
. . . That probably wouldn’t sell salads, though.
And trauma in adulthood. I was normal weight up ’til I was nearly date-raped at age 29. I started packing on the pounds because the idea of a man looking at me with sexual desire made my skin crawl. Many years later, I’m in a much better place mentally, but unfortunately, the weight is still there.
I’m so sorry that happened to you. Wishing you peace <3
That’s a really good point about the ACE’s study. It showed that not only do people with high childhood ACE scores more likely to be overweight , they also had a higher incidence of a variety of chronic mental and physical health issues.
What if we eliminate food deserts? What if we provided access to decent healthcare for everyone? What if people didn’t have to work more than one job to make ends meet?
I’d be interested in knowing more about how Sweetgreen treats the employees making these salads.
I live in a mid sized rust belt city. We’ve got several urban farmers markets and the state has a program where SNAP is taken at double value for produce purchases at these markets. The line to convert SNAP to the produce tokens is usually dozens of people deep. People want good food and if you give them an easy, affordable way to access fresh food they will do it. Food deserts are deadly.
That’s the thing. Even if healthy food is available, it’s more expensive than fast food.
This would address some of the social determinants of health for sure, but not all. And fat people would still exist! You can be healthy and fat.
Absolutely and thin people can be unhealthy. It’s less about fat vs. thin people and more about everyone making decisions to live a more healthy life.
Well I don’t know who this guy is or what his company is, but I know if I see a Sweetgreen restaurant I’m definitely not going to go in one even if I’m starving and even if I’m trying to stick to my calorie count for the day. What fatphobic, one sided, poorly researched gong show opinion he has. It’s so sad when someone is showing his ass and its that unattractive, and he’s not even aware of it. I feel bad for him in a way.
Did you know that you can only eat salads and only drink water and exercise and…still be fat?
This man’s ignorance is just—*face palm*
Some folks in this thread don’t seem to understand that. Fatphobia is pervasive AF.
I always wish obesity on these people. If it’s so easy to do something, I hope that they get the opportunity to put their beliefs into practice.
What if we make it illegal to price gouge healthy foods like salads too, so they’re more accessible?
Can he please sit down and shut up now.
I was going to say “waiting on the fat shamers to show up in 3, 2, 1..” but there it was first comment lol!
Actually I don’t know if I would call it fat shaming per se but the current society dictates that systemic issues are to be solved by individuals taking personal responsibility, so I guess those upholding the status quo are rabid haters of anyone overweight.
I actually would be interested to see this guys list of foods making us sick. Would it be brands like coke or categories like sugar or butter? Hmmm.
Had a sweetgreen salad yesterday. where I live a $12 salad is a bargain so sweetgreen fits right in. And while vegan food options are plentiful, sweetgreen is one of the few places I can get a high protein unprocessed vegan meal. But I already feel guilty supporting a chain over a local business and I really didn’t want to know this.
Your weight isn’t just diet. It’s a combination of diet, lifestyle, exercise and genetics. I think everyone should eat healthy foods (although I’m not practising what I’m preaching all the time) but healthier foods can be much more expensive to some people than let’s say, a burger. There’s also the issue of availability as not everyone has equal and easy access to healthier options. But I don’t expect a guy who charges $18 a salad to understand that
F you, John!
+1000
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏f him times 1000
I’m already paying a premium for bacon. Now I’m gonna be reduced to wandering around back alleys, waiting for a shady guy in a trench coat to sell it to me?
This dude can kiss my fat butt.
Making fruits and vegetables as affordable as fast food is indeed a conversation that should happen, but it has nothing to do with weight.
What a twit. He takes a genuine real issue (obesity does increase your risk of serious complications from illness, including, but not limited to, COVID) and uses it as a jumping off point to make terrible arguments. People are fat for a large variety o reasons, including:
1.) Processed foods are cheaper and more calorically dense, making them attractive to low-income people.
2.) American cities and suburbs are not designed to be walkable or safe, meaning we have to drive just about everywhere, engineering physical activity out of our lives.
3.) Access to healthy food is not uniform across the country and many people genuinely have no access to healthy options.
If he is genuine in his concern to help Americans be healthier, he could start by not charging $15 for a salad that would cost a third of that to make at home.
On top of that the lack of decent, affordable health care compounds these issues. If you can’t ever go see a doctor you can’t begin to treat or prevent these illnesses before they start. If one has to work multiple jobs just to be able to survive, how are they supposed to incorporate doctors visits in to their already over extended schedules? That’s if they even have some type of insurance coverage. It’s such a bigger, systemic issue than needs to be addressed but I’m not at all surprised that this elite salad CEO misses the mark entirely.
It’s too bad. I liked Sweetgreen’s overpriced salads. But now I believe I will take my $14 and buy from Chopt instead.
Whew! The fatphobia is REAL today. I encourage everyone to read What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon (or begin with literally any one of her essays online) and sit with it for as long as it takes.
Couldn’t agree more, Aubrey is the best. Her podcast “Maintenance Phase” also has some great episodes on this very topic!!
I was trying to edit my comment to add this but refreshed too many times – thanks for adding it! It’s a fantastic podcast and recent episodes focus on the BMO the obesity “epidemic” and their origins. Surprise! Both are problematic AF. Come for the info, stay for the delightful hosts! A must listen.
YES to Aubrey Gordon’s book and podcast. The demonizing of fat people is so entrenched in our culture that it’s come to seem “normal.”
Meanwhile, it’s like Mr. Sweetgreen has no memory of what happened when Michelle Obama increased fresh produce in school lunches. The backlash was intense.
Easy for him to say, he’s a rich CEO. He doesn’t live in a food desert.
Some people don’t have access to healthy whole foods to eat, greens, fruits, healthy meats etc so they have to resort to the corner liquor store which sells processed food that has an extended shelf life. I knew someone once who had to rely on the corner 7/11 because his mental disorder kept him from being able to board a bus to ride to a grocery store that was six blocks away. The complex where he lived was for low income housing that went on for nearly a city block, with a freeway overpass at one end and a 7/11 and a McD’s at the other. He became really sick on that diet and had to be placed in a residential facility to get him on healthy foods and his meds at the regular. He eventually got off processed foods and diet soda.
Tackling the food problem by ignoring the system it is part of is just white privilege. And reducing COVID deaths to diet is stupidity.
I agree that sugar quantities should be reduced in most of the processed food available, I agree with the soda tax etc., and I agree that there is too much fat (but also sugar and sodium) in food and the way we cook. But I also would like to know if his workers have access to good, cheap, healthy food, and if they have good healthcare. Also, the relation between over-eating and trauma, like someone said above needs to be studied. Obesity is also a mysterious problem not that easy to solve and there have been interesting studies about the impossibility for certain people to loose weight. It’s not that easy to understand and it’s not true that people with more fat are obligatory unhealthy. Look at the beautiful Ashley Graham, who is, to me, the image of health – extended to metal health – who works out and seems to have a great diet.
There’s a new study out that shows that SNAP recipients who got extra money to buy healthy food actually bought more healthy food. Healthy food is expensive AF. You cannot eat it if you’re paid under $15 an hour. I can’t afford to eat all organic, and I make around $40 an hour and have no children. Rich people need a huge reality check.
Agreed @NCwoman. Ironic that his employees are paid less than $15 an hour and yet they’d have to work a whole hour and a half (with taxes removed) to pay for one of his “healthy salads.” Money buys access to a lot of things, especially better health. I feel like fat shaming is often a cover for money shaming.
A friend of mine relies on that program… she’s disabled and on a low fixed income. And she absolutely loves it when there is a program that makes it easier to buy produce. The current program is set up so that if you buy up to $40 worth of fruits, vegetables from farm stands, they reimburse you by crediting the amount you spend back to your card. So it’s $40 of free healthy food each month. The downside it only applies at certain places, and the closest to her is 15 miles away.
Healthy fresh food often doesn’t last long, either. Try having two-plus jobs, kids, chores—and keeping track of organic produce in your fridge.
Welp! I like Sweetgreen, but won’t be going there anymore. In a perfect country healthy foods would be just as or even more affordable than processed food and food deserts wouldn’t exist. There’s a bigger conversation that needs to be had, but fat-shaming is not the way to go about it. In regards to vaccines, most ppl who visit Sweetgreen are office workers on their lunch breaks. You would think a company that relies on these customers would want more ppl vaccinated so we can head back to the office.
Fat isn’t the problem, refined and sugary foods are, and that’s what Newman said—you should revise your headline. That said, his statement is ridiculous and classist, and so is he.
I refuse to buy carbs on the black market. Frak this pretentious asshole.
Thank you for the laugh, I had steam pouring out of my ears until I got to you!
He’s like so many self loathing middle aged men who start spouting off what everyone else should do….right before they have an affair with their secretary. I don’t care if he’s 20…he’s one of them. Give it a year…the ugly will surface…
I was just thinking about that this morning. Dudes lose their sexual drive much younger than women do but rather than deal with their own bodies aging they convince themselves that sex with younger women will rejuvenate them. But it doesn’t so they’re endlessly chasing something that’s gone. (Not all of course. Plenty of men are relieved to be able to refocus their energies into productive outlets).
I honestly think it’s because in their minds they don’t have a “biological clock” and so they get to delude themselves a lot longer…
I get so angry at nonsense like this. My daughter almost died this summer from an eating disorder. Her downward spiral began as an effort to “be healthier.” She cut all “bad” foods out of her diet. She was never, ever overweight to begin with, yet she ended up in the hospital for a month and half, and she was 40 pounds underweight.
What I think people should be emphasizing is moderation in all things. That and acceptance. A “healthy” diet isn’t the magical elixir of life. In fact, the cardiologist told my daughter that she was actually more unhealthy than a morbidly obese person because of her malnourished state.
Life is meant to be lived. Food is meant to be eaten. Balance is what we are meant to embrace.
I’m so sorry to hear about your daughter and I hope she’s in full recovery. American culture has a dual problem of unrealistic body standards and over reliance on processed unhealthy foods. It’s a lot for a young person to navigate. *hugs*
Duchess I’ve been in your shoes, watching my kid refuse to eat. Hugs. With support she can recover and build a healthy relationship with herself and food.
We should be criminalizing certain agricultural and food production practices so that the actual food that is produced on a large scale is better for us. Sure. I agree with that. Perhaps there should ONLY be organic food that is produced and then sold at reasonable prices. Why is there even a difference? Why are we paying a premium for healthy food?
I was right with him until he said tax the “bad food.” Tax who? Who will actually pay those costs? Spoiler alert: the consumer.
And while we’re at it, will this guy be offering full meals at less than $5-10 like McDonald’s? We’re talking about a huge salad with fixings, bread/side, quality drink. Is he going to set up shop in low-income neighborhoods? If he’s not part of the solution, he himself is part of the problem.
If he’s so concerned, he should be doing more to address the root of the problem – healthier school lunches, eliminate food desserts, support youth sports and exercise, campaign for better walking and biking trails, etc. Yelling that fat people should stop being fat (and hey buy my overpriced salads) is not helping anyone.
Pretty sure that a good proportion of the healthy eating svelte celebs shove quite a bit of cocaine up the schnozzola at regular intervals: so no lectures on ‘my body is a temple’ please.
Ehehehe. The NYT has a crazy article about the rich preferring to hide their fridges behind cabinets—and declaring frozen food is not trendy or healthy. They are the last people who should be handing out diet advice.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/style/hidden-fridges-status-kitchens.html?searchResultPosition=5
If people can eschew vaccines and masks, while openly toting guns, then people can eat whatever they want. And guess what, Jonny, some folks have genetic disorders where they lack critical enzymes that break down certain foods, even in small quantities, and that may contribute to weight gain or the inability to lose weight. Jackass.
American food is mostly garbage and if would be great to see a push to get low cost fruits and veggies to all Americans, especially lower income. The crappy foods plays into the high cost of “health care” and creates a feedback loop of Americans with lifestyle diseases dependent on medications and doctors to stay alive which drives up costs for everyone. If we actually cared about health we wouldn’t feed our children garbage at school from the get go. Enough HMOs and corporations are profiting off of unhealthy Americans so nothing will change until people take control themselves (which is a lot harder without access to healthy foods). Our healthcare systems suck and traps people in it. It isn’t as easy as eat more salads and stop being fat! It’s a systemic problem.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been told by a doctor to “just lose weight” for something unrelated or as part of a refusal to run tests or even listen to you like you’re a human being…
It is pretty messed up that certain ingredients in processed food are illegal elsewhere in the world but legal in the US. Or that we Americans eat things that actual scientists have created….additives that trick our body, making it next to impossible to feel satiated after eating. And on and on.
I didn’t see anyone mention psych meds.
I weighed 150 at 5’10 until my 30’s
I finally got correctly diagnosed with bipolar and other affect disorders when I had a bout of euphoric mania instead of my usual mixed episodes.
So I was on antidepressants, mood stabilizers, ect.
Well in a year and a half I Gained 150#
This was with literally nothing changing, my exercise was the same and I was eating the exact same foods/calories
The only thing that changed was the meds I was now taking.
So the calorie deficit thing is bullshit when it comes up against some medications
I’m on different meds now but my metabolism is screwed now.
I was able to get 50# off right after stopping the meds but the rest is sticking around
I even finally had weight loss surgery, but I’m still no where near the 150# I was til I was 36 years old and started taking psych meds.
And for the asshat fat shamers, I fast walk an hour every day and work out for an hour 3-4 times a week. I eat 1800-2000 calories a day.
I have 100 grams of protein a day and I don’t eat sugar or fast food.
So FU
I am so sorry. I can imagine all of the hateful things you have had to hear from your last paragraph alone. The fact that you have all of your stats at the ready says so much about this issue. Yes, FU, fat shamers.
This is so messed up. He’s not wrong about the risk factor of being overweight/obese with regards to Covid outcomes, but he’s twisting all of this for press coverage and a soapbox to spread his vile sense of superiority from. I don’t see why we can’t acknowledge the risk but also state that he is cruel and willfully ignorant. There are thin/average people who have been hospitalized for Covid, too. But overlooking the weight/outcome connection doesn’t do any good. Instead, it should motivate us to improve education and access to grocery stores.
Excellent PBS program about the science side of fat. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/the-truth-about-fat/
Our bodies work against us. Quite disheartening.
He’s an idiot. People own their bodies. Meaning, they can do whatever they want with them, as long as it doesn’t endanger others. Fatness may be ew gross to this twerp, but it doesn’t actually endanger or hurt him in any way. So he can STFU about it. Covid, on the other hand, is transmissible. Morons who choose not to get vaccinated are endangering the rest of us. Therefore, their vaccination status is everyone’s business.
First, the root cause of COVID is not obesity. It is a deadly virus.
Second, I happen to live in an area with farmers markets that provide quality food at very affordable prices. But the amount of time it takes to clean, cut, cook, etc. this produce is extraordinary. A person has to make such an effort to eat healthy for an average amount of money. Again, I am lucky to have the time to do it most days, but so many people cannot or will not dedicate the time needed. People don’t always have hours to spend in the kitchen.
Stop shaming people for having to make tough decisions about how to feed themselves and others.
That’s the stupidest sh!t I’ve read all day. I mean, to be honest, I had to work out of the office this morning so I’m just getting online. Fat, in and of itself, can be good for you – we all need some of it.
I agree with the general sentiment of, ‘we should all try to eat healthier’ – sure. But has he ever heard of poverty? Of food deserts? Of how much more it can cost to “eat healthy” than it can be to purchase processed foods and junk foods?
I’m the single mother of a 13-yo boy and I’m pretty underpaid for my position (not just my opinion, it’s verifiable fact), so I’m not making the money I used to in this position and things are tighter. Luckily, I’m able to drive to a grocery store and I buy as much produce as I can and pack it in my son’s lunch. But it’s not cheap, especially when this kid can plow through a bag of pears as his “afternoon snack” lol. This guy is so out of touch. Also – $15 for a salad? Does he charge extra for the sides of fatphobia and elitism?
I’d get his point more if he were actually offering other solutions besides, “Your COVID is your fault because you’re fat.” I buy berries, spinach, peppers, brussell sprouts, pears, apples, and broccoli to keep around for my son and I – but I’m lucky to be able to do that. If my pay went down just a bit, or my car broke down, or I lost my job, or any number of things, I would not be that lucky because this economy does not put a priority on healthy living.
Aside from the obvious point that this guy is a fatphobic a-hole, which has been addressed in prior coments, there’s this: I had a look at the nutritional info for his menu. Most of the salads are 700 calories and up. Not really the RDA.
Who knew there were so many eugenicists on celebitchy? Because that is what you are when you go down the road of Covid deaths being the fault of fat people.
It’s really easy not to be a monster hiding behind “concern” and “thermodynamics.”
Yet another ignorant, reductive, viewpoint by a privileged white man who thinks that (insert problem or societal ill here) is caused by people ‘not trying hard enough’, ‘not accepting personal responsibility and making excuses’, etc. and yet, when he experiences any adversity of any sort, he’ll immediately claim his problems are no fault of his own, or that even if he did make bad choices that led to adverse circumstances, he deserves not to be judged harshly because he’s human and people make mistakes. I’m sure he worked his way through Georgetown’s business school all on his own and that his business in no way benefits from his Billionairess wife and even if I’m wrong, and he did pull himself up by his own bootstraps, not everyone has the same bootstraps and you don’t earn the right to criticize people and look down on them, no matter how healthy, wealthy, educated, or accomplished you are.
Wouldn’t most businesses want to empower, encourage and make their customers feel good?
Putting down others is a losing strategy.
You don’t have to insult and crudely make anyone feel worse to encourage business.
Eating healthy is tough. It is a fight in my home to shop, clean, prep/chop, cook, package, clean again and it takes most of every Sunday to do so. Some days I enjoy it more than others. I completely understand those that do not have the time- it is “cheaper” at home but can be a battle to get done.
1. Eating fat doesn’t necessarily make you fat. In fact, the opposite.
2. What a reckless-ass comment about how the “vaccine won’t save us”
3. I am all for paying more for processed garbage food created with chemicals and pesticides- and paying less for local nutrient dense foods. I’m sick of paying more for a handful of our local unsprayed berries/fruit/veg as opposed to paying less for a massive tasteless clamshell of imported fruit/veg. Trying to be healthy and sustainable is way too much $$$$
This man looks 4’1”.
Yes one of the risk factors with COVID is being overweight, but a much greater risk is having diabetes, high blood pressure or cholesterol which happen to both “fat” and “thin” people, but always people who live an unhealthy lifestyle. Case in point, I have about 30-40 pounds on my mum and her cholesterol and blood pressure is through the roof and mine is normal. If all these health warriors focus on anything, it should be on lobbying for a nationalised health service in the US with a strong emphasis on preventative and community care. So everyone would be screened regularly and could address health problems as they arise. Not just that, but the cost of health insurance could be redirected towards establishing a healthier lifestyle. It’s an absolute embarassment it doesn’t exist already. What on earth do all those taxes go to?
Does anyone remember the Sly Stallone, Wesley Snipes movie Demolition Man? They have laws about what you can eat and charge you for curse words. All about regulating people into good behavior!
“We clearly have no problem with government overreach on how we live our lives all in the name of ‘health'”
Where does this guy live that this statement makes any sense??? There are protests everywhere because of vaccine ‘overreach’… A couple of years ago my county put a tax on sugary beverages and people LOST THEIR MINDS. It only lasted a couple of months before it was removed. This guy is a moron.
Whenever I visit other places – in South America, europe and Asia so all over- they don’t have the same weird hang ups about fat or food in general. All meals are eaten together, people care much more about being together than regulating what others eat.
It’s usually only Americans who tell me eating butter or steak or French fries or chips will kill you, while other people enjoy them and eat them as part of a varied diet.
PS the whole thing about delta is that it’s affecting thinner, younger people, like teens, young adults and kids, so it can’t be only a weight based virus?
I’ve never realised that about food hang ups, that’s so true.
This man is making an intellectually bankrupt argument for several reasons, most of which are listed above by previous posters.
But the fact is that our aggressively industrial agriculture has stripped the soil and our food – even our most nutrient dense foods like broccoli – are far, far less nutritious than they were even 20 years ago. There are those who wonder if this food, devoid of the nutrients that our bodies require, is fueling part of the obesity epidemic. Regenerative farming, no till farming and other kinds of agriculture can rebuild the soil microbiome and return the nutrition to our foods (AND sequester carbon!).
NO. Periodt
Cool, cool, cool. I guess we better double SNAP benefits and make SNAP an easily accessible entitlement with no work requirements (I’m legitimately pro-doing this). This yahoo doesn’t understand how much nutritious food costs in this country, which is weird because his company charges $15 for one meal, so you think he might be able to put 2 and 2 together.