The CEO and co-founder of Sweetgreen, a chain of fast-paced casual restaurants that sell salads, was accused of “fat phobia” after suggesting on a social media post that stopping fat and becoming healthier is a better solution. in the COVID-19 pandemic than the controversial facial masks and vaccine warrants.
Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman expressed concern about the connection between obesity and COVID-19 complications in a LinkedIn post already deleted last Tuesday.
“78% of hospitalizations for COVID are obese and overweight people. Is there any underlying problem that we may not have paid enough attention to? Is there another way of thinking about how we approach ‘health’ by addressing the root cause?” Neman wrote.
A worker sets up the salad bar inside a Sweetgreen Inc. restaurant. in Boston, Massachusetts. (Adam Glanzman / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Noting that COVID “is here to stay in the foreseeable future,” Neman added that instead of focusing on “preventing infections,” we should “focus on overall health.”
“We have been quick to implement masks and vaccine warrants, but we have not talked to HEALTH WARRANTIES. All the time we have printed unlimited money to soften the blow the shutdowns have caused in our country,” Neman wrote. “What if we focused on the root cause and used this pandemic as a catalyst to create a healthier future ??”
Floating possible solutions, Neman suggested taxing processed foods and refined sugars “to pay for the impact of the pandemic” or even banning “foods that make us sick.”
As Insider noted, critics accused Neman of “fat phobia” and described his charge as “incredibly fat phobia” and “disgusting.”
What do the data show?
While Neman’s position may not be politically correct, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified a strong link between COVID complications and obesity.
In fact, the CDC said in March that nearly 80 percent of people hospitalized, who needed a ventilator, or who died from COVID were overweight or obese. And while experts disagree that the body mass index is an accurate metric for determining what constitutes “overweight” or “obesity,” the key finding of the CDC study is firm: having more Additional fat increases the chances of experiencing complications of COVID.
The CDC claims that obesity triples the chances of being hospitalized because of COVID because obesity “is related to impaired immune function” and “decreases lung capacity and reserve and can hinder ventilation.”