The saga of staying in doors and practicing social distancing as the COVID-19 progresses. The majority of society has seen a decrease in normal, everyday physical activity. While we are recommended to take brief walks while distancing ourselves from others while Shelter is in Place in effect, fear of rainy weather and disease transmission is a powerful deterrent to venturing outdoors. As we camp out in the comfort of our homes, we have become closer to our kitchens, fridges, and pantries. Easy to acquire granola bars, cereals, and packaged snacks aren’t as far away as usual when we were at our offices or worksites. Cold and dreary weather offers the desire to acquire “comfort food.” Starchy, salty, and creamy foods. These items are meant to alleviate our stress during trying times. Similar to having a cold beer or a glass of wine after an intense day at work. However, the last thing we need right now is to have the tense environment in our community steer toward eating copious amounts of processed, high fat, insulin spiking food. Fortunately, by adjusting our decision-making ability toward food, we can protect our bodies against diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and becoming overweight while decreased physical activity is imposed upon us.
Traveling through the grocery store the other day, I observed that the bread shelves were completely desolate. Dust from flour packages were the lone remnants on the shelves that used to have home for cake, all purpose, and bread flours. There wasn’t a package of pastas, rice, and noodles anywhere to be seen. This was a routine grocery store trip for me to acquire under 10 items. However, even if I wanted to make comfort food, I don’t think I could with the current inventory available. This experience of seeing so many processed carbohydrates gathered up indicated to me that more people were loading up on comfort foods. This indicated to me of the likelihood of people staying at home and consuming these high glycemic, carbohydrate heavy foods at a time of low physical activity could spell disaster for our communities likelihood of gaining weight and introducing pre-diabetic conditions as we are forced to stay inside and move less.
The apocalypse hasn’t knocked on our door quite yet. It’s important to prepare for events that prevent us from going out by supplying our homes with adequate emergency resources. However, it’s more important to understand that depending on breads, flours, and processed granola bar snack will set us further behind than where we were before the Shelter in Place order began.
As I strolled past the barren wasteland the panic shopper swarm left behind on the bread and flour shelves, I came to the produce section. I felt like Little Foot in the Land Before Time after he ventured through the dessert and arrived at the land where everything was green, water was flowing, and there was fresh air. There was an abundance of fresh vegetables available. Carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, bell pepper, asparagus, and wide array of root veggies were strewn before my eyes. As the PTSD subsided after seeing the bread and flour swarmed over like locusts, I noticed that these veggies proved to be perfect ingredients for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In fact, the lack of processed foods, bread, and noodles offered a blessing to me as I was forced to gather the neglected fresh veggies. Vegetables offer critically important nutrients that we need during this high stress period. The water content, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients available in fresh vegetables are productive toward decreasing the likelihood of cancer and boosting the immune system so we can fend off disease. This is literally and figuratively “just what the doctor ordered” as we have a real fight on hands against the Corona Virus.
As the fire hose powered water stream of news bombards our eyes and ears of how COVID-19 is affecting our lives, our bodies don’t need the extra stress elicited by poor food choices. Decreased physical activity and the introduction of comfort foods in our homes equate to a plethora of metabolic disease. The last thing we need is a decreased immune system as a result of suboptimal dietary decisions. At a time where the weather is cold and wet along with the threat of COVID-19 knocking at our doors, veering away from processed foods and favoring fruits and vegetables is productive plan to counteract the likelihood of becoming unhealthy in a time where health is priority. We need to survive this struggle against COVID-19 and come out victorious. It’s good to have a back up supply, but don’t forget about your present state of health. Let’s make a collective effort to focus on our well-being at the present state of “right now.” By practicing mindful dietary habits as we reside indoors with the Shelter in Place order, we are going to thrive after we bested COVID-19.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
