(Philadelphia, PA, Friday, May 15, 2020) – Just recently, doctors at NYU Langone Health center conducted the largest US study of COVID-19 to find that obesity is the single biggest ‘chronic’ factor in New York City’s hospitalizations.

According to the CDC, today in the United States more than two of three adults have high body weight and 42 percent are obese, among the highest rates in the world. In addition, almost two in ten children are obese.

The leading risk factors for susceptibility to and prognosis with COVID-19 are obesity, age, diabetes and high blood pressure. These risk factors turn out to be markers for abnormal secretion of insulin associated with a condition called “insulin resistance.”

Excessive weight, and the poor-quality diet that causes it, is strongly associated with insulin resistance, chronic inflammation and other abnormalities that may lower immunity to viral respiratory infection or predispose to complications.

Dr. Agatston has warned for years of the implications of poor diet and lifestyle that leads to prediabetes and diabetes. In the long-term, Americans need to get on track with their nutrition and diet in order to boost immunity, reduce inflammation and combat diabetes and heart disease.

There has never been a more important time to take care of our health. This starts with proper diet and nutrition.