Has the food industry made Covid worse?

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2021

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Obesity is a major factor in which countries have the worst Covid-19 death rates, a new report suggests. So could this be a moment of reckoning for food and beverage businesses?

Manuela Saragosa hears from John Wilding, president of the World Obesity Federation, which produced the report. She asks Kate Halliwell, chief scientific officer of the UK’s Food and Drink Federation, what responsibility the industry bears. Sophie Lawrence of fund managers Rathbone Greenbank explains how important obesity is to investors in food and drink companies. Plus, a Covid survivor who was morbidly obese when he went into hospital in March last year, and spent seven weeks in an induced coma, tells us how he has now dramatically changed his lifestyle.

Producers: Laurence Knight, Benjie Guy

(Photo: A tray of fast food - a burger, fries and a drink. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC with me, Manuel Zaragoza.
0:06.4	In this edition, how the food and drinks industry may have made the COVID pandemic worse.
0:12.0	Living with obesity is associated with higher risks of catching COVID, of ending up in hospital with COVID,
0:18.6	of ending up in intensive care and of dying with COVID-related disease.
0:24.8	So is COVID a moment of reckoning for food businesses everywhere?
0:29.3	There's clear direct risks from things like regulatory intervention, litigation costs,
0:34.6	but also reputational damage and ultimately lower sales.
0:38.2	That's all here in Business Daily from the BBC.
0:44.8	Okay, so my name's Damon Keith.
0:47.1	I'm a 50-year-old male that lives in Old Trafford in Manchester.
0:51.7	So I guess like most middle-aged guys, have a busy social life,
0:58.4	including the pub, you know, you tend to, you know, not necessarily look after yourself as much
1:03.7	as you should do. Early last year, Damien there took his usual annual trip away from the UK,
1:10.1	a chance to relax. He went to Africa,
1:12.7	fishing in the Zambizi River. There are photos of him on that trip. One shows him smiling into
1:18.4	the camera as he holds up his catch, his blue polo shirt stretching over his belly. He was,
1:25.0	by his own admission, a hefty man. So I was probably, honestly, around 145 kilos. I'm
1:33.1	196 centimetres, but still that's a BMI of approaching 40. BMI, that's body mass index. The World
1:41.7	Health Organisation says a BMI over 25 is considered overweight,
1:47.0	over 30 is considered obese. A week or so after his return to the UK from the Zambisi River,
1:53.9	Damien started to feel unwell with the first symptoms of COVID.
1:57.6	It progressed through the week and slightly delirious and it came to probably six, seven days
	...

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