As COVID restrictions begin to ease and the vaccine rollout gathers pace, now is truly a great time for us to reset our health ambitions and develop a post-pandemic wellness plan.
And there are few people better placed to help us achieve our health goals than Dr Michael Mosley. Michael is a Switched ON Living favourite and he never fails to deliver advice that is sensible and rigorous.
In this interview with the This Morning team from the UK, Michael gives us a stark warning about the extra danger that COVID poses to those of us who are overweight or obese.
The interview dates from June 2020, at a time when the UK was exiting its first lockdown. Since then, the Brits have had to endure at least two further lockdowns, which as we know only too well, severely limits our exercise options.
Fast forward nine months and changed the location to Australia, and Dr Mosley’s advice is absolutely opportune as we Aussies return to a life with few pandemic restrictions and the chance to enjoy unlimited exercise.
Anyone who is familiar with Michael Mosley will know that one of the issues he’s always banging on about is the great harm that gut fat does to us. And that harm proved especially dangerous during the coronavirus.
Obesity roughly doubles the likelihood we’ll suffer from COVID complications, it doubles our chances that the vaccine won’t work for us, and it compromises our immune system.
For the moment, Australia is almost free of COVID, but its spectre hasn’t disappeared. The virus is still ravaging swathes of countries and continents, and we’re at continual risk that that one or other of its variants arrives in our country and escapes into the community.
Which gives us all the more incentive to heed Dr Mosley’s warning and banish our gut fat –and the quicker the better – and to eat a Mediterranean diet replete with lots of veggies and legumes.
If we can keep ourselves within our weight range, not only will it have the immediate effect of improving our sleep and reducing our risk of heart disease, dementia and diabetes, it means that COVID will be just a little less scary if it ever returns to Australia as a serious threat.
