A Silver Lining To Inflation

We saw a report on the news the other night about the effect that inflation is having on food prices thanks to supply chain issues that have arisen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report highlighted that inflation is taking a bite (no pun intended) out of Americans’ wallets because of higher prices for items such as bacon, snack foods, and soft drinks.

“That’s a bad thing?” we thought to ourselves.

Americans are among the most obese and unhealthiest people in the world principally because we eat bad food — and lots of it. The average American male today weighs 30 pounds more than the average male did 50 years ago and the average American woman today weighs as much as the average man did 50 years ago. The single-biggest risk factor — after old age — for a poor prognosis for a COVID-19 patient is being overweight.

In our view, if the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 have the result of forcing Americans to cut back on our consumption of highly-processed and junk foods, then that would be at least one good thing to come out of the otherwise ongoing tragedy of the pandemic.