Finding comfort in food and watching TV
The pandemic’s stay-at-home orders allowed us to finally spend more time with two of our oldest and dearest loves.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit and mass uncertainty gripped our nation, the government’s stay-at-home orders allowed us to finally spend more time with two of our oldest and dearest loves – watching TV and eating.
Most of us habitually gravitated to emotional escapes which have shadowed us since childhood. Problem at school? Eat a Happy Meal! Trouble with a boyfriend? Have a double dip of Ben & Jerry! Long work day? Let’s get a deep dish pizza tonight! Guilty as charged, Judge Judy.
When we devour our favorite foods while watching our favorite television shows, everything just tastes a little better, right? Most of us look forward all day to eventually returning home to the friendly confines of our nightly TV viewing experience with whatever foodstuff we decide upon that evening. Both enjoyments wait for us each day like loyal pets that never die.
We deeply love our food, and we devoutly love our TVs or online streaming devices. Both activities, when done together, bring us a sense of pleasure, comfort and safety that often can’t be provided by our loved ones, or jobs and careers, or our politics. It’s just us, our edibles, and our entertainment du jour.
“TV has never been better,” late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel joked to viewers Sunday night during his opening monologue for the Emmy Awards.
He’s right. Many of us have clung to our television as if it’s a life preserver in the wake of this public health crisis and its rocky waves of related problems. It has impacted how we cope with it all, typically through overeating and entertaining ourselves.
Obesity rates are up, and so is the number of Netflix subscribers. Coincidence? Fat chance.
The U.S. adult obesity rate passed the 40% mark for the first time, according to a new 100-page report, “State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America,” released by Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes optimal health.
The national adult obesity rate has increased by 26% since 2008, with no state having a rate above 25 percent back in 2000. Twelve states now have adult rates above 35%, including Indiana which ranks 11th in the nation (Illinois ranks 30th). Worse yet, Indiana ranks 8th in physical inactivity (Illinois ranks 28th).
These rankings were based on 2019 data. No doubt that it’s higher in 2020.
The same fatter, lazier trend is taking place among children, just as it has been for decades. Between a 1980 survey and a 2018 survey, obesity rates for children ages 2 to 19 more than tripled, to nearly 20%. The rates are highest for Americans with lower education levels and who live in rural areas. I envision a country that will eventually embody the gluttonous characters in the 2008 computer-animated, science fiction film “WALL-E,” which hilariously mocks several aspects of the American lifestyle, including obesity and slothfulness. In the 29th century, “rampant consumerism and environmental neglect have turned Earth into a garbage-strewn wasteland,” similar to how we have treated many of our urban cities. And our own bodies.
In that film, earthlings’ every whim is catered to by high-tech machinery and mindless entertainment, contributing to their shameful, degenerated condition. Sound familiar? It’s physical atrophy through emotional escape.
Netflix has cashed in on this pandemic-accelerated phenomenon, with now nearly 200 million subscribers worldwide and second quarterly revenue of $5.77 billion, more than what the entertainment company estimated. Or what most every company would ever dream of estimating amid a pandemic. Netflix added more than 25 million new subscribers in the first half of this year alone, compared to 28 million new subscribers in all of 2019.
In my home, Netflix is our go-to source for evening entertainment. Its options seem endless — comedy, drama, documentaries, you name it, they got it. The $15 or so monthly fee seems well worth the cost to calm our nerves or to offer us a brief reprieve from reality.
When the pandemic initially placed a pall over our lives, my fiancee and I escaped to the wonderful world of Netflix while gobbling down our dinner or my midnight snacks. We typically ended our uncertain days with the delicious certainty of the “Great British Baking Show,” which served as a late-night lullaby. (This season’s premiere episode is scheduled for release this week.)
The series has revived interest in the art of baking in the United Kingdom and U.S., as well as reviving interest in eating everything we bake. Who can blame us? Like most of us these days, comfort food is my favorite food.