Why some are calling it 'COVID-19 pounds'

You've seen the endless images of homemade bread, the sourdough-saturated social media. You've read about friends who areeschewing fitted attire for the theelastic freedom of sweat pants. You've heeded the siren call of local restaurantsoffering comfort food to goin a time of crisis.

If COVID-19 is the front line, then there's a slowly expanding flank at the rear. Call it the "COVID-19 pounds."

This pandemic is keeping us out of the gymand stayingthe blazes home. Ah, but home is where the fridge is.

"We know that people 'comfort' with food because it's literally comforting," said Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, a medical doctor and director of a weight management centre in Ottawa. "Eating helps to reduce our stress hormones, especially perhaps sugary foods, so that's a possible player. So, too, is boredom. So, too, might be alcohol and other liquid calories."

'All things in moderation'

Brent Moloughney, Ottawa's associate medical officer of health, acknowledgedthis week that "there are adverse impactsof doing what we're doing, both from a social and mental health perspective."

Regarding our collective carb fixation? "All things in moderation,"Moloughneyadvised.

Heres how to fight the adverse impacts of physical distancing

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Dr. Brent Moloughney, Ottawa's associate medical officer of health, said physical distancing can take a toll on mental health and encouraged residents to find other ways to maintain social relationships.

But wait, you're getting out there for a walk every day as per the directives of Ottawa Public Health, right?

"Our activity level has dropped dramatically," said Peter Lin, a family physician and medical contributor on CBC.

"So now we're sitting at home. We're not going to work. We're not shopping. We're not seeing friends. We're not going out. The amount of activity that we're doing has dropped 80 to 90 per cent."

Of course, there are those who are managing to get even more exercise than they used to. The joggers are out in force, dodging their way around town.

But for many, that one hour of allotted exercise time is simplyenough to counterbalance a suddenly sedentary lifestyle, or those lumberjack meals.

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"The amount of food availability has dramatically increased," Lin said, "so you've got more food coming in and you're not burning it off. So that's why we're starting to look like big bears that are going to be hibernating sometime soon."

Then, there's the emotional eating."When you have acute stress, then as an animal you just run away. Fight or flight.But in this case it's more like chronic stress. Every day you wake up and you turn on the news and everything is all bad," Lin said.

Hebelieves animals associate chronic stress with famine. "I think when your brain detects chronic stress,it says, 'Go and eat,' because if you find foodthen you will have survived the famine."

Waste it or waist it

Finding yourself worried about running out of essentials before the online order comes in? Or putting off your potentially dangerous shopping trip to get groceries? There's a newfound urge not to waste food.

"Butthen we have to decrease the amount that we're cooking," Lin pointed out. "Let's cook the right amount, and that way we won't overeat because we don't want to waste."

During the early days of a terrifying life-altering pandemic ... we should cut ourselves some slack.- Dr. Yoni Freedhof

So what's a few kilos, in the COVID-19 context? Maybe it's really just small potatoes, albeit buttered.

Or maybe not. Lin worries about chronic health problems waiting in the wingswhile the acute crisis of COVID-19 holds centre stage.

"We have all these underlying diseases that are brewing. High blood pressure, cholesterol, heart disease they're not taking a break. All those chronic diseases are still marching along."

So if baking bread or rubbing a roast is what gets a family through, Freedhoff said, these are extraordinary times.

"When it comes to weight or healthy living as a whole, our goals should be to live the healthiest lives that we can honestly enjoy. Perhapsduring the early days of a terrifying life-altering pandemic, our bests might not be as awesome as they once were, but that they're still our best, and we should cut ourselves some slack."