Salad chain CEO slammed for comments on obesity

September 2, 2021

4 minutes to read

Apparently the key to solving the Covid-19 pandemic is to… eat more salads?

This is what many unhappy customers think Jonathan neman, CEO of the cult salad chain Soft green, deduced in a LinkedIn post that made the rounds on Wednesday.

“78% of hospitalizations due to COVID are obese and overweight people”, the businessman wrote in the message deleted since. “Is there an underlying issue that we may not have paid enough attention to? Is there another way to think about how we approach “healthcare” by addressing the root cause? “

He then suggested we use the “pandemic as a catalyst to create a healthier future” and proposed a government that “pushes health” by taxing processed and high-sugar foods.

Neman then dug himself further into a hole, stating that “Covid is here to stay for the foreseeable future. We cannot run away from it and no vaccine or mask will save us. “

He ended by saying that “repairing our food system could save us $ 2,000 billion per year in direct costs (1 T in healthcare, 1 T in environmental impact). OUR TIME IS NOW.

The post was deleted early Thursday morning.

Of course, the masses were not happy.

He faced backlash on the LinkedIn post in addition to others citing the post and subsequent article by VICE on Twitter.

Virtually everyone needs better access to fresher, more nutritionally dense foods, more money to buy them, more free time to prepare them, better knowledge of what to eat. ‘they eat and how to cook them. Let me know when Sweetgreen pivots to literally deal with any of these things

– Amanda Mull (@amandamull) September 1, 2021

Sweetgreen also has a lot of salads loaded with salt, sugar, and fat, but their whole branding is “healthy because it’s salad” so maybe the CEO should shut up and let people eat. what they want

– Paige H (@outpaigeous) September 1, 2021

How healthy is it really to dress with all the supplements? There are 140 calories in a serving of Sweetgreen Green Goddess Ranch. Most of these calories come from fat (95%).

– Nuna Alberts, LCSW (@nunaalbertslcsw) September 2, 2021

Of course, the CEO of sweetgreen hates big guys

– meow meow meow (@SubtweetCat) September 1, 2021

Many have hit back at Neman, saying he not only shames Americans, but Sweetgreen salads might not be healthy or low in calories, depending on the ingredient combinations customers use.

“Virtually everyone needs better access to fresher, more nutritionally dense food, more money to buy it, more free time to prepare it, better knowledge of what it is. what they eat and how to cook them, ”one Twitter user pointed out. “Tell me when Sweetgreen pivots to literally solve any of these things.”

According to CDC, being overweight, obese, or severely obese can make you more likely to fall ‘seriously ill with Covid-19’, and being obese or severely obese could almost triple your risk of being hospitalized for complications from Covid-19.

The report also States that more than 900,000 adults were hospitalized due to Covid-19 between the start of the pandemic and mid-November 2020, with around 30.2% of these hospitalizations (around 271,800) “attributed to obesity”.

However, it should be noted that Hispanic and non-Hispanic black adult populations have a higher prevalence of obesity within their communities and are “more likely to experience the worst consequences from Covid-19,” according to CDC data, that question the accessibility of healthy, viable nutritional options for underserved communities.

Sweetgreen’s mission declaration says the company “leads a movement to reinvent fast food for a new era” with “core values” that “aim to empower customers, team members and partners to be a force positive on the food system ”.

Sweetgreen did not immediately respond to Contractorrequest for comment or clarification on Neman’s post.

The salad chain in private filed for an IPO in July, with earlier estimates in 2021 valuing it at around $ 1.8 billion.

The New York Times reported that the company’s total revenue in 2019 exceeded $ 300 million