A Healthy Diet Results in a Healthy Immune System
It is constantly reported that those who are most affected by the COVID-19 virus have weak, unhealthy immune systems. There is an abundance of research cited on my web page Eatveggies.org showing that a Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) lifestyle is the healthiest diet, so why not give yourself a WFPB advantage?
Avoidance is the First Line of Defence
Certainly, avoidance of disease exposure by washing your hands, using hand sanitizer, avoid touching your face after touching surfaces, and limiting human interaction are the first lines of defense. However, because there are no COVID-19 drugs or vaccine it is up to your own body’s immune system to fight off the disease if you contract it.
Flu Virus May Be Instructive
The disease is too new and developing to have hard data on how WFPB people do against this particular virus, but research on the flu virus may be instructive. Both are different viruses but have similar means of infection, symptoms, affect the respiratory system and may result in pneumonia. A study of the medical records of 274 U.S. counties came up with the following conclusion about flu virus:
“Communities with a greater prevalence of obesity were more likely to have high influenza-related hospitalization rates. Similarly, less physically active populations, with lower fruit/vegetable consumption, tended to have higher influenza-related hospitalization rates, even after accounting for obesity.”1 Importantly, Low fruit and vegetable consumption had the greatest impact, increasing flu-related hospitalization rates by 8 percent. Also, weight reduction is one of the benefits of a WFPB lifestyle.
Another study of elderly subjects that ate either five servings of fruit and veggies a day or two servings a day found the five-per-day group showed an 80 percent improved antibody response to their pneumonia vaccination compared to the two-a-day group.2
Kaiser Permanete’s Conclusion About a Veggie Diet
Is a veggie diet healthy? There is not space enough to cite all the studies but, the large healthcare institution, Kaiser Permanente thinks so. Kaiser says vegetarians weigh less and have less of the following: heart disease, high blood pressure, prostate and colon cancer, and diabetes.3 Also, fat in the diet such as in meat, dairy, and oil, suppresses the immune system so they should be avoided.4
We don’t know for sure about COVID-19 at this point, but generally, a healthy veggie diet is heart-healthy, gut-healthy, bone-healthy, muscle-healthy, brain-healthy, disease avoiding, and should be the default diet in combating any disease.
Check out my free web site for information on a Whole Food Plant-Based lifestyle: Eatveggies.org.
References
1. Charland KM, Buckeridge DL, Hoen AG, et al. Relationship between community prevalence of obesity and associated behavioral factors and community rates of influenza-related hospitalizations in the United States. Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2013 Sep;7(5):718-28. doi: 10.1111/irv.12019. Epub 2012 Nov 8.
2. Gibson A1, Edgar JD, Neville CE, et al. Effect of fruit and vegetable consumption on immune function in older people: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 Dec;96(6):1429-36. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.112.039057. Epub 2012 Nov 7.
3. Kaiser Permanente, Vegetarian Diets, https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/health-wellness/health-encyclopedia/he.vegetarian-diets.zx3391. Accessed March 14, 2020.
4. Calder PC. Dietary fatty acids and lymphocyte functions. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society (1998), 57,487-502. Doi:10.1079/PNS19980073.
