Reduce the risk by 50%…
Fiber is the most anti-inflammatory food, found in whole plants. Saturated fats; think beef, chicken, salmon, eggs, cheese, milk, pastries, cookies, butter, is the most inflammatory.
Ever wonder why the COVID-19 death rates were sooooo much lower in Africa?[1]
Ok, but what about the elderly? It’s just cause they’re sick and old… What can diet do for them? Turns out, a lot. By a lot, I mean slash the risk of death! Yes, death. Not only did vegetarians die less, but they also were much less likely to have severe disease.[2] To be fair, there were only 9 vegetarians in the study, but it was nearly 20 times the odds of having severe or critical disease for the meat eaters! So it’s cheap to eat beans instead of beef, and you’re less likely to die? Now pass me a bean burrito without cheese please!
What about front line health care workers? We doctors like to study ourselves! What about 11,000 people in multiple different countries. Did what your doctor ate matter? We already know that this group of people as a whole makes better health choices overall. When the only plant eaters were compared to the other groups, it edged out the fish and plant eaters, but it smashed one group. The group in this study that faired the worst was low-carb, high protein eaters, thinks carnivore, Atkins, among others. The low-carb, high protein eaters where 3.86 times more likely to get severe or critical or die from COVID-19.[3] So drop the steak, and pick up the lentils.
This should not surprise us, as the Influenza Pandemic in 1918 revealed a dramatically lower rate of severe influenza in the Adventist Seminary.[4] The Adventists are recommended to follow a whole food plant-based diet, avoiding all meat, eggs, fish, dairy, alcohol, tobacco, and limiting certain things like too much spice and caffeine, stemming from Genesis 1:28, where God gave instructions to the people on what is ideal to eat.
So if you want to make one swap today to reduce your risk of severe COVID-19, what should it be?
BEANS! Legumes for the win.[5]
What if you want to avoid getting COVID-19 in the first place? Researchers looked at nearly 600,000 people and if they scored the highest in nutrient-dense plant foods, avoiding inflammatory foods like saturated fats (I am looking at you fried chicken and buttered biscuits), even if they had other health problems, they were most likely to NOT get COVID in the first place, and those who did were the least sick of any dietary group.[6] The side effect to eating like this? You’ll be less likely to die of our #1 killer: heart disease.
The bottom line of diet and COVID-19: eating nutrient-dense, whole plant foods is the most likely way to avoid COVID-19 altogether, and the way to reduce the risk of severity… Even when you have other risk factors.
Not ready for being completely plant-based, check this out! Even swapping to a plant-heavy Mediterranean diet still slashed the odds of severe COVID-19 by 22%.[7] Compare that to the 50% risk reduction of a whole food plant-based diet.[7] Now ask yourself if that cheese cake is worth your life.
Booster
Thinking about a COVID-19 booster? Maybe you should drop the eggs and bacon for oatmeal and berries. Seriously, a plant-based diet is a negative side-effect-free way to reduce acquiring COVID-19, and its severity. The best part is that it is beneficial even in people with other health problems and the elderly.
If the public health efforts had included promoting a whole food plant-based diet as much as it had pushed vaccination, I wonder how many more lives could have been saved or had much less severe disease. We should have a diet booster, no reaction, and the side effect profile can include happiness, lower blood pressure, better erections, lower breast cancer risk, oh and you’re much less likely to drop
dead from a heart attack. So ask your doctor (me, ask me) how to begin changing your diet to help you life longer and with better health right now. What do you have to lose besides a few extra pounds?
Turmeric… Really?
Think turmeric is for yoga pants-wearing women? WRONG. It’s for people who don’t want to die! Curcumin, the active compound in the spice turmeric, reduced mortality (dying) from COVID by 80%, 52%, and 82% in studies.[8]
Sleep Deprivation
Can the grind and hustle culture increase your risk of severe COVID-19? Yep! If you’re not sleeping 7-9 hours of high-quality sleep per night, adding that 1 extra hour can reduce your risk of severe COVID-19 by 19%.[8]
We all know exercise lowers your risk of severe COVID-19 by 15%[8], but don’t lose sleep to get it. Sleep deprivation will increase your risk of severe COVID-19.
Vitamin D
Thought I was done about Vitamin D? I am just getting started. Let’s talk Vitamin D and COVID-19. If you have a normal level of Vitamin D when you get COVID-19, compared to those who are deficient, you reduce your risk of severe COVID–19 by 43.5%![8] So know your levels! And if you live in modern society, there’s a good chance you don’t have adequate levels. Even if you golf or garden or spend time outside, it’s not enough. Unless you’re running around completely naked during the day in the middle of the mid-west winter, you need to take Vitamin D. If you’re running around in the middle of a mid-west winter naked, see a psychiatrist. Oh, and please don’t run around naked in the winter.
[1] Losso JN, Losso MN, Toc M, Inungu JN, Finley JW. The Young Age and Plant-Based Diet Hypothesis for Low SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 Pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa. Plant Foods Hum Nutr. 2021 Sep;76(3):270-280. doi: 10.1007/s11130-021-00907-6. Epub 2021 Jun 24. PMID: 34169470; PMCID: PMC8225309.
[2] Hou YC, Su WL, Chao YC. COVID-19 Illness Severity in the Elderly in Relation to Vegetarian and Non-vegetarian Diets: A Single-Center Experience. Front Nutr. 2022 Apr 29;9:837458. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.837458. PMID: 35571931; PMCID: PMC9101048.
[3] Kim H, Rebholz CM, Hegde S, LaFiura C, Raghavan M, Lloyd JF, Cheng S, Seidelmann SB. Plant-based diets, pescatarian diets and COVID-19 severity: a population-based case-control study in six countries. BMJ Nutr Prev Health. 2021 Jun 7;4(1):257-266. doi: 10.1136/bmjnph-2021-000272. PMID: 34308134; PMCID: PMC8219480.
[4] Kahleova H, Barnard ND. The Role of Nutrition in COVID-19: Taking a Lesson from the 1918 H1N1 Pandemic. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2022 May 2;17(1):161-163. doi: 10.1177/15598276221097621. PMID: 36628325; PMCID: PMC9066231.
[5] Salazar-Robles E, Kalantar-Zadeh K, Badillo H, Calderón-Juárez M, García-Bárcenas CA, Ledesma-Pérez PD, Lerma A, Lerma C. Association between severity of COVID-19 symptoms and habitual food intake in adult outpatients. BMJ Nutr Prev Health. 2021 Nov 12;4(2):469-478. doi: 10.1136/bmjnph-2021-000348. PMID: 35024547; PMCID: PMC8594975.
[6] Merino J, Joshi AD, Nguyen LH, Leeming ER, Mazidi M, Drew DA, Gibson R, Graham MS, Lo CH, Capdevila J, Murray B, Hu C, Selvachandran S, Hammers A, Bhupathiraju SN, Sharma SV, Sudre C, Astley CM, Chavarro JE, Kwon S, Ma W, Menni C, Willett WC, Ourselin S, Steves CJ, Wolf J, Franks PW, Spector TD, Berry S, Chan AT. Diet quality and risk and severity of COVID-19: a prospective cohort study. Gut. 2021 Nov;70(11):2096-2104. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2021-325353. Epub 2021 Sep 6. PMID: 34489306; PMCID: PMC8500931.
[7] Rahmati M, Fatemi R, Yon DK, Lee SW, Koyanagi A, Il Shin J, Smith L. The effect of adherence to high-quality dietary pattern on COVID-19 outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Med Virol. 2023 Jan;95(1):e28298. doi: 10.1002/jmv.28298. Epub 2022 Nov 18. PMID: 36367218; PMCID: PMC9877891.
[8] Campbell JL. COVID-19: Reducing the risk via diet and lifestyle. J Integr Med. 2023 Jan;21(1):1-16. doi: 10.1016/j.joim.2022.10.001. Epub 2022 Oct 10. PMID: 36333177; PMCID: PMC9550279.
