A plant-based diet prefers using products that are obtained from plant sources and is considered healthier than other diets. Although a plant-based diet is mostly linked with weight loss, the new study shows that it is even helpful against Covid-19. A recent study reveals that the dietary choices of a person can determine his chances to get infected by the virus. The complete study findings are now published in the journal Gut.
For this study, the research teams from the Harvard medical school and King’s collaborated and obtained the data from more than 600,000 patients through the apps. These participants were asked about what type of food they were eating during the time when the pandemic started. Nearly 19% of these participants were tested Covid-19 positive later.
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Based on their responses, it turned out that people with a plant-based diet were less likely (10%) to contract Covid-19, compared to others. In addition to that, they were 40% less likely to experience severe covid-19 symptoms compared to people with poor dietary habits.
This is the first time that researchers have checked the impact of a plant-based diet and covid-19 contraction and severity. It proves that a healthy diet not only saves from contracting the virus but also saves from going through severe complications including death.
The food evaluation for this study was broad, and not linked to certain nutrients and vitamins. These responses were true reflections of the dietary habits of people, with lesser lies, miscommunication, and concealed facts. The survey provided these participants with a unique dietary quality score that makes it easy to access the dietary link with infection. The high-quality scores were assigned to foods including fresh fruits, veggies, legumes, fish, nuts, etc. the low-quality diet included a high amount of processed, frozen, junk, and food with zero nutrition value.
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But the relation between food and covid-19 is not the only thing to determine the risk of infection. There are many other factors that still matter to estimate the effects and damage to the body, including obesity, smoking habits, diabetes, heart diseases, age, physical activity, ethnicity, and others.
The dietary instructions are a part of preventive measures along with other factors, that collectively lower the chances of contracting the virus. Also, an improved diet, access to healthy dietary sources, and public awareness on the importance of a plant-based diet can help to manage the ongoing covid-19 pandemic better.
