Fortune Well January 13, 2024
Lifestyle
Mask, social-distancing, and meatless meals?
If you’re looking to avoid COVID-19 infection and its potential long-term consequences—especially during this winter’s “Pirola” JN.1 surge—you may want to rethink your diet, according to new research published in the British Medical Journal.
People who followed a plant-based diet—like vegetarians, lacto-ovo-vegetarians, and “flexitarians,” who consume meat no more than three times per week—were 39% less likely to contract COVID compared to omnivores. Researchers came to this conclusion after correcting for other potentially influential factors like BMI, pre-existing medical conditions, and physical activity levels, according to the paper, published late Tuesday in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention, & Health.
“Our results suggest that a plant-based diet and mainly vegetarian diet may be considered for protection against infection with COVID-19,” the authors concluded.
Such a diet didn’t appear to reduce the duration, severity, or symptoms of infection.
The new study is merely observational and can’t prove causation. Still, a diet rich in vegetables, legumes, and nuts—and low in dairy and meat—may help keep COVID at bay.
Those who follow such a diet are less likely to be overweight or obese, less likely to have cardiometabolic health conditions like type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, and more likely to include regular physical activity in their schedules—all factors that can help prevent against COVID infection, symptom severity, and extreme outcomes like hospitalization and death.
Still, even when these factors are accounted for, plant-based diets appear to offer additional health benefits when it comes to COVID. That’s likely due to the immune-boosting properties of such diets, the authors surmised. The immune system requires an adequate amount of antioxidant enzymes, vitamins, and peptides to function properly—all of which are available in spades in a plant-based diet. So are phytosterols and polyphenols, both of which exhibit antiviral properties.
A couple of additional studies—both published in BMJ publications in 2021—have come to similar conclusions. One study, led by a Johns Hopkins-based research team early in the pandemic, found that front-line healthcare workers from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the US who followed plant-based diets had 73% lower risk of developing a moderate-to-severe case of COVID. Those who followed a largely plan-based diet, with some fish, poultry, and/or red meat, were 59% less likely to develop such a case of the disease.
Another, led by a Harvard-based team, found that a diet high in healthy plant-based foods appeared to lower the risk and severity of COVID infection, especially among individuals of lower socioeconomic status.
Stay up to date on the latest real estate trends.
December 20, 2024
Children of baby boomers are set to be on the receiving end of one of the largest generational wealth transfers in history as their parents prepare to bequeath them a … Read more
December 20, 2024
The title insurance industry generated $4.3 billion in title insurance premiums during the third quarter, according to new data from the American Land Title Associatio… Read more
December 20, 2024
When Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps wakes up in the morning, he asks himself how he can be his best self that day, not only for his own mental health, but also for his… Read more
December 20, 2024
When you sell your house, ideally, you want it to go something like this: your house sells for top dollar, you get it sold quickly, and it all goes down without a hitc… Read more
December 20, 2024
December 19, 2024
As someone who loves to host holiday meals, I enjoy letting my creativity run wild by setting the table in festive, unexpected ways.
We Guide Homeowners through the complicated process of selling their home using our 4 Phase Selling Process and 3 Prong Marketing Strategy that alleviates their stress and moves them effortlessly to their next destination. Schedule a 15 Minute Complimentary Strategy Session Today