Following a vegan diet could help slash the severity of COVID-19, according to a new major study.
Research published in the BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health journal investigated the link between the disease and different dietary patterns.
Severity of COVID-19
It tracked 2,884 healthcare workers (HCWs) from six countries with ‘substantial exposure’ to COVID-19.
Participants were asked to complete an online survey spanning over two months – providing information on demographic characteristics, dietary information, and COVID-19 outcomes.
Out of 568 positive cases – 138 respondents reported ‘moderate-to-severe COVID-19 severity’; 30 individuals had ‘very mild to mild COVID-19 severity’.
After ‘adjusting for important confounders’ – participants following plant-based diets and ‘plant-based diets or pescatarian diets’ had 73 percent and 59 percent lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19 severity, respectively.
However, those following ‘low carbohydrate, high protein diets’ had greater odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19.
No association was found between self-reported diets and COVID-19 infection or duration.
Can vegan diets fight COVID-19?
While this is said to be the first official study connecting COVID-19 severity with diet – experts have pushed plant-based eating since the start of the pandemic.
Vegan charity Viva! says conditions such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and cancer ‘are the main underlying causes making COVID-19 more likely to result in severe, life-threatening disease’.
It says a plant-based diet can help people lose weight, reverse diabetes, lower blood pressure and cholesterol – overall reducing the risk of a severe COVID-19 case.
Renowned medic Dr. Greger has also made a similar point. In an online video, he said: “One of the reasons why the U.S now has the highest number of deaths compared to any other country in the world is because of pre-existing conditions.
“Obesity, T2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension… Every single one of them can not just be prevented and stopped but reversed with a healthy enough plant-based diet.
“Obesity is increasing the risk of a severe course of COVID-19 by six-seven times. That’s for a BMI over 28. That’s not even obese, that’s just overweight.”
*This article was updated on June 9 to correct the number of participants to 2,884. It previously stated ‘more than 2,300’.
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Where is the link of the article?
https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/early/2021/05/18/bmjnph-2021-000272
THE REASON: (I’ve been writing about this for over one year) is that “MEAT DIETS” contain an abundance of the two amino acids (out of 28 aminos) containing sulfur as a center atom. Eat too much sulfur and you smell like a rotten egg (vegans know this) and create “filthy blood” and “filthy organs” which become breeding grounds for lethal viruses such as COVID. Blame methionine and cysteine and begin your change by eliminating eggs and chicken.
And yet our bodies NEED methionine:
“Methionine is an antioxidant. It may help protect the body from damage caused by ionizing radiation. It may detoxify harmful substances in the body, such as heavy metals. It may also prevent liver damage from acetaminophen poisoning.”
and
“Methionine is an essential amino acid. This means that your body needs it to function properly but cannot produce it on its own. You can fulfill your needs through your diet, as methionine is found in varying amounts in most dietary protein”
Cysteine is less important, but is important for making collagen. It affects skin elasticity and texture. Cysteine has antioxidant properties.
Thanks a lot, Liam, for publishing this article. I was waiting for such a news since the begining of the COVID-19 pandemic. As vegan, in Brazil, we need scientific information on the correlation between whole plant based diet and less severity of ilnesses caused by the coronavirus. Go Vegan! Go whole plant based foods.
OK, so I thought I would take a look at the actual study…
https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/early/2021/05/18/bmjnph-2021-000272
Your “number” of “2,3000 healthcare workers” should have been 2,884 !
And the study makes absolutely NO mention of vegan diets. It looks at vegetarian diets. Not the same thing at all.
Why are you getting such basic facts wrong?
Thank you for your comment, the number of healthcare workers was merely a typo. So thank you for pointing that out 🙂
The study combined ‘whole foods, plant-based’ diets and ‘vegetarian’ diets into one category ‘plant-based diets’
So one would make the assumption that the people following a whole foods plant-based diet can otherwise be known as a vegan diet 🙂
You *could* make that assumption. But if you actually read the details of the study, you would see that you would be wrong to make such as assumption.
It clearly states that the amount of egg and dairy products used by both groups was the same. So unless you are redefining vegan to include eating egg and dairy, then it is definitely NOT a vegan diet.
“Plant-based diets” is literally the first word. It’s all there, you are the one who got it all wrong.
Wow. Your reply illustrates everything which is wrong in the world today.
A complex study with detailed information, but you think you know all about it from just the first 3 words, which you think is just the “first word”.
I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry!
I really wish these studies would be more specific! A “vegan” diet contains no animal products…an ethical choice that indicates nothing about what IS actually consumed. Obviously a vegan living on soda, chips, fries, sweets, and processed crap… the vegan version of the SAD… is not going to have the same health benefits as someone eating a far healthier whole food, plant based diet. And a fat “vegetarian” sucking down gallons of cow’s milk, cheese, and eggs in addition, is in an entirely different category too, but yet they are all lumped together under the “vegetarian” label, which is misleading, if not meaningless, in regards to health outcomes.
I needed surgery in January. Had to get tested for Covid, strong positive but completely asymptomatic. Vegan healthy food diet works for me, and I’m pretty sure the daily turmeric doesn’t hurt. My body shut that virus down ?
A Vegan diet is prevention to any disease.
Disease can’t flourish in an alkaline environment!
#GoVegan
We all have a functional immune system if we keep our body healthy this VXS is NOT needed.