Do multiple greens a day keep severe Covid-19 symptoms at bay? A new study suggests they may be beneficial.
Eating a plant-based diet or plant and fish-based diet could reduce severe Covid-19 symptoms, according to a small, observational study, conducted mostly among male physicians, published in BMJ Nutritional Prevention & Health this month.
Those who reported after “plant-based diets” had a 73% lower risk of moderate to severe Covid-19, based on self-reported symptoms.
Those reporting “plant-based or pescatarian diets” had 59% lower odds of these symptoms compared to participants who did not follow these diets.
In another association, those who reported eating a “low carb-high protein diet had nearly four times the odds of moderate to severe infection”, the scientists stated.
No link was found between the self-reported diets and Covid-19 infection or its duration.
A healthy diet rich in nutrient-dense foods may be considered for protection against severe Coivid-19.
Identifying ways to lessen symptoms could pay off in the long term, given research that shows they can persist for six months post-infection.
A report in Nature Medicine in June found that more than half of the survivors of Covid-19 in their cohort of mildly to moderately ill home-isolated patients “had persistent symptoms six months after their initial illness”.
“It is worrying that non-hospitalised, young people (16-30 years old) suffer potentially severe symptoms, such as concentration and memory problems, dyspnoea and fatigue, half a year after infection,” noted the first author Bjørn Blomberg, from the University of Bergen in Norway.
The findings of the latest dietary study and symptoms were based on an online survey, using a 47-item food frequency questionnaire of more than 2,300 healthcare workers at “substantial risk” of Covid-19 exposure.
They were from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US and the survey was conducted from July to September 2020.
Of the participants, 568 tested positive for Covid-19, while 430 had very mild to mild Covid-19 and 138 individuals had moderate to severe symptoms.
They had 11 choices of dietary patterns: whole foods, plant-based diet; keto diet; vegetarian diet; Mediterranean diet; pescatarian diet; Palaeolithic diet; low-fat diet; low-carbohydrate diet; high-protein diet; other; none of the above.
Besides analysing their diet, the researchers factored in other variables which could influence the severity of symptoms, including age, lifestyle (physical activity and smoking), ethnicity and medical speciality; more than 95% were physicians.
They also looked at coexisting medical conditions and weight (body mass index) to assess if those made a difference.
They did not: the association between plant-based (high in vegetables, legumes and nuts) and fish-based diets held true even after taking these factors into account.
Further studies to explore the associations between Covid-19 severity and macro- and micronutrient data is warranted, the authors state.
First author Hyunju Kim, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her six co-authors concluded: “Our results suggest that a healthy diet rich in nutrient-dense foods may be considered for protection against severe Covid-19.”
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