Plant-based healthy diet may reduce risk and severity of COVID-19 infection: Study

A recent study investigated the association between dietary patterns and COVID-19 and revealed that people whose diets were based on healthy plant-based foods had lower risks on both counts - COVID-19 risk and severity. The study which was led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) found that the effects of diet on COVID-19 risk seemed much relevant in people residing in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation. However, the study, published in Gut - a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, also stated that metabolic conditions such as obesity and diabetes have been linked to an increased risk of COVID-19, so the impact of diet on these risks is still unknown.  

"Previous reports suggest that poor nutrition is a common feature among groups disproportionately affected by the pandemic, but data on the association between diet and COVID-19 risk and severity are lacking," said lead author Jordi Merino, PhD, a research associate at the Diabetes Unit and Center for Genomic Medicine at MGH and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, as reported by ANI. He said that the findings of the study are based on data examined on as many as 5,92,571 participants who lived in the United Kingdom and the United States. Merino further claimed that data was analysed from March 2020 to December 2020. The researchers asked participants to complete a questionnaire about their dietary habits before the pandemic following which diet quality was examined using a healthful Plant-BasedDiet Score. 

Individuals in highest quartile of the diet score had lower risk of getting infected by COVID-19

During the follow-up, the study found that as many as 31,831 participants contracted COVID-19. The findings revealed that individuals in the highest quartile of the diet score had a 9% lower risk of getting infected by COVID-19 compared to those who were in the lowest quartile. "These findings were consistent across a range of sensitivity analysis accounting for other healthy behaviours, social determinants of health and community virus transmission rates," said Merino. He further added that findings show nearly a third of COVID-19 cases would have been prevented if one of two exposures - diet or deprivation were not present. "Although we cannot emphasise enough the importance of getting vaccinated and wearing a mask in crowded indoor settings, our study suggests that individuals can also potentially reduce their risk of getting Covid-19 or having poor outcomes by paying attention to their diet," added Andrew Chan, a gastroenterologist and chief of the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit at MGH.

(With inputs from ANI)

Image: Pixabay