The best guarantee to increase your defence against any virus – including influenza and COVID-19 – is to take care of yourself. The general diet/lifestyle recommendations to keep your immune system strong are wise preventive practices:
- Most important is to eat plenty of high-quality foods. Reduce or omit the junk, like refined sugars and other highly refined/processed foods. These lack the nutrients vital for a strong immune system. Research continually links poor health to processed/refined foods.
- Increase the amount of vegetables and fruit you eat to ensure you get more nutrients, like antioxidants, as well as the protective benefits of fibre. Some studies show fibre feeds gut bacteria, which produces T cells that can kill viruses. Although it is not known if fibre will have the same effect on the COVID-19 virus, increasing your dietary fibre certainly won’t hurt. Be extra diligent washing unwrapped produce, particularly those you will be eating raw.
- Opt for more variety in your food choices. This automatically widens the variety of nutrients you are getting to help your body fight a virus. Try to avoid always eating the same things: If you usually have oatmeal for breakfast, have quinoa or buckwheat sometimes. Instead of always eating potatoes, try black rice, jicama, squash or sweet potatoes occasionally.
- There is no special diet (other than a well-balanced one) that will fight a virus, so there is no need to go low-carb, Keto or Paleo. In any case, this is not the time to restrict your diet to a limited variety of foods. To fight a virus, your body needs as many nutrients from foods as possible. Omitting foods or food groups will limit nutrients.
- Drink plenty of water. This is also very important. A well-hydrated body can work much more efficiently, allowing your immune system to do its job.
- Despite what many sources say, it is not known if any specific herb, vitamin or mineral can fight this particular virus. We are all individual in our genetics and our nutrition needs: What may work for one person may not work for another. However, if traditional remedies worked in the past for you with the cold and flu, it’s possible their (sensible) use may also protect you from COVID-19 or lessen its severity. But whether you decide to supplement your diet, your focus should always be on eating a wide variety of high-quality, unrefined whole foods.
- Research continues to prove that regular activity of gentle to moderate intensity can strengthen the immune system. Get up and move around.
- Other important immune strengtheners: Get sufficient sleep (seven hours minimum for adults). Also, learn to control your reaction to stressful situations. And that means not stressing out about COVID-19.
There is much misinformation circulating about COVID-19. Here are just a few credible internet sources to help you separate fact from fiction: Canada Fact Check, Snopes, Hoax Alert, That’s Nonsense, Lead Stories, Associated Press, NewsGuard, and Truth or Fiction.
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Eve Lees has been active in the health & fitness industry since 1979. Currently, she is a Freelance Health Writer for several publication and speaks to business and private groups on various health topics.