vegetarians are 73 per cent less likely to contract a severe case of covid-19 than their meat-eating mates, according to a new study of thousands of healthcare workers across six countries.the study, which appears in the journal
bmj nutrition, prevention & health, also found that pescatarians — people who eat fish but not meat — were 59 per cent less likely to fall ill from the virus.“in six countries, plant-based diets or pescatarian diets were associated with lower odds of moderate-to-severe covid-19,” the study’s authors wrote. “plant-based diets or pescatarian diets are healthy dietary patterns, which may be considered for protection against severe covid-19.”the study polled 2,300 healthcare workers who had not contracted the virus and 568 who had in attempt to determine the relationship, if any, between diet and covid-19. of those who had previously been infected, 138 people reported experiencing moderate to severe symptoms while 430 others described their symptoms as mild.the group was asked to reflect on their food intake during the year prior to infection and choose from 11 options that best describes their diet: whole foods, plant-based diet; keto; vegetarian; mediterranean; pescatarian; palaeolithic; low fat; low carbohydrate; high protein; or none of the above. of the group that fell ill, only 41 adhered to a plant based diet; just 46 followed a plant-based or pescatarian diet. a low carbohydrate, high-protein diet appeared to increase the chances of a severe case of covid but this finding was not statistically significant.while the results are intriguing, gunter kuhnle, professor of nutrition and food science at the university of reading in england said they should be taken with a grain of salt for now.“since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a lot of speculation about the impact of diet on disease risk,” he said,
according to the independent. “this study attempts to answer this question but there are a number of limitations that need to be considered: the study relied entirely on self-reporting and a lot of data have shown that self-reported dietary intake is unreliable.“in this study, participants were asked about their diet after they were diagnosed with covid-19, and this might lead to further misreporting, especially among participants who are interested in a potential link between diet and disease. finally, the study has been conducted in different countries with widely different diets — a plant-based diet in spain or italy is likely to be different from a mainly plant-based diet in germany or the uk.”still, the findings are valuable and worthy of further research, said francois balloux, a professor at the university college london genetics institute.“the study reports that doctors eating plant-based or pescatarian diets tend to be at significantly lower risk of developing severe covid-19 symptoms upon infection,” he said. “the sample size is decent and the analyses look competently performed. further validation may be required to confirm a direct, causal link between diet and covid-19 illness severity.“indeed, unaccounted lifestyle variables correlated with diet might influence general health of the subjects of the study, and hence, how well they coped with covid-19 infection.”
dave yasvinski is a writer with healthing.ca
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