Forum Topic

Diet and Covid

An interesting study from the Zoe research group in conjunction with  King's College and Harvard which indicates that plant based diets help against Covid:https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/eating-a-plant-rich-diet-helps-to-protect-against-covid-19Something to ponder, particularly as plant based diets are also good for the environment and alleviating climate change ...I'd note that I did take part in this study as someone who participates in the main Zoe monitoring exercise.

Michael Ixer ● 1662d12 Comments

Barbara - only because of your comment on lettuce! :)Completely agree about keeping moving.  We didn't sit in front of TVs or computers.  We were out and about making and fixing and doing things as well as gardening etc.  Also our homes didn't have central heating so we kept moving to keep warm.  Beans and lentils are protein.  We also had milk and cheese and nuts and eggs. There's a difference between vegetarians and vegans!  We weren't either but we ate far more vegetables and didn't eat meat at every meal.You can get vegan pizza and vegan chips - you just need to make sure that there are no animal products used. A friend used to get a call from the chippy when he had changed the vegetable oil so their chips were first in the new batch.  I've spent a lot of time though trying to avoid double carbohydrates especially fried ones but finding places with the right sized portions is also a big problem.  I don't want to waste food and I don't always want to take the remains home (there are definitely some exceptions like a curry meal)!  I have a friend who used to say to me "where's the meat love?"  Yet in many non-British dishes you'd never even think of looking for it! 

Philippa Bond ● 1660d

Philippa. your directing this at me, I use Lentils in my stew now whether Chicken or Turkey. My mum was one of the best cooks going. I didn't get fat because I was always on the go. Trifle, apple pie, all hand made and Christmas pudding. But if you feed your your children all these meals your spurting on about, I hope they have not had all broken bones because their joints are week.

Barbara Stevens ● 1661d

Thanks Philippa, but don't forget chips cooked in oil are vegan 🙂 the standard vegan meal in a tourist restaurant in the Greek islands is a Greek salad (minus feta) and chips! (Although if one finds a local restaurant there are lots of stuffed vine leaves, courgette flowers, spinach pastries, fava beasns, etc ..)

Michael Ixer ● 1661d

Ed. Yes, trying to read large documents on a phone isn't easy! I see, reading beyond the overview, they have assigned socio-economic information based on UK post and US zip codes which are captured as part of the standard Zoe app for measuring Covid-19 statistics, but it is acknowledged that the sample isn't random and, in the discussion, that a direct causal link isn't established.Still, interesting research as a spin off from Zoe, and I'd view it as a strong indicator to complement other work by Tim Spector on epigenetics and microbiomes. And for promoting discussion on the forum? Difficult to believe in these days of vegan F1 drivers people still think all veggies eat are lettuce leaves - although Putney must be one of the few places in London that doesn't have a veggie/vegan restaurant?(Don't worry about the stats, a lot of pure mathematics don't seem very keen on it - who wants to be the 0.5 child of the average family!)

Michael Ixer ● 1661d

Barbara  Looking at an old recipe book - years ago we used to eat more lentils and beans in stews and soups (although probably with a bit of meat or with meat stock). Now it seems to be mostly only baked beans and possibly hummus. I remember making my own hummus before it was a staple in the shops.  It is now noticeable that other countries' cookery has a better choice of vegetarian dishes.We were also told to eat our greens - and carrots to help us see in the dark. We ate much more fresh food especially vegetables - and of course our met because we needed iron.  We got free milk at school.  So many people now only seem to eat only highly processed food.  I was reading recently how fatty food makes you feel fuller quicker.  I remember taking the kids to eat at the swimming pool cafe after lessons and it was fish fingers and chips and peas.  We had to try to get them to eat the fish and peas first - and limit the chips and then fill up on the rest of the chips otherwise they tended to eat just chips and had no room.  And that isn't easy and stress-free!Being vegetarian or almost vegetarian isn't just a lettuce leaf!

Philippa Bond ● 1661d

Years ago we got rid of rickets, but if children don't get enough Vitamin D and Calcium in their diet it can affect the bones. Children years ago used to play out a lot in the good weather but now they don't unless they have a garden. Just because parents want to eat a lettuce leaf, think of your children.

Barbara Stevens ● 1661d

Michael it is a very interesting report. I will have to have a read on the big screen. I do wish that I had stayed awake at school when stats were covered. I did find this bit interesting:"we recognize our participants are mainly white participants and less likely to live in low deprived areas and are less ethnically diverse than the general population.19 Thus, generalizability of our finding even to the wider British and American population is uncertain."

Ed Robinson ● 1661d

Ed. I think the research was intended to look at Covid and diet quality. I don't recall any data was collected that would identify socio-economic categories. I agree that might determine why a particular diet was eaten, so might link with other statistics correlating socio-economic groups to Covid outcomes. I'm guessing that the intention of this survey was a scientific one just to look at correlating diet quality to Covid outcomes and, hence, didn't touch on the socio-economic area.

Michael Ixer ● 1661d

Michael there are lots of good reasons to choose a plant only based diet no argument there.Coming back to the study: There is of course a link between socio-economic groups and covid - dense housing, types of jobs etc. There have been many studies that have lined socio-economic groups and diet.It would be interesting if the results were the same for each socio-economic group.

Ed Robinson ● 1661d

Ed. That's fair comment, although the pollution in our waters might be a good reason for choosing plant sources for oils. And, yes, one might want to avoid veggies saturated with insecticides and eat organic ones. Tim Spector isn't vegan but eats very little meat according to an interview I heard. Of course one could say it's just a correlation at the moment as it seems unclear why this is the case - I've heard theories that it's because plant based diets help reduce inflammation and Covid seems to exacerbate inflammation or be amplified by it but again I've seen no specific proof of that. 

Michael Ixer ● 1661d

Many people are lacking in Vitamin D especially those who are houebound.  We were once told that we should all take it in winter any way but I suspect that many more are not going out as much at the moment.

Philippa Bond ● 1661d

"We discovered that people who eat a high quality, plant-rich diet are less likely to catch COVID-19 or end up in the hospital with it."Michael I may be missing something but it doesn't seem to say only eating a plant based food would give the same results. In fact it seems to be in line with other general dietary advice - oily fish etc.

Ed Robinson ● 1661d