The ways to protect yourself from contracting the coronavirus are simple and boring: wash your hands, avoid contact with people who might be sick ... you know the drill. Some advocates of particular diets are saying you also need to eat a certain way, or take supplements, to which our best knowledge is: no.

Heres a carnivore arguing that the vitamins in meat are essential for the immune system. Heres an entrepreneur with #KETO in their twitter bio making a somewhat convoluted argument about metabolic syndrome and mortality rates. Somehow, people who were already promoting a certain dietwhichever diet that may have beenhave concluded that their favorite diet gives special protection against COVID-19.

Meanwhile, actual doctors and scientists are making no such claims. Let me refer you once again to the World Health Organizations instructions on protecting yourself, which include washing your hands and staying away from sick people. Not eating a specific diet.

They do mention, in a document on managing stress, maintaining proper diet, sleep, exercise, and social contacts. That matches the other general advice that youve probably seen for protecting yourself against colds and seasonal flu every year. Take care of yourself, physically and mentally, because it sure cant hurt.

This Harvard Health article goes into a bit more depth, if youd like extra reassurance. It mainly ends up debunking the whole idea of boosting your immune system with diet, because you cant. Eat diet high in fruits and vegetables, they say, and consider a multivitamin if youre still worried about it. Heres their summary of the state of research:

Scientists have long recognized that people who live in poverty and are malnourished are more vulnerable to infectious diseases. Whether the increased rate of disease is caused by malnutritions effect on the immune system, however, is not certain. There are still relatively few studies of the effects of nutrition on the immune system of humans, and even fewer studies that tie the effects of nutrition directly to the development (versus the treatment) of diseases.

Bottom line, if you eat a particularly bad dietlike if youre under-eating or if you are routinely missing out on vitaminsits possible that could slightly weaken your immune system. This doesnt mean you need to eat keto or anything else. It only means that if youve been getting by on a few cups of ramen a day, you should probably branch out and make sure youre eating like a normal human being.

Read the rest here:
No, the Keto Diet Won't Give You Special Protection From COVID-19 - Lifehacker Australia