Adopting a plant-based diet may lower a person’s risk of COVID-19-related severe illness or death, according to a new commentary published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Two members of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a nonprofit group focused on preventive medicine, authored the article. Healthy plant-based diets, they explained, have been associated with lowering the risk of COVID-19 infection by 9% and lowering the risk of severe COVID-19 by 41%.
The authors also noted that these diets have been linked to improvements in cardiovascular health, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity.
“Adopting a healthful plant-based diet and lifestyle is a powerful tool which may delay the aging process, decrease age-associated comorbidities and decrease the risk of severe COVID-19 and mortality,” wrote co-authors Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, director of clinical research at the PCRM, and Neal Barnard, MD, president of the PCRM. “It represents the most cost-effective approach and should be largely promoted and incorporated in everyday practice. This is a booster that is needed at this unprecedented time and that may actually work to mitigate COVID-19.”
The full commentary is available here.
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Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.