What past research says about the effect of vegetables and fruits on Coronaviruses?
Tags: Medicinal Plants, Fight, Plants, Coronavirus, Vegetables

What past research says about the effect of vegetables and fruits on Coronaviruses? GASTROVET May 2, 2020·4 min read

There are great confusion and misinformation on the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak nowadays. One common question is how we can protect ourselves from this virus by just getting nutrients or their products through a healthy diet. Or, I mean, is it really possible to get some protection by simply eating or drinking something?

First, we can boost our immune system by eating fresh plant products that have been shown to have beneficial effects such as garlic, turmeric, berries, citrus fruits, and omega-3 fatty acid sources such as cold water fishes such as salmon, camelina seed and flaxseed. Another important thing is to stay away from omega-6 fatty acids as much as possible nowadays. Omega-6 fatty acids have been shown to have inflammatory effects in humans. In contrast, Omega-3 fatty acids are known to have good anti-inflammatory effect. So we do not want to have this inflammatory effect of Omega-6 fatty acids during a disease outbreak. For instance, soy oil, corn oil, sunflower oil are packed with omega-6 fatty acids. As a recommendation, we should get 30% of oil consumption from omega-6 sources, %30 from omega-3 fat sources and rest can come from monosaturated fat sources such as olive oil daily. This is something we need to do every day to keep our immune system alert for invaders like bacteria and viruses. However, this does not necessarily mean they will protect us from Covid-19? Or, at least, for now, we do not have any specific report on that. But it is better to have those dietary ingredients and oils in our diets regardless of Covid-19. But we also need to look at the past research on the efficacy of plants including vegetables, fruits, and their products.

Salmon is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids

To really understand how nutrients can fight viral infections including coronavirus infections, we need to look at the past research on the efficacy of plants and products on earlier Coronavirus varieties named SARS and MERS.

When we investigate the published data on the effects of plants on SARS and MERS coronaviruses, we found that there are 2 different categories roughly: the first group is the plants and products that people can from the grocery store, and the second group is the Medicinal Plants and herbs that people can not reach out them easily.

Under the category of plants that we can get easily from markets, there seem to be 2 main categories: the first category is the plants that come with a high amount of LECTINS, and the second category is the plants that come with a high amount of QUERCETIN.

Some good sources of LECTINS are garlic, leek, and wild garlic. Plant lectins have been shown to have antiviral activity against SARS-Cov. Another good source is garlic and shown to have antiviral activity against a type of chicken Coronavirus. Leek also was shown to interfere with the binding of coronavirus to the host cells.

Garlic is loaded with Lectin

Some foods that are rich in Quercetin are onions, broccoli, peppers, apples, green tea, black tea, berries, and red wine. The main positive effect of quercetins in humans is that it reduces inflammatory cytokine production. This is important since we know that Covid-19 results in an extreme cytokine release in severe cases. Therefore, although there is no published data on the effect of Quercetin on Covid-19, it can be assumed that having these plants in our diets can be protective, at least to some degree.

There are also some uncommon medicinal plants used against SARS-Cov and proven to be helpful in some ways. Some of them are Chinese skullcap, horse chestnut, and licorice root (ingredient for coke production). Their mode of action is different from the lutein, and some of them just inhibit the virus replication and some of them help boost the immune system. However, people can not get these plants easily and most of the times it is not easy to incorporate them into diets.

To sum up, it looks like getting Quercetin and Lectin through diet can be recommended based on past research against coronavirus infections but their efficacy on the new Covid-19 requires further research.

If you want to get more details on the effects of plants to fight Coronaviruses you might want to watch the video given in the link below. Stay healthy.