Good advice for living in a COVID-19 world
By Letter to the Editor on March 25, 2020.
School closings, sports event cancellations, food hoarding… We live in a new coronavirus-induced world. Yet some personal health facts remain unchanged.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offer good advice for preventing community spread and personal infection: apply social distancing, sanitize surfaces, wash your hands, don’t touch your face. But, there’s more…
Does anyone wonder why uncounted numbers of infected people develop no symptoms and only 20 per cent of symptomatic people require hospitalization? It’s because they have an effective immune system able to fight off the virus. But the CDC does not talk about that, perhaps for fear of offending powerful animal food industries.
Fortunately, good advice on boosting our immune system is readily available on the internet from trusted sources like WebMD and Healthline. And the advice is always the same:
– Increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, including citrus fruits and leafy greens
– Refrain from dairy, other fatty animal products, and sugar-laden foods
– Maintain daily exercise of 30-60 minutes
– Minimize your stress level and get adequate sleep
Did I mention that this advice works great for all other nasty bugs as well?
Loren Hadden
Lethbridge
13-12
“While information so far suggests that most COVID-19 illness is mild, a report out of China suggests serious illness occurs in 16% of cases. ” So stated the CDC in mid March. The fact that they mention “16%” would indicate that 84% of cases are mild or non-existent.Simple subtraction.
It is not the job of the CDC to provide a detailed overview of this virus (or any disease) when informing the public.It is to provide a simple easy understanding of the disease and to list preventative measures and to reiterate concern for those 16%. (Numbers vary depending on source)
Clearly they recognize that the group of people impacted the greatest are usually the older, immune compromised, diabetic persons.Why is it necessary to explain further?
As with any infectious disease, some are impacted to a greater or a lesser degree. It is widely recognized that compromised immune systems are a factor in any disease, human or animal. Nothing new there.
I would question the need to avoid ‘dairy’ but would agree that the other suggestions are worthy and also well accepted.
All of which is to say, that the writers inference that the CDC perhaps is beholden to “animal food industries” is highly suspect at best.
Excellent response John. Agree
Medical information from “trusted sources like WebMD”?
https://futurevoices.mph.ufl.edu/2017/02/09/webmd-debunked-evaluating-the-credibility-behind-online-health-information/
https://www.vox.com/2016/4/5/11358268/webmd-accuracy-trustworthy
ok, webmd is now mud!
as for the gist of the letter, it is nonetheless on the mark. it points out how a sedentary lifestyle – that is about par for the course for most people today, including far too many youth – runs counter to the needs of our health and overall wellbeing. it further points out that most likely consume far too much sugar/cheap carbs, which puts our systems into an acidic imbalance, and further, has us pack on health compromising fat (again, all the worse as so many are not active). Watching an episode of the flintstones, i recall back in the day how fred appeared rather overweight: not so now; he looks much leaner than the many today.
the writer also does well to refer to animal products. however, perhaps we can look into this a little further, and suggest that animal fats differ from beast to beast, and perhaps even more so if we compare game meat to industrial meat, and more compassionately raised and culled meat to industrial meat.
as for dairy, let’s face it, it is a little freaky to drink milk produced by another species, as it would be to drink milk produced by humans once weaned (on the other hand, are we not overlooking an industry for the future? wanted: constantly lactating females, preferred if not having consumed antibiotics in the past 30 days).
we might also further look into dairy products, as we do gain excellent nutrition from well made yoghurt, kefir, aged cheeses (but not the, mass produced-modified milk ingredient laden stuff made by the likes of cheese gangster, saputo…are we aware that they now own virtually every major cheese label on canadian store shelves?). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saputo_Inc. in fact, fermented food products are typically lacking in our diets, and these are essential to maintaining gut microbiome health. if not dairy, go for high quality sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, apple cider vinegar.
perhaps what the writer overlooked is to refrain from processed products, which have chemicals in them that destroy our gut microbiome, and are mostly comprised of “dead” food calories. far too many of us today rely on quickie, from freezer to microwave meals, toxic lunch meats, and home delivery stuff.
thanks for a good letter, but also for thoughtful feedback from jpn and imo.