What to eat to beat the coronavirus

There is one very simple action you can take – that everyone can take – to beat the coronavirus. But it won’t come from our GPs and doctors who have had little to no training in nutrition – apart from sales literature from the food propaganda lobby that is focussed on SAD pyramids with cereal bases.

I practice what I preach. I have been eating a certain way for more than three years, and I haven’t had a virus for more than three years. You could be forgiven for thinking that that’s just coincidental or anecdotal … except that there is now clear medical evidence, based on scientific research, for how the way I eat may even be the only way to prevent so many getting wiped out by the coronavirus, and I’ve linked those references below.

Scientific studies show that it is the standard, Western, carbohydrate-heavy diet that is giving this Grim Reaper such a virulent, double-edged sickle, which is rendering so many so powerless against it.

***The Standard American Diet (SAD – the clue is in the name).***

These studies also support public health warnings that the most dangerous underlying health issues which cause the coronavirus to act more virulently are diabetes and hyperglycaemia.

We are, of course, familiar with the disease of diabetes, whether Stage 1 or II. But we may not be so familiar with hyperglycaemia – it occurs when there is too much glucose circulating in our blood.

However, I’m not just talking about the full-on diseases of diabetes and hyperglycaemia, diagnosed by doctors. There is also a temporary, short- term form of hyperglycaemia that is triggered every time every one of us sits down to meal high in carbohydrates.

Every time we spike our sugar levels, which happens when we eat too many carbs at one sitting, we create what scientists call “transient hyperglycaemia”, which shuts down various parts of the immune system, which is our armoury against viruses.

Then, to add insult to injury, the carbs break down into glucose which the virus loves and literally gorges on! In other words, whenever we eat cereals, breads, cakes, starchy vegetables and anything sweetened with sugar, we are giving it the food which helps it to thrive.

So here is the science for how the carbohydrate-heavy Standard American Diet destroys our immune systems.

Neutrophils

Scientists have found that even a temporary spike in blood sugar levels, as occurs at mealtimes if we follow the Standard Western Diet, inhibits the functioning of our neutrophils.

Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that is essential in our innate ability to protect ourselves from viruses. The correct functioning of neutrophils are crucial for our body’s immune system to work properly. They act as phagocytes and their role is to engulf, smother and kill bacteria and viruses.

High blood sugar also impairs the respiratory role of neutrophils, which is the specific function that these white blood cells play in our throats, lungs and bronchial tubes. This may be a factor in why so sufferers of the coronavirus are finding that it’s developing into pneumonia.

High blood sugar also impacts the ability of our endothelial function – this means the correct working of the tiny cells that line our blood and lymph vessels, which are crucial for transporting the different defensive elements of our immune system to the right place at the right time.

Vitamin D

A problematic issue for vegans is that not only is their diet high in carbohydrates, it is also low in vitamin D, unless they get a lot of sunshine or take it as supplement.

Vitamin D is actually a hormone, and it is an essential weapon in the armoury of the immune system. It is so vital in fact, that the first thing any virus does on entering the body is to shut down the Vitamin D hormone receptors. It is clever enough to know that Vitamin D is its mortal enemy, which is why any virus is at its most virulent during the winter months.

The best sources of Vitamin D in food is offal – kidneys, liver, heart and brains – fatty fish, cheese and eggs.

How to eat

There is a lot more to the various parts of our amazingly sophisticated and complex immune systems, and how they work to protect us from all viruses, which I won’t go into at this point because I want to get us on to the remedy. However there are links below to scientific studies that support what I’m saying here if you’d like to read more deeply into this subject.

So what is the antidote to a diet that triggers high blood sugar?

Lots of us have been talking for some time about the health benefits we’ve been experiencing from a low carbohydrate diet, otherwise known as the ketogenic diet. Some, like me, have even given up getting their carbs from all plant-based foods, even fruit and vegetables, and we follow the carnivore diet, also known as the zero-carb diet.

But whether low carb, keto, carnivore or zero carb, most report that their health has benefitted enormously from reducing considerably the carbohydrates we eat and particularly with eradicating diseases associated with immune response.

We eat, at the maximum, 20 grams of carbs a day, and many much lower than that. I doubt I get as many as 5 grams a day. But I think 20 grams a day is a good place to start, as it will, within a matter of days, switch your body over needing glucose for fuel and, instead, start burning your fat reserves. (It is incidentally, a great way to lose weight fast, if you need to, although that is not the focus of this article.)

The source and quality of protein you eat, however, is vital. Most keto dieters and carnivores know that the nutritional benefits of animal products are directly related to where and how the animal is husbanded. So we avoid meat and dairy from supermarkets which is mostly from animals fed on GM corn and soya. And we try to only eat meat and dairy that comes from animals which are allowed to roam freely on lush, green grass or in the wild.

At the end of this article, you will find a link to our own app – so far, still the only one in Britain – that shows the thousands of foods in UK supermarkets that contain GM ingredients, or come from GM-fed animals. This app, Shop GMO-Free in the UK, also contains a directory where you can find your nearest organic, grass-fed meat and dairy supplier just by putting in your postcode.

Other than these broad instructions, I won’t be going into detail here on how to follow this way of eating. For one thing, I’m not a doctor and so legally, I cannot prescribe. So I’m going to ask you instead to empower yourself by doing your own research, to discover the right way for you. There is copious material online – and there are lots of easy-to-understand YouTube videos from more enlightened doctors.

I can recommend, however, some cheap and easy ways to measure how much glucose you have in your blood, and whether or not your body is burning your own fat reserves for fuel rather than glucose, because I use them myself.

For instance, with these One-Step Professional/GP Urinalysis Multisticks Urine Strip Test Sticks, you can test for all sorts of things, but for our purposes here you will be most interested in the glucose and ketones results. The lower the glucose result, and the higher the ketones, the better, because that will mean your body has switched over from using glucose as a fuel to using your fat. It will only do this out of necessity, when there is no longer enough glucose for it to use. This would also mean that there is no longer enough glucose to feed the virus.

***You can get One-Step Professional/GP Urinalysis Multisticks Urine Strip Test Stick Strips here on Amazon. #ad***

Another good product is the Care Touch Blood Glucose Monitoring System, which has the added benefit of storing the results for up to 300 readings, and keeping a continuous 14-day average.