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Vegetarianism Won’t Save You From Covid-19

Why the headlines are misleading when it comes to vegetables and coronavirus

Gideon M-K; Health Nerd
5 min readJun 8, 2021
Pictured: Yum, but not a cure for infectious disease. Source: Pexels

In the grip of a pandemic, the news has, generally, not been great fun to read. Most headlines are filled with death, mayhem, and destruction, interspersed with the occasional joyous paragraph about the ongoing war in the Middle East.

And then, a headline comes along that’s a bit more optimistic. In this case, the idea that vegetarian diets cut your risk of Covid-19 by more than half! According to scientists, it appears, the cure for Covid-19 is as simple as adding a few sprouts to your life and calling it a day.

Pictured: Lifesaving or just green? Source: Pexels

Sadly, this is almost entirely wrong. The evidence doesn’t say anything of the sort.

There is currently no strong evidence that vegetarian diets do anything for Covid-19, although that’s not really a reason to stop eating whatever dietary pattern you choose.

The Science

The new study that has every news source in a tizzy is a cross-sectional survey paper where scientists took a sample of healthcare workers (mostly doctors) and asked them…

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