In a July 21, 2021 WholeFoods Magazine article:
Researchers at ZOE, Harvard Medical School, and King’s College London found that people who eat a high-quality, gut-friendly diet are less likely to develop COVID-19 or become severely ill, according to a press release from ZOE.
Alternatively, those eating more deficient quality diets were more at risk, a finding that was amplified for those living in a more socioeconomically deprived area.
Diets with high-quality scores were found to contain plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, oily fish, healthier fats, and less processed foods or refined carbohydrates. High-quality diet scores were also linked with a healthier and more diverse microbiome.
Based on these results, researchers estimate that nearly a quarter of COVID-19 cases could have been prevented if these differences in diet quality and socioeconomic status had not existed.
“For the first time we’ve been able to show that a healthier diet can cut the chances of catching COVID-19, especially for people living in the poorest areas,” said Dr. Sarah Berry, study co-lead and associate professor in nutritional sciences at King’s College London. “Access to healthier food is important to everyone in society, but our findings tell us that helping those living in more deprived areas to eat more healthily could have the biggest public health benefits.”
The costs of the COVID-19 shutdowns have been enormous, both to taxpayers, federal budgets, and societal structures. Mainstreets across America still have far too many businesses shuttered. Millions of people lost work in America, hundreds of millions more around the world. Alcohol and opioid addiction, homelessness, and suicides have skyrocketed. Children separated from their peers, sports, clubs, and mentors are left with deep emotional scars. Great division has resulted from the government’s choice to promote vaccines instead of alternative remedies and healthier food. The public that is aware of this disparity is losing trust in family members, media, and the government.
The debate around the requirement of vaccines in universities, for example, is tearing families apart. Workers are also feeling forced to get an unapproved and risky medical procedure to keep their employment of meager pay. Most can only afford only cheap, highly processed food that threatens their health and makes them more susceptible to disease. The irony is not humourous. It must not be ignored. It is deadly.
The Rockefeller Foundation explains in its July 19, 2021 report:
True Cost of Food: Measuring What Matters to Transform the U.S. Food System, Americans pay that high cost even if consumers don't see it in the checkout line. And, if we don't change our food system, future generations will pay those high costs, too." The report identifies human health impacts as the biggest hidden cost in the food system, amounting to $1.1 trillion per year, including $604 billion that's "attributable to healthcare costs related to diet-related diseases such hypertension, cancer, and diabetes."