Through researching the relationship between diet and COVID-19 death rates, researchers have found a positive correlation between the consumption of fermented food and COVID-19 mortality rates.
Although aspects such as age structure, the timing of interventions, employment type, and housing conditions are likely to be the most relevant factors, other potentially relevant factors such as nutrition should not be overlooked, say Bousquet and colleagues.
Study links fermented vegetable consumption to low COVID-19 mortality
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The study, which was conducted by Jean Bousquet, looked at COVID-19 mortality rates based on data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. For information on fermented food consumption, researchers looked at the Comprehensive European Food consumption Database to assess the consumption of different fermented foods from each European country.
The study found that “For each gram per day increase in the average national consumption of fermented vegetables, the risk for COVID-19 mortality fell by 35.4%.” Of all the fermented foods, only fermented vegetables made a significant impact on mortality rates. The study looked at the consumption of a variety of different fermented foods, including vegetables, milk, yogurt, sour milk, and pickled/marinated vegetables.
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Researchers believe that changes in the microbiota, fueled by less fermented foods and less diversity, may contribute to increased spread or severity of COVID-19.