Healthy diet can beat virus
A LEADING cardiologist said unhealthy Britons could massively boost their chances of surviving coronavirus in just three weeks by making simple lifestyle changes.
Dr Aseem Malhotra insisted the key to fighting the virus is to improve the body’s immune system to reduce the risk of developing severe symptoms.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle changes that help produce “remarkable results” in just 21 days include regular exercise, improved sleep habits and stress management, he said.
But the most important factor is changing to a nutritional diet without “ultra-processed food”.
This includes ready meals and meat products as well as pies, cakes and crisps but can also include foods that are marketed as being healthy.
Dr Malhotra also called on ministers to introduce a junk food tax along with a range of measures similar to those used to crackdown on the tobacco industry to tackle the crisis.
The cardiologist set out his strategy for fighting back against Covid-19 in a new book called The 21 Day Immunity Plan.
He has hailed a healthy lifestyle as “the best vaccine to protect the NHS against a second wave of coronavirus”.
The London-based consultant, who is a professor of evidencedbased medicine, was inspired to write the book by Boris Johnson’s life-threatening battle with the virus.
He has been advising Health
Secretary Matt Hancock since highlighting the link between being overweight and developing severe symptoms when Prime Minister Boris Johnson was struck down by the virus in April.
Vulnerable
Dr Malhotra said: “What Covid-19 has done is expose areas in our health systems and personal wellbeing that have long been neglected, and which have made us more vulnerable to such a particularly pernicious virus.The message... which the Government should have been encouraging for years is: ‘Eat real food, protect the NHS, save lives’.”
The 21 Day Immunity Plan is out now published byYellow Kite, £8.99.