World­wide, the coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) pan­dem­ic has caused many changes in our dai­ly lives. Good hy­giene prac­tice re­mains the best means of avoid­ing in­fec­tion.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, many gov­ern­ments have im­ple­ment­ed “stay-at-home” and “phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing” poli­cies to avoid the spread of the in­fec­tion.

Dur­ing this stay at home pe­ri­od, in­di­vid­u­als have re­duced ac­tiv­i­ty/train­ing load, which de­creas­es their en­er­gy re­quire­ment.

How­ev­er, most of you are un­fa­mil­iar with this, which puts you at risk of over­weight and obe­si­ty. In­crease in body fat con­tent el­e­vates risk for in­fec­tions, in­clud­ing COVID-19.

Dur­ing this pe­ri­od, the most im­por­tant thing is to con­cen­trate on im­munonu­tri­ents (nu­tri­ents for sup­port­ing im­mune func­tions).

There are many nu­tri­ents that are in­volved with the nor­mal func­tion­ing of the im­mune sys­tem.

Hence, in­di­vid­u­als are en­cour­aged to eat a va­ri­ety of nu­tri­ent-rich foods, in­clud­ing foods that are rich in cop­per, fo­late, iron, se­le­ni­um, zinc and vi­t­a­mins A, B6, B12, C and D dai­ly in or­der to sup­port the im­mune func­tion.

We do not rec­om­mend any one food over an­oth­er but in­stead en­cour­age eat­ing a va­ri­ety of foods to main­tain a well-bal­anced di­et. Ta­ble 1 pro­vides some foods rich in nu­tri­ents that sup­port im­mune func­tion to help you through these un­cer­tain times. (See Ta­ble 1)

It is im­por­tant to note that there is no sin­gle food, sup­ple­ment, or nat­ur­al health prod­uct that will pre­vent you from con­tract­ing or act as a treat­ment against COVID-19.

Im­mu­ni­ty is based on a num­ber of com­plex process­es and fac­tors, so no sin­gle food or drink can boost your im­mu­ni­ty.

There are things that can be done to main­tain a healthy lifestyle in these dif­fi­cult times. Many peo­ple have stock­piled food and oth­er items.

How­ev­er, it should be not­ed that the foods you stocked in your home will have a ma­jor im­pact on your eat­ing be­hav­iour. For ex­am­ple, buy­ing food items that are high in sug­ar, fat and salt will in­crease your risk for the de­vel­op­ment of di­et-re­lat­ed dis­eases such as high blood pres­sure, high blood cho­les­terol and high blood sug­ar. Re­mem­ber, the prover­bial say­ing, “you are what you eat!”

Good nu­tri­tion and prop­er hy­dra­tion are es­sen­tial to our well-be­ing. Peo­ple who eat a well-bal­anced di­et tend to be health­i­er, with stronger im­mune sys­tems and low­er risk of chron­ic ill­ness­es and in­fec­tious dis­eases.

A di­et rich in fruit and veg­eta­bles, pro­tein foods, and whole grains is im­por­tant for a strong im­mune sys­tem. So too are healthy lifestyle habits, such as ex­er­cise, not smok­ing, ad­e­quate sleep, and prop­er man­age­ment of stress.

Al­though choos­ing foods that im­prove and sup­port health and im­mu­ni­ty is a pru­dent di­etary be­hav­iour, such foods are not mag­ic bul­lets. If you are hav­ing prob­lems plan­ning your meals, seek help from a reg­is­tered di­etit­ian.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, if you are un­able to cope dur­ing these un­cer­tain times, you should seek coun­selling and psy­choso­cial sup­port from trained health care pro­fes­sion­als and/or com­mu­ni­ty-based lay and peer coun­sel­lors. Of course, while most of the re­gion is on lock­down, vir­tu­al con­sul­ta­tions is the de­fault op­tion.

Re­mem­ber, there is no sin­gle food, sup­ple­ment, or nat­ur­al health prod­uct that will pre­vent you from con­tract­ing or act as a treat­ment against COVID-19. Fur­ther, there is cur­rent­ly NO vac­cine for the treat­ment or pre­ven­tion of COVID-19.

How­ev­er, a healthy di­et in this seden­tary pe­ri­od will make it pos­si­ble to have a fight­ing chance to es­cape some life-style dis­eases whose pres­ence can fur­ther com­pro­mise COVID-19 in­di­vid­u­als

Ta­ble 1: Sources of Im­munonu­tri­ents

Nu­tri­ent*Rich Sources

Cop­per: Shell­fish, seeds and nuts, or­gan meats, wheat-bran ce­re­als, whole-grain prod­ucts

Fo­late (Vi­t­a­min B9): Veg­eta­bles (es­pe­cial­ly dark green leafy veg­eta­bles), fruits and fruit juices, nuts, beans, peas, seafood, eggs, dairy prod­ucts, meat, poul­try, and grains, spinach, liv­er, as­para­gus, and Brus­sels sprouts

Iron: Lean meats, fish, poul­try, shell­fish, eggs, legumes and nuts, dried fruits, for­ti­fied grain prod­ucts

Se­le­ni­um: Brazil nuts, seafood, and or­gan meats, mus­cle meats, ce­re­als and oth­er grains, and dairy prod­ucts, meat, poul­try, fish, and eggs

Zinc: Red meat and poul­try, beans, nuts, cer­tain types of seafood (oys­ters, crab and lob­ster), whole grains, for­ti­fied break­fast ce­re­als, and dairy prod­ucts

Vi­t­a­min A: Liv­er, fish oils, milk and eggs, leafy green veg­eta­bles, or­ange and yel­low veg­eta­bles, toma­to prod­ucts, fruits, and some veg­etable oils

Vi­t­a­min B6: Fish, beef liv­er and oth­er or­gan meats, starchy veg­eta­bles, and some non-cit­rus fruit, for­ti­fied ce­re­als, beef, and poul­try

Vi­t­a­min B12: Fish, meat, poul­try, eggs, milk, and milk prod­ucts, for­ti­fied break­fast ce­re­als, some nu­tri­tion­al yeast prod­ucts

Vi­t­a­min C: Cit­rus fruits, toma­toes and toma­to juice, pota­toes, red and green pep­pers, ki­wifruit, broc­coli, straw­ber­ries, Brus­sels sprouts, and can­taloupe

Vi­t­a­min D: Fat­ty fish (salmon, tu­na, and mack­er­el) and fish liv­er oils. Small amounts of vi­t­a­min D are found in beef liv­er, cheese, and egg yolks

Dr Mar­quit­ta Webb is a reg­is­tered di­etit­ian and lec­tur­er, Hu­man Nu­tri­tion and Di­etet­ics, UWI, St Au­gus­tine, and can be reached at Mar­quit­ta.Webb@sta.uwi.edu