COVID

Plant-based eaters had less COVID and less severe COVID

By WhyStopHarmingAnimals.com

During the pandemic, the people who ate plants did better[1][2][3]. Three observational studies found lower COVID risk[1][3], and less severe illness[1][2], in people eating plant-based diets, with vegans lowest of all the diet groups compared[3].

Half a million people

The largest of the three, published in Gut in 2021, followed 592,571 people and scored their diets on how healthy and how plant-based they were[1]. Those with the highest healthful plant-based score had 9% lower risk of getting COVID and 41% lower risk of severe COVID than those with the lowest score[1]. Diet quality drove the result, so it says nothing in favour of junk food that happens to be plant-based[1].

Health workers on the front line

Frontline health workers were among the most exposed people during the pandemic. In a 2021 study in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, those eating plant-based diets had 73% lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID[2]. Health workers on low-carb, high-protein diets went the other way, with higher odds[2].

Vegans lowest

A third study compared several diet groups and found that vegans had the lowest COVID risk among them[3]. The direction held after the usual adjustments for other factors.

What the studies can’t rule out

All three are observational. People who eat plant-based diets tend to do other healthy things as well, and adjustment can only partly account for that. None of these studies assigned people to a diet and then watched who fell ill. Still, the three point the same way from different populations: a general cohort of more than half a million[1], a high-exposure group of health workers[2], and a comparison across diet groups[3]. In each, eating plants came with less disease[1][3], and in the two that looked at severity, much less severe disease[1][2].