Can Plant-based Diets Help With Covid-19?

Did you know a high plant-based diet can reduce the severity of Covid-19?

In Australia and much of the world, Covid-19 is ravaging countries. We are concerned for our loved ones while Covid-19 lockdowns devastate the economy, especially small businesses. Behind each small business is a family.

Government authorities worldwide are trying to do their best to vaccinate as many of their citizens as to prevent the severity of Covid-19.

The question we ask is what other information can be shared with the public to lessen the severity of Covid-19?

How can the public better protect themselves naturally?

There are two major studies that support the benefits of eating mainly plant-based in reducing the severity of Covid-19.

And here's the magic wand of #plantbased. When people start eating more plant-based, they are likely to reduce the chronic health issues that plague high GDP countries, like Australia, and the benefits to the environment and wildlife are many.
 

At Purpose With Profit, we focus on growing the plant-based economy for all the reasons you will see below. Whether the business is small, medium or large, as long as the founders have a BIG vision, we are happy to work with them to close strategic gaps, before enabling them to grow their business faster.

The British Medical Journal conducted a six-country study with 2316 front line workers from USA to Europe. From those surveyed, 568 became infected with Covid-19. The study centred around diet, and the respondents fell into three categories;

• High plant-based diet - higher in vegetables, legumes, and nuts, and lower in poultry and red and processed meats).
• Plant-based and some seafood. 
• Low carb, high protein meat diet.

Furthermore, if you are on a low carb, keto, high protein diet will likely increase your severity of Covid-19 by 48%. Some argue the obesity rates and the correlation with high Covid-19 cases. The 'low carb' diets tend to be followed by those who are careful about their weight.

Another study in the US and UK, with 592,571 participants, came to a similar conclusion. This study was conducted using a smartphone application, where the participants entered their frequency of a type of meal.

The application also monitored the exercise patterns of the individuals. This study started in March 2020 and concluded in December 2020. From all the participants, 31,815 contracted Covid-19.

The researchers came to a conclusion those eating higher amounts of fruit and vegetables had a 41% lower risk of severity with Covid-19.

Also, if you are plant-based, you have 9% less risk of catching Covid-19.

Their conclusion, apart from food, is that lower socio-economic factors are critical determinants for the severity of Covid-19 – there's nothing new here. We only need to look at where McDonald's and Hungry Jacks have more stores.

As the data suggests from both studies, being plant-based does reduce the severity of Covid-19 significantly.
 

And what about vaccinations. The following video from Dr Neal Barnard and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in the US, sheds further light on the benefits of vaccinations.

There is a clear need to encourage the public to eat more plant-based. The silver lining of the Covid-19 Pandemic is that people from many parts of the world are naturally gravitating towards more plant-based food consumption due to health concerns - which is a good thing. We shared this in our insights about Being Hopeful.

So now the question is how will businesses step up to provide plant-based options to the public.

• Online Deliveries and plant-prep meals have grown significantly, as well as meal-kit companies. 
• Many consumer packaged goods are also going direct to the public with larger bundled offers.
• Some restaurants have taken the opportunity to change venues and find large premises with new refresh.

At Purpose With Profit, we are focussed on enabling the growth of the plant-based food economy for public health and our planet to avoid a climate catastrophe. Now with Covid-19, it's even more important to have accessibility to plant-based products everywhere.

We realise the mainstream food businesses are now more open to adopting plant-based offerings.

How can we support the growth:

• For micro plant-based businesses, we are holding our events, with experts and entrepreneurs to provide a supportive environment for growth. 
   
• New businesses looking maximise impact and revenue growth - we have our Thrive With Purpose Coaching Program – Enabling founders to distill their vision and build a business model to support it. 
   
• For established plant-based businesses with revenue around $1M and looking to grow, we have Business Growth Accelerator Program. We unpack the current business model and identify news ways to grow the business.  
   
• For major food businesses/industries/investors wanting to understand the dynamics of the plant-based mega-trend, we have a keynote that will inspire any audience to take action.

If you want to find out more, you are welcome to email us at info (at) Purposewithprofit.co

Or let's schedule a 15 minute virtual coffee here.

Stay safe and keep on shining brighter.