An new study by researchers in Europe suggests that COVID-19 mortality rates are likely to be lower in countries where diets are rich in fermented foods. Earlier this year, Jean Bousquet (Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin) and colleagues investigated whether diet may contribute to the significant variation in COVID-19 death rates that have been reported between countries. The study found that in some countries with low mortality rates, the consumption of traditional fermented foods was high. Many foods have antioxidant properties, and nutrition has been proposed as playing a mitigating role in COVID-19. The fermentation process increases the antioxidant activity of food products, including milk, fruit, vegetables, and meat. Bousquet and his team hypothesized that the consumption of fermented foods might explain some of the differences in COVID-19 mortality rates between countries in Europe.
This article is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice.
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