Considering the current fear of Coronavirus, what diet should seniors follow?

What we eat during a pandemic is exceedingly important. It impacts the body’s capability to contain, combat, and heal from the virus. It is no secret that food cannot cure or prevent COVID-19. However, if you want to strengthen your immune system, you should follow a healthy diet. Good nourishment also helps prevent other health issues like heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and specific types of cancer. Here are a few nutritional recommendations to help with COVID-19:

Follow Diets with High Varieties that Include Fruits and Vegetables
• Go for wholegrain meals like oats, maize, wheat, millet, and brown rice. Thanks to their valuable fibre, you’ll feel hungry less often.
• Your meals should consist of whole grains (rice, maize, wheat, etc.), fresh fruits and veggies, legumes (beans and lentils), and nutrients from animals (eggs, fish, meat, milk, etc.).
• Snack on fresh fruits, raw vegetables, and unsalted nuts.

Consume Oils and Fats in Moderation
• Instead of red meat, consider low-fat white meats like fish and poultry. Avoid eating processed meat as much as possible, and trim the meat’s fat before cooking.
• Steam or boil the food and avoid frying it.
• Go for reduced-fat or low-fat dairy products like milk.
• Use soy, corn, sunflower, and olive oil and avoid ghee, lard, and butter.
• Stay away from fried, processed, and baked foods with trans-fat.

Hydrate Your Body
• Hydration is vital for health.
• Tap water is the healthiest, most affordable beverage (if safe for consumption).
• An easy way to limit your sugar intake and empty calories consumption is to replace sweetened drinks with water.

Restrict Daily Salt Intake to a Teaspoon
• If you like dried or canned food, go for varieties of fruits, nuts, and veggies with no sugars and salt.
• Check the labels on food products and pick ones with lower sodium.
• Limit your salt usage in cooking as much as possible and avoid salty seasonings and sauces like soy sauce.
• Get rid of your table’s salt shaker and try parched or fresh herbs and spices instead.

Restrict Sugar Consumption
• Replace sweet snacks like cakes, chocolate, and cookies with fresh fruits. Suppose you crave sweetened snacks like ice cream and cake. In that case, have them in smaller portions and pick the ones with the lowest amount of sugar.
• Limit your intake of sugary drinks like juice drinks, fruit juices, flavoured water, energy drinks, sports drinks, flavoured milk drinks, fizzy drinks, ready-to-drink coffee and tea, liquid and powder concentrates, etc.
• Don’t give children sugary foods. Complementary foods for children under the age of 2 should have no added salt and sugars.