Back in Febuary 2020, Agriculture Secretary William Dar advised “Eat fruits, veggies to stay healthy, fit vs. nCoV”. In an article on the department of agriculture website.
He spoke of the immune system as our defense against the virus in a series of statements:
“let’s heed and support the call of the Department of Health to boost our body’s immune system to fight the virus and bacterial attacks and reduce the risks of disease infections.”
“We have long been taught that the immune system helps the body fight off infections caused by viruses and speed up the recovery process after an infection,”
“We have a lot of native, nutritious fruits and vegetables that are known to help the body fight off diseases. Hence, Let’s try to consume more to boost our health—more so now, with the outbreak of influenza and the 2019 nCoV,”
https://www.da.gov.ph/dar-eat-fruits-veggies-to-stay-healthy-fit-vs-ncov/
He goes on to recommend consuming high levels of Vitamin C, a powerful immunity booster and Vitamin A, which is important for respiratory health. The DA Chief also mentioned Malunggay as a good source of both. He also names several native plants that act as powerful antiviral agents such as Sinta (Serpentina), Lagundi and Garlic, which all have antibacterial, anti viral and anti inflammation properties.
Editors Note:
A few weeks ago, we released our Open Letter to Our Leaders, advocating nutrition as a neglected, yet essential part of our COVID response. We also wrote that we have yet to see a government official speak out on this. We stand corrected!
Here you have it from one of the heads of government: Nutrition and Diet play a role in your ability to resist disease. It is unfortunate that despite Dar’s advocating for this early last year, no large-scale effort has yet to be undertaken to promote immune health as response to the outbreak.
If you would like to learn more about how to protect yourself and your family using good food, check out our articles here. He mentioned Vitamin C, A and Malunggay as part of his recommendations. Click on the links to see full descriptions of how these boost immunity.
If youwould like to do your part to help, please do forward our open letter to as many people as you can.