Association of food habit with the COVID-19 severity and hospitalization: A cross-sectional study among the recovered individuals in Bangladesh
Sumon Ganguli, Sabbir Howlader, Kamol Dey, Suman Barua, Md. Nazrul Islam, Afroza Begum, Md Md. Abdus Sobahan, Rivu Raj Chakraborty, Mohammad Delwer Hossain Hawlader, Paritosh Kumar Biswas
Nutrition and Health, doi:10.1177/02601060221124068
Background: It was assumed that dietary habits might influence the status of COVID-19 patients. Aim: We aimed at the identification of association of dietary habits with the COVID-19 severity and hospitalization. Methods: It was a retrospective crosssectional study (n = 1025). We used bivariate and multivariate analyses to correlate the association between self-reported dietary patterns and COVID-19 severity and hospitalization. Results: Dietary habits (black tea, milked tea, pickles, black caraway seeds, honey, fish, fruits, vegetables, garlic, onion and turmeric) were identified with lower risk of COVID-19 severity and hospitalization. Interestingly, the consumption frequency (one-, two-or three-times/day) of rice -the staple food in Bangladesh -was not associated with COVID-19 severity and hospitalization for comorbid patients. In contrast, a moderate rice-eating habit (two times/day) was strongly associated with the lower risk of severity and hospitalization for non-comorbid patients. However, for both comorbid and non-comorbid patients, consumption of black tea, milked tea, pickles and honey were associated with a lower likelihood of severity and hospitalization. Overall, a high consumption (three-times/day) of fish, fruits and vegetables, a moderate consumption of garlic, onion and turmeric spices and a daily intake of black/milked tea, and honey were associated with reduced risk of COVID-19 severity and hospitalization. Conclusions: To reduce the severity of COVID-19, a habitual practice of intaking black tea, milked tea, black caraway seeds and honey along with dietary habit (rice, fish and vegetables) and with a moderate consumption of ginger, garlic, onion, mixed aromatic spices (cinnamon + cardamom + cloves) and turmeric might be suggested.
Author contributions
Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Ethical approval The protocol was approved by the ethics committee, Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU), Chattogram, Bangladesh (CVASU/DIR/(R & E)/EC/2020.191/1).
ORCID iDs
Supplemental material Supplemental material for this article is available online.
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