Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger. Many of us are feeling

helpless in the face of the current pandemic, but the good news is there are things we can do right now

to reduce our risk of falling seriously ill and dying from COVID-19 and preventing even greater

infectious disease threats in the future. In our first story today, we explore whether there are some

immune boosting foods we should be eating. Though there are more than 400 clinical treatment

trials underway, currently there is no specific proven therapy for COVID-19, and we should not

expect a vaccine or effective anti-viral drug to be available anytime soon. Although we are developing

COVID-19 vaccines, that pandemic speed just for reference, the average vaccine takes more than a

decade to develop with an average failure rate of 94%. Many have asked me for advice on what they

can eat to help bolster their immune system. And there are amazing studies like randomized

double-blind trials showing, for example, that eating broccoli sprouts can reduce viral loads for

influenza, decrease virus-induced inflammation, and boost our anti-viral natural killer cell activity

just from eating some broccoli sprouts. But this isn't the flu. I certainly support general

common sense advice to stay healthy during the crisis, put forth by trusted authorities such as

the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. This includes getting sufficient sleep, seven to nine

hours, keeping active, reducing stress staying connected albeit remotely to friends and family,

and eating healthily, diet centered around whole plant foods. The World Health Organization agrees,

fruits, vegetables, legumes, like beans, split-peach, chickpeas and lentils, nuts, whole grains,

cutting down on sugars, cutting down on meat, dairy, and junk, and cutting down on salt. Optimal

nutritional status for a well-functioning immune system is an important factor to protect against

viral infections. However, one must resist the urge to jump on that snake oily spam wagon of

foods to boost your immune system given our near total ignorance of the immunological aspects of

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