I received a comment on social media that read: “I’ve given up on a raw foods diet because of Covid. Just seems too easy for the virus to thrive on veggies and fruit. Do you have any info that suggest different?
Well… I don’t know what source this person got that idea from, but according to official data from the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention):
- The risk of getting sick with COVID-19 from eating or handling food (including frozen food and produce) and food packaging is considered very low.
- Currently, there is no evidence that food is associated with spreading the virus that causes COVID-19.
Regarding handling and cleaning fresh produce, the CDC, also recommends:
– Do NOT wash produce with soap, bleach, sanitizer, alcohol, disinfectant, or any other chemical.
– Gently rinse fresh fruits and vegetables under cold, running tap water.
– Scrub uncut firm produce (e.g., potatoes, cucumbers, melons) with a clean brush, even if you don’t plan to eat the peel.
– Salt, pepper, vinegar, lemon juice, and lime juice have not been shown to be effective at removing germs on produce.
If you think about it, there are a million ways someone can get infected by viruses or bacteria. Microorganisms are ubiquitous; that is, they are present nearly everywhere.
Here are some facts: Your kitchen sink is often dirtier than your toilet (1), your toothbrush likely has poop on it (2), E. coli has been found in makeup, carpets, beddings, and remote controls (3). Your phone has 10 times the bacteria of your toilet. (4) The average pillow has 350,000 bacteria colonies, and more than 100,000 yeast and mold colonies, including some that are very toxic to humans. (5)
The way for humans to win our million year war with microbes is not to avoid them completely, because we can’t!
I believe we are trying to solve the problem from the wrong end. This is a health problem; we can’t sanitise the universe.
The key to beating Covid-19, as well as many other diseases, lies in our immune system.
Maintaining our inner terrain in a healthy (undisturbed and undeteriorated) state of homeostasis is one of the key benefits we derive from eating a diet of raw, whole, plant foods in their freshest, least processed form.
Furthermore, studies have shown that the immune system reacts to the introduction of cooked food into the bloodstream the same way it does to foreign pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. This is readily evidenced by the doubling and tripling of the leukocyte count in the blood in the half an hour to an hour after eating a cooked meal. Any poison or drug taken occasions the same body response. However, this reaction does not occur when raw food is consumed.
I cannot think of safer foods than oranges, bananas, kiwis, melons, apples, pears, along with so many other fruits, since the peeling process makes them ultra-safe.
When people talks about the dangers of germs and raw foods, they mostly refer to raw meat and other animal derived products; they don’t mean raw vegan foods.
We are living through a pandemic. It’s never been more important to fuel our bodies with the plethora of nutrients and vitamins readily available in plant based, raw foods.
Depriving yourself of lettuce and spinach because you are scared of viruses is as illogical as killing yourself to avoid getting sick. You would certainly not get Covid-19 if you are already dead.
If anything, we should increase the amount of raw food we consume, get out there and exercise, get vitamin D through sunlight exposure, have a laugh, and enjoy life.
What is the point of life anyway, if you can’t live it?
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