Reduce Viral Infections By Over 50% Through Diet | Ashok Gupta | Coronavirus Challenge |

Hello, and a warm welcome to the coronavirus challenge, day one. My name's Ashok Gupta, and I've been working with people on recovery from chronic conditions for over 20 years now, helping them rebalance their immune systems. Thank you for being here with me today as we take this journey together. We'll be using something called the Gupta Mend program, where M stands for mind, E stands for energizing the body, N stands for nighttime routine and sleep, and D is for diet. We're now living through one of the greatest pandemics in human history. And I know that you might be feeling anxious, powerless, out of control as we watch the unbelievable things unfolding on our TV screens. In fact, sometimes it feels like a movie. It's almost surreal. And you might be worrying about the impact that it'll have on yourself, your family, your friends, and your livelihood. But you're here right now because you want to do more than just sit and wait and wonder what will happen to you. You're here because you want to take charge of your health and do whatever you can to boost your immune system. And I'm glad you've taken that pledge to make the difference. Throughout the next 10 days, we'll be talking about easy to do changes or tweaks to your lifestyle that will make all the difference in boosting your immune system. And if the COVID 19 coronavirus behaves similarly to other coronaviruses, and we have no reason to think that it won't, then some of these tools individually can actually reduce your chances of getting the infection by over 80%. And if you do happen to get an infection, these changes can reduce the symptoms and the length of time that you have it, sometimes by half. Today we're going to be talking about D for diet. Now I know what it feels like when someone mentions that you need to change your diet. We might roll our eyes and think, oh, not again. I get it. We love our food. We love it just the way it is. But what's great about diet is that it's one of the simplest and easiest things that you can do to boost your immune system. And your body will love it. It's an act of self love. And once you start eating this, you'll love how it makes you feel and you'll want to continue. Just some small dietary changes can often reduce your chances of getting any virus by over 50%. Or cut the time you have it by as much as half. And this has been shown even in the elderly. The key is to stick with it. Now, there have been many Things shared on social media, like saying that you have to take high dosage vitamin C or silver supplements, or eat tons of garlic. But until we see some research or new evidence from people currently in hospital here, we're only recommending things that have been researched in terms of scientific efficacy at preventing other similar viruses like colds or flu. And you can make your own mind up. You can check out the links and the science behind it all at the bottom of this page, if you're curious and want to find out more. Now, of course, this is general information that we're sharing here, and it's important that you speak to your doctor before making any changes to your diet, especially if you have any dietary issues like allergies or previous gut issues. The coronavirus situation is an opportunity for greater change in the way that we live. And the changes we're talking about have been shown to reduce your overall chance of getting a wide variety of illnesses, even cancer, diabetes, depression or heart disease, even to lower obesity. So what we're going to go through today is a great way of eating in general. Before we dive into the diet bit, first, a bit of science. Now, you might be asking, how on earth do we heal using food? Well, believe it or not, 80% of our immune system lives in our gut, the space between our mouth and where food leaves the body. And we have around 1-3 kg of bacteria living there. Not just bacteria, but fungi and other microbes. And they collectively make up something called our microbiome, which is this writhing swamp of mucus with a hundred trillion microbes that help keep us alive. Isn't it amazing? And this microbiome is the key, as it's the thing that makes the antiviral chemicals that fight off viruses. Our microbiome is very delicate, and as human beings, we live in a symbiotic relationship with it. And when we take care of our microbiome, it gives us a healthy immune system. So treat it like a best friend and it will give you the shirt off its back. But if you ignore your microbiome, tease it, deny its needs, or abuse it with junk food, it won't be able to be there for you when you need it the most. And just like you wouldn't put the wrong type of gas in your car, in the same way, the right food creates the right balance of good and bad bacteria in your gut, which gives us the immunities which we need for life. So today we're making the microbiome our newest best friend. There are some good foods that nourish our microbiome. And then there are some harmful foods. For instance, there are certain types of food and that excite our immune system unnecessarily, causing what is called chronic inflammation in the body. That means that our immune system is overworking unnecessarily as a result of a bad diet. And then there's not enough juice left in the system to fight off other attacks. And this can make our body vulnerable to even greater threats like viruses and also have a higher chance of illness such as heart disease, arthritis, even depression. So, in summary, we want to cut out foods that hurt our gut biome and cut out foods that increase inflammation. Instead, we want to increase foods which reduce that inflammation in our system and foods which boost the immune system's power. Now, some of you may already have heard this advice, but it's great to have a refresher. It reminds us, and we're focusing here on what has been shown to specifically fend off viruses. Okay, so let's jump in. We often treat food like it's a form of entertainment, but in fact, food is nature's medicine, and our kitchen cupboards are nature's pharmacy. Many of the foods that we already have available to us can help us support the immune system. But before that, here is a list of foods that interfere with our immune system. I recommend only having these foods occasionally. Some of these foods interfere directly with our immune system, some in a secondary way by causing excessive chronic inflammation. And this next list of foods needs to go to the back of the shelf, or better yet, out of the door. But we won't leave you without. We're also including the best substitutes that can please your palate just as much. Firstly, sugar has been shown to directly reduce your immune system's effectiveness for up to five hours. And most adult Americans eat up to three quarters of a pound of sugar per day. And this includes high fructose corn syrup, Sugar and the syrup. They're in lots of different items like candy and sweets, chocolate sodas, cakes and cookies, sweet pastries and certain cereals. And unfortunately, artificial sweeteners can be just as unhealthy for our gut biome. But a great substitute if you have a sweet tooth, is to try plant based stevia instead. Secondly, we want to drastically reduce fried foods, trans fats, vegetable oils and seed oils. These are often in foods like fries, burgers, fast food, margarines, and packaged cakes and cookies. Instead, you might cook with coconut oil or avocado or olive oil, or perhaps you can bake instead of frying. Thirdly, we Want to cut out refined carbohydrates. Basically, that's white flour and that's contained in white bread, white pasta, pastries, some cereals, cookies and cakes. Instead, you could try substitutes like wholemeal grains, wholemeal flour, or even carb free alternatives. Fourthly, excessive alcohol is just like sugar. It can have an immediate negative impact on your immune system. Now, the occasional glass of red wine might be okay, might have some slight benefit, but any more than that is likely to lead to excessive inflammation and compromise your immune system. And finally, red meat and processed meats. So these are things like sausage, bacon, ham, smoked meats and beef jerky. There are plenty of vegan substitutes, but it's important to make sure that they're healthy as well. And if you do eat meat, then oily fish would be a much better substitute. One of the worst offenders for our immune system is, is smoking. Smoking has been shown to nearly double the chance of flu and double the days spent unwell. And with the coronavirus, we know that many deaths from the virus seem to be occurring as a result of inflammation of our lungs, which is called pneumonia, and then bacterial infections as a result of that. And unfortunately, there is evidence that smoking may increase the chance of dying from pneumonia by up to five times. So becoming tobacco free during this pandemic is incredibly important for your health. So if you smoke cigarettes or shisha and you've been waiting for that final inspiration to quit, this is a great time to find that courage and get free. And you can get support online. You can make it as kind and gentle as possible. This isn't about judging yourself. This is about saving your life and helping the people around you. In the meantime, you'll gain that freedom that you've always wanted. Now, after the last section, you might be thinking, ashok, you've made me lose all my favourite foods in one day. Now I understand how challenging that might feel. There are some aspects to this coronavirus challenge that will take courage and patience, but I know you can do it. And the payoff may just save your life or the life of someone you love. So we're going to tell you what you need to hear in this video, not just what you want to hear. Now, if you want the quick win to boost your immune system on day one, the secret to a healthy gut biome is eating lots of fruits and vegetables and also high fiber foods. And this is similar to a Mediterranean style diet. It's simple. Look how delicious all of this food looks. It's making me hungry already. Now this probably isn't the first time that you've heard this idea, but hopefully now you're more motivated to pay more attention to it and keep to our pledge. This doesn't necessarily mean becoming vegetarian or vegan, but instead shifting the balance of what sits on your plate and fruits and vegetables ideally would make up half of each plate of food that you eat. Now it might seem like a lot initially, but once you get used to it, the variety and the taste just keep increasing and it becomes an enjoyable way of eating. Studies have shown that even in the elderly, increasing your intake to at least five portions of fruit and vegetables per day can double the strength of your immune system response. They found it halved the chance of a virus and another study was also done on the risk of complications from pneumonia. So here are the foods we want to increase in our diet. Firstly, we want to be eating far more vegetables and this can be a mix of raw and cooked vegetables. If you're juicing, it's better to have the whole vegetable in a smoothie so you get the fibre, but if you can only juice then that's still beneficial as well. The second is lots of fruit but the whole fruit naturally or as a smoothie but not fruit juice which is very sugary. Extra virgin olive oil or virgin coconut oil. Both of these are excellent anti inflammatories and coconut oil is my go to oil to cook with and it works great at high heat. Whole olives and avocados, lentils, beans, chickpeas and other legumes and pulses. The immune system gets a real boost when you eat these foods. We want to be eating a lot more whole grain foods, especially oats. Oats have recently been shown to really help the gut biome directly, so I recommend eating oats or porridge or oatmeal every day. It's great with some cinnamon in it as cinnamon is a great immune booster too and cinnamon is also a great blood sugar balancer. Rice including basmati, wild or brown rice, lots of nuts and seeds which really help our immune system. And if you're a meat eater then the ideal would be to have more fish, ideally open seawater caught fish with low levels of mercury. The best way to make these new foods as exciting as the old ones is to get onto Instagram or social media and find a recipe that tastes just as good as your old foods. We've also provided some fun resources on this page, some links to some recipe sites, or you could google your favourite snack or meal and look for healthy substitutes. You'll be amazed at what you can find out there and what you could quickly fall in love with. Many people ask me which fruits and vegetables are best. The key is variety. Look at all these beautiful colors. Some people call it eating the rainbow, making your plate as colorful as possible to feed your biome. And that's what nature has given us, such variety. However, there are some foods which seem to have more of a beneficial effect on the immune system. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cabbage are excellent. They're well known to boost the immune system and you can use them in a soup or a smoothie, or perhaps steam them. Secondly, sweet potatoes are very good and you can use them instead of normal potatoes. Mushrooms and also spinach are excellent. And green leafy vegetables like kale that we have here, Swiss chard, the darker the green vegetables the better. And in terms of fruits, positive studies have been done on kiwi fruits, also berries, especially blueberries. I recommend to eat these foods at least every week. And there is also an Indian fruit called Amla which is very good in this regard. Also, the anti inflammatory Mediterranean style diet involves reducing dairy and meat consumption overall and instead making oily fish a preference. If you're vegetarian or vegan, then please make sure you eat enough pulses, beans and lentils to get your proteins and amino acids. I also believe that an Indian Ayurvedic style diet is very beneficial for the immune system, giving you lots of great spices. But it just so happens that more research has been done on the Mediterranean style diet.