By Tom Norton
tom@wktv.org
For generations, millions of Americans grew up with the sing-song phrase of “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” This was, of course because fruit contained its fair share of vitamins, complex carbohydrates and other nutrients the body needs to maintain healthy living. With the COVID pandemic still a force in our lives a full year after it’s beginning, researchers are taking a new look at the role nutrients play in slowing severe COVID disease which has now killed more than 530,000 Americans in just one year.
The nutrient that appears to be a significant weapon against severe COVID disease (and most respiratory diseases) is vitamin D3. Researchers now point to new findings that the high rate of deficiency in vitamin D3 in the American population could be playing a significant role in the high death rate Americans are experiencing, especially among the poor.
For millions of Americans who live in latitudes north of Tennessee, sunlight; one of the primary creators of Vitamin D in the body, is in short supply during the long, cloudy winter months. Research shows that Americans in these more northern regions combined with a diet high in processed foods that contain high fructose corn syrup and little available sunlight can create a vitamin D deficiency that only makes a population more vulnerable to the ravages of disease, especially one like COVID 19.
But if COVID finds an enemy in Vitamin D3, it appears the vitamin has an enemy in high fructose corn syrup. The National Center for Biotechnology Information has published a study that high fructose corn syrup, once it is metabolized by the kidneys, has the effect of reducing the amounts of Vitamin D3; critical to the body’s defense against COVID.
The linkage between severe COVID disease and a poor diet with the inherent health problems it brings is gradually being better understood. On the surface, this may seem like a foregone conclusion, but being a novel or “new” virus, researchers have followed the twists and turns that COVID-19 has led them on and, is often the case, the causes researchers seek take multiple paths and in some cases go back decades.
In 1973, the FDA began mandating that food manufacturers begin labeling the contents of all pre-packaged or processed foods. This regulation has allowed consumers to see what it is they’re actually eating. However in the 1970s, food manufactures primarily in the United States, introduced the artificial sweetener high fructose corn syrup, or HFCS into the American diet. At first, the long term effect in foods was unknown, but as an inexpensive sugar substitute, high fructose corn syrup HFCS became a darling of the food processing industry. Within a decade it was present in foods from bread to soft drinks to ice cream and countless other pre-packaged goods.
Researchers now point to the fact that one way of slowing the COVID death toll among these groups is education on a change in diet. To wean a sugar-saturated American population off of high fructose corn syrup and to increase consumption of foods either rich in Vitamin D3 or with supplements, is no easy task.
Of course there are the Vitamin D3 supplements, which are the easiest method for increasing Vitamin D3 intake, but with HFCS now shown to decrease the amount of D3 in the body, avoiding processed foods becomes even more important. Unfortunately, most foods in their raw state, apart from salmon, trout and eggs, do not contain large amounts of Vitamin D, which is why dairy products for decades have been fortified with the nutrient. To increase your amount of Vitamin D3 during the less sunny months and during the time of COVID, supplements may be an important tool. Researchers caution however that too much Vitamin D3 needs to be avoided. As a fat soluble vitamin, it stores in the body’s fatty tissue and can build up over time.
It’s as simple as turning over the box or can and reading the label,” says Dr. Afriyie Randle, of Mercy Health. “I mean, the information is there. It’s not being hidden. You just have to read it.” Dr. Randle also points out that the American diet that is high in processed sugars like high fructose corn syrup is also playing a huge role in the obesity epidemic in the United States. “And with obesity comes hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes.”
Combined with poor diet, which in many studies is tied to lower income levels along with occupations and life (such as many people living together under one roof), Americans, particularly minority communities, are weathering the perfect storm. With all of this, it’s understandable why early conclusions point to just why COVID has wrought so much death at or near the bottom of the economic ladder. Prior to 1990, there was virtually no correlation in studies between obesity and poverty. However by 2000, poorer regions of the U.S. showed a significant uptick in the levels of obesity and researchers were able to correlate an increase in fructose intake, but particularly foods and beverages high in HFCS that were underneath the growing obesity epidemic among the poor.
As data shows, the United States has suffered a death toll disproportionally higher than many other countries and questions linger among researchers about how the role a high-sugar, highly-processed diet that many Americans have has played a role in that death toll.
Dr. Randle encourages the greater use of home prepared meals where the home cook has an enormous control over the content of what they eat. Perhaps it’s no surprise that researchers are drawing a connection between the high levels of severe COVID disease and diet. As Dr. Randle notes, “With lab work, I see patients with Vitamin D3 deficiency weekly.”
In Europe in the 1300s, the bubonic plague brought about a stunning death toll when aided by a population where a lack of personal hygiene provided the perfect breeding ground for the spread of that disease. Today, in one of the richest countries in the world where food is generally inexpensive, the obesity epidemic and its consequences can help us understand the disproportionate death toll among Americans from COVID disease and point to the roles that our American habits have been playing in this pandemic.
Tom Norton is the general manager of WKTV Community Media and hosts the podcast “Eureka!” which covers topics of science, health and historical role that both play in our society.
