Is what I eat affecting my recovery?

You may be more at risk of nutritional problems if you answer yes to any of these questions:

If you have answered yes to any of these it is important to get nutritional support. The section below explains how.

In the next section you can find self-screening tools and a checklist to help you identify specific nutritional problems.

Your symptoms may change over time and the dietary advice may change too. Consider coming back to this page to check your risk at intervals.

Here are some tools designed to identify risk of under-nutrition. If you think you have a specific vitamin or mineral deficiency, you will need to consult a registered nutrition expert or your GP .

Changes in eating habits or lifestyle can mean your nutrient intake alters. This online tool from the BAPEN Malnutrition Self-Screening website can help you find out whether you are at nutritional risk. If you have noticed weight change (loss or increase), or if any of your symptoms affect what you eat, use this self-screening tool.

The tool asks about weight change – If you can’t remember your weight before or unable to weigh yourself now, just think about whether your clothes, belt, rings or watch strap have become looser or tighter; this is a sign of weight change. Similarly, dentures can become loose with weight loss.

The Patient Association Nutrition Checklist can help you understand whether you need dietary advice and a more detailed nutritional assessment. You can download it from the Patient Association website [PDF]. The checklist gives a guide for signs that you may need help and provides information about how to find it.

If you have problems with swallowing, you can download a self assessment from the Melbourne ENT Group website [PDF]. If your score is 3 or higher you may want to seek a consultation with a speech and language therapist or dietitian. Ask your GP for a referral.

The multi-disciplinary-rehabilitation teams from Leeds, Airedale and Hull NHS Trusts have produced a screening tool called COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Screening (C19-YRS). It assesses symptoms and guides what support you might need. There are questions about swallowing and nutrition. You can find the tool on their website. If you have concerns about diet, weight loss or swallowing seek further support via your GP, local post COVID clinic or other health professional.

If you need nutritional advice and support, contact one of the following for help:

These are the type of things that they can help you with:

You can listen to the talk about “Psychological well-being and communication with health professionals” to learn more about how to make the most of your consultation with a healthcare professional.

The first step would be to make sure you are following healthy eating guidelines which can be found in The Eatwell Guide.

The evidence also suggests that a Mediterranean style diet is highly beneficial. This includes:

An observational study from Vietnam surveyed almost 4,000 outpatients with COVID-19 like symptoms (but tested negative). The results showed that eating more vegetables, fruits and fish was related to a lower likelihood of presenting COVID-19 like symptoms (and possibly chronic inflammatory diseases). This evidence suggests that a diet high in these foods (like the Mediterranean diet) could be helpful in avoiding some COVID-19 symptoms (Nguyen et al., 2021). Eating more fruit, vegetables and fish is advised for a healthy diet.

The ZOE COVID symptom study examined the self-reported diet of almost 600,000 people, and found that a plant-based diet related to lower severity of COVID-19 symptoms. However, the information in this study comes from higher socio-economic status individuals, which limits who the results apply to. Nevertheless, the data suggest that if healthy diets can be followed, reduced COVID-19 symptom severity may be achieved. A diet high in plant-based foods includes most of the key nutrients involved in the optimal functioning of the immune system (vitamins A, B6 , B12, C, D, and E, and folate, amino acids, long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (docosahexaenoic and eicosapentaenoic)) and a category of compounds naturally found in plant such as polyphenols (Merino et al., 2021).

You can listen to a podcast where our research lead was interviewed about malnutrition, general dietary advice and symptoms, antihistamine diets and more.

You can listen to the talk “Is there an anti-inflammatory diet?”which discusses the Mediterranean diet in more detail.

You can also listen to the talk “Is there a link between food and my symptoms?”which explains how to monitor your symptoms and possible dietary changes you could make.

There are two other talks that you may find interesting: “Diet and COVID”and “Q&A panel with our experts”. Find details about all our talks.