Coronavirus, Nutrition and Immune System -

The immune system is our greatest weapon against viruses of any kind. It keeps disease out. Quality nutrition plays an important role in your immune system. Most people know that good food keeps you healthy and bad food makes you ill. If the body does not receive a wide variety and amount of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients* daily, we become susceptible to microbes such as viruses and bacteria. Conversely, we know that when we get the full spectrum of nutrients, our resistance is high. The immune system can then keep the body healthy and keep or gain control of pathogens such as coronavirus. So why is this not emphasized at the time of an outbreak?

By C.F. van der Horst
April 11, 2020, updated September 16, 2022

*Phytonutrients are plant compounds that help the body stay healthy and reduce the risk of serious illness. Although they are not considered essential nutrients, in the long run, you cannot live without them.

There is something structurally wrong in medical training. Our doctors there hardly learn anything about nutrition. And what they teach is so sparse that they are unable to keep someone healthy or cure them with nutrition. Nor do they know how nutrition can strengthen the immune system. Family physician Tamara de Weijer, chair of the Physician and Nutrition Association, is well aware of this. When asked, she said, “Mainstream (family) doctors are laymen when it comes to nutrition. In actual fact, we studied medicine, not healing arts.” This troubling situation did not come about by accident. Medical school is intentionally structured this way because nutrition is not a business model in healing. Drugs are. Doctors are of good intent but have only been taught very single-minded knowledge. How medical training was pushed toward drugs and who was behind it can be read in Deadly Lies: How Doctors and Patients Are Deceived.

“Deadly Lies. How Doctors and Patients Are Deceived” describes the conflicts of interest of government officials and scientists, the mass marketing of the pharmaceutical industry, and the lies used to deceive both physicians and you.

Medical training has steered your doctor’s choice of therapy toward the primarily symptom-oriented drugs offered by the pharmaceutical industry. Even his treatment protocols are designed accordingly. We see this pattern reflected in recommendations to control coronavirus. From day one of the corona crisis, all we heard was the call for a vaccine from the pharmaceutical industry’s hat. There wouldn’t be any other solution. The reason for this is not hard to guess, because vaccines are part of the business model.

Everyone should get vaccinated. Concerns can be raised about this recommendation. Just think about vaccine safety. After all, there are no drugs without side effects. Due to expedited market authorization, these are unknown, as mandatory safety tests were largely skipped. Moreover, you cannot just impose vaccination against coronavirus (or any other pathogen) on people. Coercive medication violates the Nuremberg Code and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In the absence of knowledge about nutrition and how to use it to strengthen the immune system, virologists, but especially physicians and epidemiologists, are not to be envied. After all, their approach tends to be reactive and they have to work very hard to limit the damage. For lack of knowing better, measures are aimed at containing consequences. A person can only advise as well as his knowledge holds, and what you don’t know, you can’t recommend. As an aside, the designation ‘virologist’ is not a protected title in the Netherlands. Anyone could call himself a virologist. Many virologists are in truth veterinarians and not medical doctors.

To demonstrate this, have you ever heard anyone through official channels talk about strengthening the immune system and improving lifestyle and nutrition? We were bombarded 24/7 with coverage of the coronavirus and calls for vaccines. Among all these reports, who has said anything about immune system measures to make people more resistant to coronaviruses?

There is a National Vaccination Program in the Netherlands, but have you ever heard of the National Nutrition Program? Probably not, as it does not exist as yet, when in fact it should be the priority of the Dutch government or of any government for that matter. The National Nutrition Program would look like this: It is a series of steps to teach citizens from an early age the relationship between nutrition and health. It is designed to give children a strong immune system and great resistance. In school, nutrition is a subject and the child learns the difference between genuine nutrition and mere filling, what foods make him or her grow and keep him or her strong and healthy, what nutrients are important for the immune system and what foods contain them. The child also learns—within the level he can handle—to prepare food itself, such as preparing a healthy salad. Some schools have vegetable gardens where children can grow their vegetables and see and taste—over the years—the difference between organically grown crops and those grown with artificial fertilizers.

The children learn about the immune system and are amazed to discover that white sugar (found in candy, cookies and soda, among other things) is dangerous to their health, that sugar weakens their immune system, predisposes them to viral infections and can contribute to cardiovascular disease. They learn what the different nutrients are and that vitamins A, B6, B11 (now known as folate), B12, C, and D and the minerals zinc, iron, copper, and selenium strengthen the immune system so they don’t have to be afraid of any virus. They understand that their bodies need phytonutrients and that the amount of nutrients their bodies need, such as vitamins, depends on the demands on the body. Also, that it is not possible to establish one type of dosage for these nutrients for every day of the year because other circumstances (illness, pregnancy, hard labor, or sports) require different amounts. Sometimes the body needs much larger amounts than normal.

Children in the National Nutrition Program learn about viruses, nutrition, the immune system and health

In the National Nutrition Program, children should learn from an early age what real nutrition is and how it is related to the immune system and health.

They further learn that it is better to refrain from added chemicals such as those in processed foodstuffs. This also applies to substances approved by an official body such as the FDA and the EFSA, the European food watchdog, because such an institution can still be wrong for various reasons (new scientific insights and opinions, conflicts of interest). Therefore, they also do not cheer when Dad suggests they go to a fast food restaurant because they have learned that some French fries are processed with as many as 14 chemicals. Parents are offered nutrition courses by employers to help reduce sick leave.

The change in awareness thus brought about, has a spin-off. The government imposes additional taxes on products sold as ‘food’ but posing health risks, and supermarkets are forced to sell more actual nutrition instead of snacks and ‘filling.’

The government wholeheartedly supports the National Nutrition Program, as citizens are healthier and more resistant to disease. Consequently, pathogens such as coronavirus do not pose a serious threat. Less sick leave occurs, health costs fall, and desperate measures that affect the economy, social intercourse, and morale can be dispensed with. There is no need for coercive medication or a police state. Elderly people use less and less medication, allowing their bodies to function normally again and to increase their resistance. Moreover, the government can offer an alternative to parents concerned about the side effects of vaccinations. Possibly the need to vaccinate at all disappears entirely.

As part of the National Nutrition Program, physicians have now been educated in at least basic nutrition knowledge. If an unexpected (corona)virus is floating around, doctors know there is a solution and emphasize good nutrition (especially lots of fresh vegetables and protein) and urge people to forgo white sugar. They widely prescribe vitamins. They are now familiar with the biochemical individuality of humans and know that they must recommend amounts tailored to the individual’s needs (as determined by gender, age, body size, activity, hormonal cycle, and fitness) and that these must sometimes be many times higher than the recommended daily allowance.

Doctors also then become knowledgeable about micronutrients and indeed become specialists in vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. They know all about medicinal plants.

Thus, they also learned how to dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) for optimal immune system function. They learned that when the body is saturated with vitamin C, it no longer absorbs it. Excess vitamin C enters the intestine and attracts water there, rendering stool thin. The doctor then knows that this is a good way to measure whether your body has adequate amounts of vitamin C. They understand that maximum effect and symptom relief with oral doses of ascorbic acid are obtained at a point just below the amount that causes diarrhea.

Doctors, parents and children need to learn about nutrition and vitamin C for healthy immune system

In healthy people, this saturation point is at four to perhaps 15 grams per day. For a mild cold the body needs 30-60 grams, for a severe cold 60-100 grams. With flu, one can easily take 100-150 grams of oral ascorbic acid per day without it causing a thin stool or other adverse effects. The body apparently needs and fully absorbs such huge amounts. Doctors are aware that vitamin C is completely safe and has no side effects. They do make a person eat something before taking ascorbic acid. They advise people to take advantage of what nature offers us to increase resistance.

In the Netherlands, the number of people with one or more chronic conditions increased from 8.8 million in 2016 to 9.9 million in 2018 (58% of the Dutch population), according to figures from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. An increase of 1.1 million people in just two years! Such people take medication, sometimes several drugs at once. The chemical attack disrupts the normal functioning of the body, including that of the immune system. One can only guess what state the immune system of such people is in. A flu or coronavirus epidemic seems almost a logical consequence. And if these susceptible people, on top of underlying conditions, are then sickened by a virus, what are the consequences?

Couldn’t the National Nutrition Program and the addition of the subject of nutrition in medical training (and perhaps an emphasis on that instead of medication) and in schools be a great solution?

The only barrier to this program is posed by the economic interests of the pharmaceutical industry and the banks that sponsor it, the enormous lobbying of these industries in congress or parliament, and the conflicts of interest and integrity of MPs and government leaders. Waiting for something to change there automatically is a vain hope. If anything is going to change, it will be because of YOU and YOUR action.

It is up to you to put pressure on your people’s representative to make the National Nutrition Program a reality, so that a virus or other pathogen will never be a serious threat. The wrong thing to do is to do nothing.