The confirmation of the beneficial effect of the Mediterranean diet against COVID-19 disease, by Universities in Europe and America

A recent epidemiological study by the University of Navarra in Spain, in collaboration with the Department of Nutrition of Harvard University, published in April 2021 in the journal Clinical Nutrition entitled "Mediterranean diet and the risk of COVID-19 in the 'Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra' cohort", confirms the protective action of the Mediterranean diet against COVID-19. In this study, the nutrition habits of the 9,677 participating volunteers were recorded through questionnaires and evaluated on a score of 0-9 depending on how close to the Mediterranean diet was the diet model they followed. At the same time, during the period February-December 2020, it was examined how many participants were positive for the coronavirus. The results showed an inverse correlation between the degree of adoption of the Mediterranean diet and the probability of disease by SARS-Cov-2, as the closer the participants' diet model was to the Mediterranean diet, the lower the probability of disease. In fact, participants who followed a diet model rated more than 6 had the lowest risk of disease. This published epidemiological study also mentions the article "Micronutrients, phytochemicals and Mediterranean diet: a potential protective role against COVID-19 through modulation of PAF actions and metabolism" which had already been published in January 2021 in the scientific journal Nutrients by members of the research team of the Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry & Food Chemistry of the Department of Chemistry of the University of Athens C.A. Demopoulos, Professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Dietetics-Nutrition Science of Harokopio University S. Antonopoulou and Head of the Department of Clinical Nutrition at GNA Korgialenio - Benakeio and Lecturer at the University of Peloponnese Dr. P. Detopoulou. In this article, the greek team expressed the concept of the possible protective effect of the Mediterranean diet against COVID-19 disease, based on their proposed biochemical mechanism of action of the coronavirus, which mechanism they have described in their previous publications (June -September 2020), in collaboration with Boston Tufts University Professor Theocharis Theocharidis, at the "Preprints" Science Database and the journal "Clinical Therapeutics" and "BioFactors".

Almost at the same time as the above epidemiological research, a "Proof-of-Concept" study by the Italian Universities of Turin and Palermo was published in the scientific journal Nutrients in May 2021, entitled "Mediterranean Diet and SARS-COV-2 Infection: Is There Any Association? A Proof-of-Concept Study" conducted on 1206 participating volunteers for January-February 2021. This research also confirms the beneficial effect of the Mediterranean diet against COVID-19 disease. In this research of Italian Universities, the article of the geek team in Nutrients in January 2021 is also mentioned, in which they formulated the biochemical mechanism for the possible protective effect of the Mediterranean diet against COVID-19 disease. In addition, there is extensive reference to the published work of the last fifteen years of the greek team on the proposed mechanism of action of the Mediterranean diet through the inhibition of inflammatory and thrombotic platelet activating factor (PAF).

With the results of these researches of the above Universities, the biochemical mechanism proposed by the greek team is strengthened.