Influence of Nutritional Intakes in Japan and the United States on COVID-19 Infection
Nutrients 2022,14, 633. https:// doi.org/10.3390/nu14030633
Yasuo Kagawa
Department of Medical Chemistry, Kagawa Nutrition University, Saitama 350-0288, Japan; kagawa at eiyo.ac.jp; Tel.: +81-492-82-3618
The U.S. and Japan are both democratic industrialized societies, but the numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths per million people in the U.S. (including Japanese Americans) are 12.1-times and 17.4-times higher, respectively, than those in Japan. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of diet on preventing COVID-19 infection. An analysis of dietary intake and the prevalence of obesity in the populations of both countries was performed, and their effects on COVID-19 infection were examined. Approximately 1.5-times more saturated fat and less eicosapentaenoic acid/docosahexaenoic acid are consumed in the U.S. than in Japan.
Intake - Note: Vitamin D and Vitamin K are low in the US vs Japan
Compared with food intakes in Japan (100%), those in the U.S. were as follows:
- beef 396%,
- sugar and sweeteners 235%,
- fish 44.3%,
- rice 11.5%,
- soybeans 0.5%, and
- tea 54.7%.
The last four of these foods contain functional substances that prevent COVID-19.
The prevalence of obesity is 7.4- and 10-times greater in the U.S. than in Japan for males and females, respectively
Mendelian randomization established a causal relationship between obesity and COVID-19 infection. Large differences in nutrient intakes and the prevalence of obesity, but not racial differences, may be partly responsible for differences in the incidence and mortality of COVID-19 between the U.S. and Japan.
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