Is Your Diet Sabotaging Your Health?

With the change of seasons, you may be determined to stick to your diet and weight-loss program despite the colder temps and shorter days. However, make sure your diet isn’t “weighing you down” when it comes to your overall health. According to a recent study conducted at Michigan State University, being on a diet may impair the ability of your body to defend itself against the flu virus. Keep reading for important information on staying healthy and fit during the cold and flu season.

Michigan State University researchers recently discredited the old wives’ tale that you should “feed a cold and starve a fever.” The researchers discovered that dieting impairs the body’s ability to manufacture killer cells that play a key role in the body’s defense against infections like the flu. Following the old folk remedy of not eating anything when you have a fever in an attempt to “starve it” would simply lead to your condition deteriorating and perhaps even causing your body lasting harm.

The Study Details
The study involved a group of mice that were divided into two subgroups. The first group was placed on a regular diet, while the other group of mice was subject to a diet that contained 40 percent less calories than the regular diet. Despite the fact that the group on the diet with fewer calories was given enough minerals and vitamins to keep them healthy, their survival rate was lower than that of the other group of mice. Also, mice from the lower calorie group that eventually survived took a longer time to regain their health than those from the group with the regular diet.

Elizabeth Gardner, a nutritional immunology professor, stated that when a body is exposed to a strain of virus that it has not encountered before, it lacks the right antibodies to fend off the new virus, and must therefore rely on killer cells to kill the virus and drive out the infection. Natural killer cells play an exceedingly important role in the early stages of viral infection, as they are the cells that act as a frontline of defense, destroying cells infected by the virus. The study showed that the mice on the lower caloric diet were more susceptible to the influenza virus and that their bodies were simply not able to manufacture adequate numbers of natural killer cells to fend off the virus.

The researchers from Michigan State found that a body that has been allowed a regular diet will be much more effective at fighting an invading virus and have a shorter recovery period and be less severely affected than if it were calorically restricted. The study suggests that fully-grown adults may sustain a calorically-restricted regimen for eight months of the year, but for the four months that make up flu season, they should feed their body enough to get it ready to fight off possible infections. Your body needs the energy reserves so it is ready to deal with added stress, especially that of fighting off a virus.

The results of this study clearly show that you should be cautious when embarking on a diet. You should never deprive your body of the essential calories needed in order to function properly and defend yourself against disease. Dieting, when done properly, is fine. But letting it get out of hand might result in a simple flu turning into a full-blown viral infection.