Regular orange juice intake boosts immunity against COVID-19 – Expert

Regular intake of orange fruit juice can aid the immune system to combat the dreaded coronavirus currently ravaging the world, a nutritionist and health expert, Olusola Malomo has revealed.

Malomo, who is also the Publicity Secretary of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria made the revelation in his monthly health dialogue.

He noted that although there are still relatively few studies on the effect of nutrition on the human immune system, Harvard Medical School has said that deficiency in zinc, iron, copper, folic acid, vitamins A, B6, C (which is contained in large quantity in fruit juice) and E have negative impacts on immune responses.

He added that fruit juice contains the vital micro-nutrients needed to boost immunity.

Speaking further, he stated that there has been a sharp increase in the demand for pure fruit juice, especially the orange category, which he said can be attributed to the immune-boosting power of orange juice.

“Peter McCaffery, a professor of bio-chemistry at the University of Aberdeen, said vitamin C, which is contained in orange juice helps to strengthen the immune system to fight off bacteria and virus infections like the one the world is currently grappling with,” the nutritionist stated.

Malomo added that the shopping lists of households across different parts of the world, including Nigeria, have revealed remarkable changes with CNN reporting that the United States retail sales of orange juice jumped about 38 per cent in the four weeks ending on March 28, when compared to the same period last year.

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Streamlining it to Nigeria, he said that there has been surplus demand for pure fruit juice in the country, pointing out that “during the five weeks the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos and Ogun were on lockdown, shops and supermarkets had run out of orange fruit juice.”

The expert however, revealed that the intake of 100 per cent pure fruit juice is just one out of the other ways to boost one’s immune system.

According to him, there are several other things one can do to achieve this which include adequate sleep, thorough cooking of meat, maintaining good hygiene, moderate intake of alcohol and regular exercise.

It would be recalled that there has been lots of herbal mixtures on the shelves of local stores with labels containing support immunity and immune booster amongst others.

Malomo however, warned that “so far, there is no evidence that such substances can strengthen immunity,”