The Impact of COVID-19 and 5 things you should do for your health in 2021

Hint: It's not weight loss. Yay!

#covidnutrition #newyearsgoals #nondietapproach #antiinflammatoryfoods #ditchthediet #jlpnutrition #justlovepearsnutrition #nutritionist

Jen Pfeifler MS, APD | Just. Love. Pears. nutrition | January 2021

I know you are used to seeing nutrition articles in January on the next new diet, how to lose weight to give you a 'new you' or to better yourself or some dumb catchy way to scare you and perpetuate diet culture, but that isn't this article. This brief article is about how you can take control of your health by focusing on a few different things other than weight loss.

2020 has been scary enough with the world crumbling politically, tension between family members higher from their change in political party, stress from losing your job like so many people world-wide, change in working environment (If you still have a job!), family routines and lack of social outlets to name a few. One huge stressor I haven't mentioned is your health. That's because it deserves a whole article on it.. oh, and because it's the only topic I have two degrees in ;)

What do we know thus far? Well, like any other infection, inflammation and a fever are apparent. This is normal. This is actually a good thing. It's the body's way of gathering our T-cells and cytokines (our little knight's in shining armor) to fight off the bad guy. Things slowly go back to normal and you recover. With COVID-19, we are seeing a cytokine storm in some people if you will. It's an inflammatory response gone wild- even after "recovery". You can read more here if you really want to get into the nuts and bolts.

I'll go ahead and give you the take away you should...well, take away from reading this: Inflammation and gut health. Covid-19 has wrecked havoc on our health. Yes, that's certainly no secret. Many, many people have had the help of a ventilator to recover from it and/or are still seeing effects of it months later, such as hair loss, fatigue, lack of sleep, shortness of breath, gastro, and swelling.

So what is nutrition's role? The whole purpose of nutrition is to give your body and brain energy and provide it with nutrients to keep up with the 1000's of processes it goes through every day to keep you running like a well oiled machine. It is incredibly complicated, and integrated. There are a lot of other factors such as sleep, medications, exercise or movement, stress (good and bad), environment, genetics, hormone profile, smoking, and your gut microbiome. All of these should be considered a symphony. If one is out, the others will also be affected.

What can you do today to help combat COVID-19's after math or prevent the seriousness of it's progression if infected? (This also goes for other infections)

1) Nurture your gut with the right nutrition. It REALLY MATTERS.

2) Aim to get off unnecessary medications and supplements (Consult with your doctor

and work with a nutritionist to see how/if you can decrease these)

3) Add more anti-inflammatory foods in your diet

4) Track your sleep- not food! Your body doesn't need you to micromanage it. We have already built in internal cues like hunger and fullness for a reason!

5) Take it easy on the alcohol

Need some help? Book a free clarity call by to see if working with a nutritionist (me!) would benefit you by clicking "book online" anytime.