Low COVID-19 Infection and Mortality in Rice Eating Countries

Shaw Watanabe¹* and Kazumoto Inuma²

• ¹Life science Promoting Association, Asia Pacific Clinical Nutrition Society, Japan
• ²Ricetech Corporation, Japan

Received: June 15, 2020;   Published: June 25, 2020

*Corresponding author: Shaw Watanabe, Life science Promoting Association, Asia Pacific Clinical Nutrition Society, Tokyo, Japan

DOI: 10.32474/SJFN.2020.03.000155

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Abstract

The relationship between rice consumption and the cumulative number of COVID-19/1000000 at June 6, 2020 was examined after compilation of data from 19 major countries on 5 continents. A strong negative correlation with a coefficient of determination of 0.59 was found. On the contrary, wheat consumption showed the positive correlation. This suggests that resistance to SARS-CoV-2 infection is influenced by the nature of staple foods. This is compatible with previous findings indicating that rice eaters have a specific profile of intestinal microbiota, which strengthens the innate immunity to virus infection. Lower infection rates in Asia than in the West appear to be partly due to dietary differences. Improvements in agricultural policies and eating habits, especially the promotion of the use of brown rice food and rice bran, should be part of the national strategies to counter the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Innate Immunity; Rice; Brown Rice; Wheat