Nutrition in the Actual COVID-19 Pandemic. A Narrative Review

Abstract

The pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has shocked world health authorities generating a global health crisis. The present study discusses the main finding in nutrition sciences associated with COVID-19 in the literature. We conducted a consensus critical review using primary sources, scientific articles, and secondary bibliographic indexes, databases, and web pages. The method was a narrative literature review of the available literature regarding nutrition interventions and nutrition-related factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main search engines used in the present research were PubMed, SciELO, and Google Scholar. We found how the COVID-19 lockdown promoted unhealthy dietary changes and increases in body weight of the population, showing obesity and low physical activity levels as increased risk factors of COVID-19 affection and physiopathology. In addition, hospitalized COVID-19 patients presented malnutrition and deficiencies in vitamin C, D, B12 selenium, iron, omega-3, and medium and long-chain fatty acids highlighting the potential health effect of vitamin C and D interventions. Further investigations are needed to show the complete role and implications of nutrition both in the prevention and in the treatment of patients with COVID-19.