Dr Khor
KOTA KINABALU: The taking of balanced nutritious food is important to increase the body’s immune system against Covid-19 virus.
Senior lecturer for the Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition (FSMP), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Dr Khor Ban Hock said that a strong immune system can help in the fight against bacteria, fungi and parasites.
“Because of that, people are encouraged to consume a variety of rich nutrient food to support their body’s immune system,” he said.
Dr Khor added that food must contain nutrients such as Vitamin A, B6, B12, folate, C, D and Vitamin E; as well as Zinc, Copper, Selenium and Iron.
He said this when presenting a talk entitled “Nutrition and Covid-19 on 3S: STEM Speaker Series” held by the UMS Science Centre recently.
However, he advised that the consumption of the food must be according to one’s needs.
“There are some who misunderstand that the intake of more nutritious food at any one time will boost immunity.
“Actually, that is wrong. The excessive daily intake will not boost the immune system but will be detrimental,” he said.
He urged the people to maintain a healthy weight to allow the high production of antibodies after the vaccination.
“Research has shown that the formation of antibodies is low on recipients with excess weight or are obese.
“This is not confined to Covid-19 vaccine, but also for other vaccines such as for Influenza, Hepatitis B and Rabbies.
Nevertheless, Dr Khor said that this is not to dissuade people with excess weight to not take the vaccine.
“The vaccine is important to protect ourselves from the Covid-19,” he said.
“But it is important to keep an ideal body weight if we want our body to have positive feedback after receiving the vaccine,” he said.
The talk attracted 4,000 viewers.