Agriculture Secretary William Dar reiterates his advice to the consuming public to look after their health by eating nutritious vegetables and fruits to boost their immune system in fighting COVID-19.

This is in line with the recent dispensed advice of The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 20 to the public on eating healthy and nutritious and help their immune system to function properly.

“We need to take this seriously. If your body is healthy and strong, you are maximizing its ability to fight infection, and have a higher chance of recovering from COVID-19 or any other sickness,” said Secretary Dar.

The agri chief cautioned the public that although older people are more likely to be hit, the younger people are not spared.

“Eating nutritious veggies and fruits to boost our immune system will not only help people in the long-term, but it will also help the fight COVID-19 if they get it,” Dar added.

The WHO reported that “data from many countries clearly show that people under 50 make up a significant proportion of patients requiring hospitalization.” But it also warned that “although the evidence has suggested that those over 60 are at highest risk, young people, including children, have died.”

“We need to feed our bodies with the essential nutrients to keep it functioning at top capacity. There is no one superfood to fight COVID-19, but I encourage the public to do a balanced diet, with mostly plant-based, colorful foods that you can prepare from scratch, preferably from your own garden,” Dar said.

With current COVID-19 restrictions, wherein the public is advised to stay at home, Dar urged the public to also take this time as an opportunity to get into urban gardening and make use of those idle spaces at home.

Secretary Dar has been campaigning for the enhancement of urban gardening particularly in Metro Manila and other areas as one of the measures to address availability of food supply amidst the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

“We need to promote urban gardening in the metropolis so that when there is tightening of food supply we’ll have no problem in getting them, even at the comfort of our own homes,” Dar said. ### (Rita dela Cruz, DA Communications Group)