Fwd Fact-Check: Foods to combat air pollution

Another day, another Whatsapp forward. I recently got one from several people since the pollution in Delhi has been making headlines across the world. It describes the best food to counter the effects of air pollution. It’s immediately appealing because we are all so scared of what all the smog is doing to our lungs and our overall health. People on the streets are wearing pollution masks. I have air purifiers installed all over the house. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could make ourselves immune to pollution with a few simple additions to our diet? To be honest, I’m not optimistic. But I’ll reserve my judgement till all the evidence is presented.

Remember one thing. Social media forwards are not reliable sources of information! We need to separate the facts from the fiction every single time, no matter who sent it to us and how trustworthy they may be. So, in that spirit, let’s break this little Whatsapp message open and see what’s inside. 

Here’s the full message

,As Delhi is affected with dangerous level of air pollution....pls take vitamin -C ......omega fatty acids......tulsi.....ginger.......lemon....... magnesium-rich diet........like cashews......for omega 3take Akahrot...Gud (Jaggery), shuddha  madhu (honey)hypothesisedthese foods will help you to reduce the effect of air pollution......can u share it to all your nearest and dearest 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Thanks

That’s short and sweet unlike that monster of a forward I had to dismantle about Japan getting rid of its microwaves. 

What is pollution again? 

Before we dive into what we can (allegedly) do to protect our health, let’s take a swift look at what pollution is and the adverse health effects it has been linked to: 

Pollution primarily consists of:

1. Particulate matter (PM 2.5 and PM 10)

2. Sulphur Dioxide

3. Ozone

4. Nitrogen Dioxide

They lead to:

1. An increased risk in heart disease like

   1. Cardiac dysrhythmia

   2. Nonfatal heart attacks

2. Increased risk of pulmonary (lung) diseases like

   1. Childhood incidents of asthma

   2. Aggravated asthma

   3. Decreased lung function

   4. Lung inflammation

   5. Bronchial infections

   6. Lung cancer

   7. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD)

3. Childhood cancers

4. Reduced cognitive abilities

5. Decreased brain size in fetuses

6. A variety of cancers

Looking at it another way, it’s like smoking for free! Yaaay!

Let the Fact-checking commence! 

Vitamin C

True

Multiple studies have shown that Vitamin C, along with Vitamin E, D, and the Bs do help lessen the symptoms and the risks of chronic conditions brought on by pollutants, especially PM 2.5. One of the many pathways through which pollution can affect you is through oxidative stress – a condition where free radicals and antioxidants are out of balance in your body. 

Free radicals are oxygen-containing molecules that have an uneven number of electrons, which helps them react with other molecules efficiently. So generous! It sounds like they’re friendly right? Surely you’d want free radicals at your party! But no. They tend to interfere with metabolic processes and even DNA, which lead to ageing, inflammatory conditions, chronic diseases and even cancer. So they turned out to be the drunk creeps at the party. The antioxidants are the bouncers who give free radicals an electron while staying stable so they can’t react quite so easily.

Vitamin C is one of these friendly antioxidants you want to have around. Studies have shown that people deficient in vitamin C and E are more likely to have asthma attacks if they have asthma or COPD symptoms too. Since lemons are a good source of vitamin C, along with many other fruits and veggies, make sure you have a good variety in your diet to stay healthy and fight off the effects of pollution. Another reason for that is that vitamin B complexes and D also help you stay healthy when it’s smoggy. 

NOTE: When it comes to antioxidants, more is NOT better. Make sure you have a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, but there’s no need to supplement with high doses of antioxidants. There needs to be a balance in the body. Taking too much of it can at the least, do nothing, and at the worst, help some cancers grow. 

Omega Fatty Acids

True

Some of the studies I’ve linked above will also show you how Omega 3 Fatty acids have a role to play in fighting the harms of pollution. 

Another study in asthmatic children showed a reduction in their symptoms with a supplement of Omega 3 fatty acids while Omega 6 fatty acids made their condition worse. 

So how do Omega-3s help? PM 2.5 particles have a way of getting deep into your lungs and even to other parts of your body through your blood. This can cause inflammation in the lungs and other tissues in your body. Omega-3 fatty acids are great at reducing inflammation in the body and therefore fighting some of the effects of pollution. 

So where do you get this oil? Most of you would already know, but anyway, great sources of Omega-3 fatty acids include fatty sea fish like salmon, tuna or herring. Vegetarian sources like flax seeds, hemp oil, walnuts and soya beans are also good. 

So yes, walnuts (akhrot) can be a good source, as mentioned in the forward, but flax and hemp oils are better. 

Another NOTE that bears repeating: Inflammation is NOT always harmful. Some forms of inflammation as a result of injury or disease can sometimes be undesirable and not good for you, but other forms of inflammation are normal functions of the body and serve important purposes. For example, every time you work out, there is widespread inflammation in the body, but it's beneficial for the recovery of your body. However, if you have an autoimmune disease where inflammation is rampant, we need to keep it in check. 

Jaggery and honey for Omega 3

Probably False

The forward also recommends jaggery (gud) and honey (shudh madhu) for omega-3 for some unfathomable reason since neither one contains any fat. One more time, people - carbs are not fat! But, if this message didn’t imply that and I’m just misinterpreting the garbled sentence formation, so be it. But still, let’s figure out if these foods really do help.

Jaggery

There is a rat study I found which finds some improvements in lung conditions with jaggery, but there are significant problems with it.

1. Rats aren’t humans

2. It was testing these rats in conditions similar to coal mines, so coal and silica particles are used

3. The findings are not easily translatable to humans in polluted cities

4. It was hypothesized that the mineral content in jaggery could be responsible for the protective effects but those can be found in much greater abundance in other fruits and vegetables. 

Honey

Honey is also primarily sugar containing glucose, fructose, maltose and sucrose. There’s a bit of water and some antioxidants, especially in darker forms of honey. But again, it has no omega-3 fatty acids. 

As far as honey’s effects on lung health, I couldn’t find much reliable information since most of the studies are small or in rats. However, some studies did hypothesise that the antioxidants in dark honey could have some benefits in overall health and nutrition. Plus, it does have antimicrobial properties that can help soothe and fight throat infections while soothing the throat too. I couldn’t find anything else. If you know of reliable studies, please let me know. 

Tulsi (Holy Basil)

Don’t Know

I haven’t been able to find any reliable studies supporting the claim that tulsi can help fight the effects of pollution. It is a very popular herb used in Ayurveda, which is why it’s probably been referenced.

I have found some information about it being somewhat beneficial to managing stress and anxiety, testosterone production and not much else. It looks like this one’s a dud. 

Ginger

Don’t Know

The only thing I’ve found to support this was an in vivo study, meaning it was all done in Petri dishes. It seems to help oesophagal (throat) muscles relax. This, of course, is far from proving anything in humans. 

But ginger is soothing to the throat if you’ve got some irritation going on. So if you have a persistent cough or irritation of some sort, put some in your tea with honey. It’s probably not going to protect you from pollution, but it’ll feel nice for sure. 

Magnesium 

True for some

Magnesium is a vasodilator (it helps blood vessels relax and open up), a bronchodilator (it helps bronchioles in your lungs to open). It does this by regulating the release of acetylcholine (a chemical that neurotransmitters use to activate muscles) and histamine (an organic compound and a neurotransmitter that regulates inflammation as an immune response and itching) and acts as an anti-inflammatory agent. 

In human words, it’s crucial for people who have asthma, COPD and cystic fibrosis. It can help the body control immune responses and lower the symptoms of these diseases. However, its role in healthy people’s lungs in terms of fighting pollution is not clear. 

To summarise

This forward honestly surprised me, pleasantly. It seems there is some decent science behind some of these claims. Just note that most of the studies I’ve found for this have been somewhat preliminary and small so things may change a bit as more research is done. 

The honey and jaggery can certainly soothe the throat, if nothing else, as is the case with ginger and tulsi (Holy Basil). They had no credible science that I could find to back them up. But they’re pretty harmless, so if you want to add some to your tea, go for it. My favourite concoction that my mother and wife make is black tea with honey and ginger in it. Warm, delicious, and so very soothing. Even chicken soup comes second to that. 

Can air purifiers also help? 

All this got me thinking about air purifiers because that’s my primary weapon against pollution. 

Unfortunately, I haven’t managed to find much research on the topic. There was a small study that was done in the US that has shown air purifiers with HEPA filters can reduce particulate pollution dramatically inside homes, giving relief to people with respiratory illnesses and asthma. Other than that, there’s nothing more that I could find about the effectiveness of air purifiers in polluted cities. 

One word of caution though: avoid air purifiers that try to ionise the air or use ultraviolet light. These could lead to the creation of ozone, a molecule having three oxygen atoms. This can be an irritant for your skin and lungs.

Air purifiers do have a logical link to working though since they minimise our exposure to pollution. So, I have put one in my room, my parent’s room and both the family cars so that we can cut down on how much pollution we breathe through the day. The next step is to boost my fruits and veggies intake. That seems a bit harder, to be honest, but it must be done!

Conclusion

I started cynically thinking this was another message filled with nonsense like most other Whatsapp messages tend to be.  I’m glad I’ve been proven wrong to a great extent. I’ve also been checked for my views on air purifiers. This happened to me just last week when I was writing about the Vape ban too. I guess it’s a trend. But I don’t mind. I’m not the kind of person who will stubbornly maintain the narrative at all costs, regardless of the evidence. The truth is more important than my pride. 

The bottom line is, you should add these foods, along with a lot more fruits and vegetables, to your diet because nutrition makes our bodies stronger and more capable of fighting the ill effects of our environment, like India’s pollution. Their nutrients helps your body function at its peak by keeping the immune system strong, repairing damaged tissue, lowering inflammatory responses and so much more. Just eat your veggies. And take all the other precautions too like wearing a mask, using air purifiers or just heading to the hills. And use every method you have to push politicians to find solutions to the stubble burning of farms. We’ve had enough.

So what are your favourite potions or methods to save yourself from pollution, other than heading to cleaner pastures? Let me know in the comments or by writing in. I’d love to hear from you. 

Until next time, stay healthy and be rationable! 

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