(LifeScript Health News) Flu season may not be the best time to start a diet. Calorie-restriction makes it harder for your body to fight the flu virus, says a study published in the Journal of Nutrition.
Mice on a lower-calorie diet were not able to produce the number of cells necessary to fight the flu infection even though they received adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals, researchers at Michigan State University found. They also took longer to recover, lost more weight and suffered from other symptoms of poor health.
Even if you got a flu shot, you may want to hold off on dieting because the vaccine doesn’t protect against all strains. But researchers noted that the study findings should not be an excuse to avoid dieting year-round, but to reserve calorie-cutting until after flu season.
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