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This is because viruses, on their own, are inactive and they cannot cause any harm. They become active and are able to reproduce - and cause harm - only when they enter your cells. And the integrity of your cell membrane structure determines whether viruses get into your cells, or they stay out.
Your cell membrane has tiny holes that allow nutrients to enter your cells and also toxins to be dischaged. And one of the main ways through which viruses are able to enter your cells is when these holes become enlarged, or when your cell walls get weakened by other ways.
This might happen, for example, if you:
Of course, viruses can penetrate the cell walls by other means as well. Some, for example, have chemicals that help them break through the cell walls. But when the cells enlarge and the holes in the cell membrane structure expand, that is like having the doors wide open to welcome viruses. You don't want to do that.
Water and your cell membrane structure
Nowadays we are often advised to drink 8 glasses of water a day, or in any case drink lots of water. But as we see in the article on how much water to drink, there is actually no scientific basis for recommending 8 glasses of water a day and the actual needs of people can vary greatly.
And some people may think there is no harm in drinking lots of water because any excess will simply be passed out by the kidneys. But this overworks and stresses the kidneys.
Of greater concern, however, is the fact that when you drink lots of water, your cells will become bloated up, due to the process of osmosis. When you drink plenty of water, the fluids outside your cells will become diluted and this will initiate the process of osmosis and cause your cells to absorb more water.
As a result, your cells become bloated. They become bigger. The tiny holes in your cell membrane structure also become bigger you may just reach a point where viruses can enter.
Note that we are talking about very minute changes here. But then, viruses are very tiny microorganisms, about 1/100th the size of bacteria. So those minute changes can mean all the difference.
Saturated fats and cholesterol
Your cell membrane is made up of primarily saturated fats and cholesterol.
Because of the fear of heart disease, however, people are being advised to minimise their intake of saturated fats and cholesterol. This is one of the big medical mistake of our modern times. My Natural cancer cures website has several articles about the true causes of coronary heart disease, the benefits of cholesterol and the benefits of saturated fats.
Among the many benefits of saturated fats and cholesterdol is that maintain the integrity of your cell membrane structure, making your cell membranes relatively stiff and strong. In contrast, high intake of polyunsaturated fats make your cell membrane soft and flexible - and more vulnarable to virus attack.
Meanwhile, the intake of artificial trans fat distort your cell membrane structure!
Yin foods and your cell membrane structure
In macrobiotics, yin is defined as having "expanding energy" or producing an "expanding effect" while yang is defined as having "contracting energy" or producing a "contract effect".
You can read more about yin and yang here and here.
For now, what is useful to know is that certain strong yin foods will also produce an expanding effect on the cells, causing the cells to expand and the holes in the cell walls to become enlarged. And this will again make you more vulnerable to virus attack!
You will see from this discussion that many of the standard health recommendations, like drink lots of water or avoid saturated fats and cholesterol. tend to weaken your cell membrane structure. Unfortunately, medical science is too obsessed with a few issues, like the mistaken idea that saturated fats and cholesterol are harmful. Doctors do not usually see the big picture. But when you look at the big picture, you will often reach very different conclusions from what they recommend.