Nutrition, Mental Resilience, and Infectious Disease Recovery

BOSTON, MA, April 3, 2025 – The Virsa Foundation, through its JIVINITI Research Program and in collaboration with Ipsos, has released findings from The GAIA Study: Connecting the Dots Between Burnout and Nutrition, the largest industry-independent study in the U.S. on COVID-19, diet, and burnout. The study, which surveyed 14,626 Americans—including 2,375 who contracted COVID-19 between January 2020 and September 2021—unveils critical insights into nutrition, burnout, and disease recovery. To learn more about the findings, follow the link here. 

“Burnout isn’t just about stress—it’s a crisis fueled by systemic issues, from poor nutrition to a lack of access to resources that support mental and physical well-being,” said Nivi Jaswal, MBA, NBC-HWC, founder and President of the Virsa Foundation. “These findings highlight how food is a powerful tool for resilience, recovery, and long-term health. To address burnout at its roots, we must rethink how we approach nutrition, health and wellness, and public health as a whole.”

“This analysis doesn’t just tell us who eats what; it reveals the structural inequities that determine who has the privilege of eating for health and who is stuck in a cycle of poor nutrition and burnout,” said Chris Moessner, Senior Vice President at U.S. Ipsos Public Affairs. “These insights help us craft more precise public health strategies, ensuring interventions reach those who need them most.”

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between September 29– October 28, 2021 on behalf of The Virsa Foundation. For this survey, a sample of 7,816 adults age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii, was interviewed online in English using the Ipsos KnowledgePanel©. And additional sample of 6, 810 adults age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii, was interviewed online in English using survey links distributed by select partners to their networks, which was conducted between October 15—November 28, 2021.

The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 1.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.35. The margin of sampling error is higher and varies for results based on other sub-samples. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent.

The survey was conducted using KnowledgePanel, the largest and most well-established online probability-based panel that is representative of the adult US population. Our recruitment process employs a scientifically developed addressed-based sampling methodology using the latest Delivery Sequence File of the USPS – a database with full coverage of all delivery points in the US. Households invited to join the panel are randomly selected from all available households in the U.S. Persons in the sampled households are invited to join and participate in the panel. Our recruitment and sampling methodologies from KnowledgePanel cover all households regardless of their phone or internet status and findings can be reported with a margin of sampling error and projected to the general population.

Weighting:

1. In the first step, design weights (basewt) for all KnowledgePanel (KP) assignees were computed to reflect their selection probabilities.

2. Using basewt as the pre-weight, we weighted all qualified respondents (there were only 2 consented cases who did not complete the survey) to represent the 18+ population.

Benchmarks for all demographic variables, except language proficiency, came from the 2021 Current Population Survey (CPS). The benchmarks for language proficiency came from the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS). The weighting variables are:

• Gender (Male, Female/other) by Age (18-29, 30-44, 45-59, 60+)
• Race-Ethnicity (White Non-Hispanic, Black Non-Hispanic, Other Non-Hispanic, Hispanic, 2+ races Non-Hispanic)
• Education (Less than High School, High School grad, Some College, Bachelor's or Higher)
• Household Income (Under $25K, $25K-<$50K, $50K-<$75K, $75K-<$100K, $100K-<$150K, $150K and Over)
• Language Proficiency (English Proficient Hispanic, Bilingual Hispanic, Spanish Proficient Hispanic, Non-Hispanic)
• Hispanic Origin (Mexican, Not Mexican) • Race (White/other Non-Hisp, AA Non-Hisp, AAPI Non-Hisp, Hispanic) by Age (18-44, 45+) by gender (Male, Female/other)
• Race (White/other Non-Hisp, AA Non-Hisp, AAPI Non-Hisp, Hispanic) by Education (Less than college grad, College grad or higher)
• Race (White/other Non-Hisp, AA Non-Hisp, AAPI Non-Hisp, Hispanic) by Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West)
• Race (White/other Non-Hisp, AA Non-Hisp, AAPI Non-Hisp, Hispanic) by Metro status (non-Metro, Metro)
• Race (White/other Non-Hisp, AA Non-Hisp, AAPI Non-Hisp, Hispanic) by HH income (Under $50K, $50K-<$100K, $100K+)

Partner Sample Convenience oversample of partner contacts who are active in the plant-based diet community, screened for COVID-19 exposure. Ipsos provided an open links for each partner to distribute to contacts on their lists. This part of the study was fielded October 15th to November 28th, 2021. The convenience sample has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points for all respondents.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Christopher Moessner 
Senior Vice President,US 
Public Affairs 
+1 202 420-2025 
[email protected]

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