Immune Boosting Foods
What you eat affects the way you look and feel. When you eat you feed not just your tummy but your cells as well, and if you don’t consume enough of certain nutrients- vitamins and minerals regularly from certain immune boosting foods, your body may start to experience problems and you become prone to cold, flu and various other diseases.
So here are some of my favorite immune boosting foods:
Berries– raspberries, elderberries, strawberries, blue berries are all rich in vitamin C, antioxidants, flavonoids and phytochemicals and are usually capable of fighting inflammation as well as blocking flu viruses and killing germs that cause illnesses.
Sunflower Seeds are a good source of Vitamin E that helps fight the cold and flu viruses by producing a type of T cells- white blood cells that help combat the free radicals in the body which cause heart attacks, strokes and various cancers. They are also rich in vitamin C that helps fight illnesses; magnesium that helps relax the nervous system and muscles; zinc to help boost the immune system; small amounts of selenium to fight agents that cause cancer in the body.
Mushrooms in general contain antioxidants, B vitamins and selenium which all help provide a healthy immune system. Chinese Shiitake- Reishi or Maitake mushrooms have long been known to be the medical mushrooms and they’ve been used for more than 6000 years for their immune boosting properties. They contain iron (circulation of oxygen through blood), manganese, selenium, potassium, zinc, magnesium, B vitamins and beta-glucans to help reduce cholesterol, prevent thrombosis- blood clots in your veins, fight flu and even more serious illnesses like HIV and prevent cancer.
Garlic and Onion: Allicin is the essential ingredient of wonderful garlic and it makes it really hard for you to catch a cold and even when you do, you get very light symptoms and recover in a couple of days. Allicin helps make an agent in your body that can fight and actually kill viruses and bacteria. Garlic is like a potent antibiotic with very little side effects, it also contains powerful antioxidants. Regular garlic consumers are also less likely to suffer from stomach and colorectal cancer.
Best way to eat garlic is to cut a couple of garlic cloves into small pieces and swallow them or add them into your meals and chew them if garlic smell is not a big deal for you : ) If you are not that keen on garlic, try its close relative onion which is also wonderful to prevent colds and flu due to its high content of selenium, phytochemicals- quercetin, vitamin C and other nutrients. It also helps detoxify the blood and reduce inflammation.
Brazil Nuts are simply the best source of selenium in nature. 1 ounce of Brazil nuts contain 544 mcg (micrograms) of Selenium. A single nut provides you with heaps more selenium than you need in a day. You use selenium to create T-cells to improve your immune system to help fight harmful viruses and bacteria. But too much selenium can be bad for you, so don’t go around overloading on it.
Too much selenium can be bad for your health; it can cause selenosis, which causes garlic breath, fatigue, nausea, light neurological damage, gastrointestinal disorders. Extreme cases can result in cirrhosis and death.
Other great immune boosting foods include:
Yogurt contains friendly bacteria- probiotics that help keep the tummy and digestive system healthy, fight bacteria like salmonella and viruses and help immune system function much better. So do eat yogurt regularly, every day!
Oysters are best known for being libido boosters- aphrodisiacs due to their high zinc content (also high in iron, calcium and protein). Zinc is also great for healing wounds, helping T cells reproduce faster to fight infections.
Acai Berry is high in anthocyanin antioxidants that gives its dark color and it is often known as a ‘superfood’.
Sweet Potatoes contain lots of beta-carotene antioxidants that your body transforms to vitamin A to help your digestive system and lungs to work effectively.
Ginger helps with nausea, digestion problems and fights stomach inflammation. It is also high in antioxidants which help with the removal of toxins, cleaning of digestive tract and facilitating the blood flow.
Watermelon contains glutathione antioxidants to improve body’s defense mechanisms so it can fight viruses and bacteria.
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