Immune-Supportive Foods for a Healthy Lifestyle

Building immune-supportive foods into your meal pattern increases your health span, and it makes sense to do so as a part of a healthy lifestyle.

Introduction

Starting your week by questioning if you have enough energy to complete all your daily activities and no longer let your body decide how much you are able to do is essential. Compromising your health is something that many of us are guilty of in the workplace. High levels of stress are the result of taking on too many tasks. I am here to remind you that your obligations do not need to pause while you recover.

Of course, looking for a quick resolution tends to happen when you’re already showing symptoms for a cold. Enhancing your immunity isn’t the addition of a new drink or ingredient to your diet. Although your immunity is a complex system, it relies on consistency. Many lifestyle choices work in conjunction to promote optimum immunity and offer resistance to illnesses.

Creating a diet rich in immune supportive foods requires consistency. The key is variety because there are many simple, common grocery store ingredients that can greatly aid in supporting healthy immunity.

What Are Foods That Support the Immune System?

There is no such thing as a “quick fix” immune system food. The complex nature of the immunity system isn’t something a food can activate or adjust.

These foods are better understood as the different nutrient sources that support the typical functions of the immune system. Fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds, whole grains, dairy, eggs, and fish, are some of the most recognized sources. The vitamins, minerals and proteins, as well as fiber, help support overall health. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements suggests that certain vitamins and minerals, like several of the because of vitamin A, C, D, E, zinc and selenium, impact the immune system and can lead to immune dysfunction.

If you are eating a mix of oranges, bell peppers, spinach, beans, grains, nuts, and yogurt daily, you are not eating these every day to prevent the common cold. You are eating a wide variety of nutrient sources to support your body in a small, consistent way. A single large dose of, for example, one of these foods after the start of an infection will do little to nothing to help the immune system. The best way to support the body is to eat regularly and more variety.

Everyday Influences on the Body’s Defenses

Your immune system is not an independent system in your body. Food is only one of the many considerations.

Poor sleep disrupts healthy immune function. While you sleep, many other biological processes take place, including immune-related functions. The National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute has stated that chronic lack of sleep in approach 2/3 of the adult U.S. population, increases a person’s susceptibility to the common cold. A balanced lifestyle becomes unbalanced and is not sustainable by shortened sleep and a healthy dinner. While you build a bedtime routine, you have to at least defend sleep consistency, especially if you have other time constraints.

A limited diet creates gaps in nutrition. Continuously eating the same foods makes it challenging to consume a variety of nutrients. For example, someone who has a diet lacking in fruits and vegetables, has a Vitamin C deficiency. Nutrient deficiencies can easily be created when whole or multiple food groups are entirely eliminated. Consuming a variety of foods can be done by switching foods and eliminating redundancy in each meal. For example, one meal can consist of breakfast with berries and yogurt, lunch with lentils and vegetables, and dinner with fish or beans along with whole grains.

Crowding out better choices is where highly processed foods start to cause damage. There is no need to eliminate processed foods. It’s bad when it consistently replaces better choices. It is helpful to think of what you want to add to your meals instead of what you want to take away. Adding beans to your meals, serving a side of vegetables, and snacking on fruit and nuts instead of chips are all easy and effective ways to create sustainable healthy changes to your diet.

The long term impacts of stress along with inactivity are drainers of overall health. A stressful week is not a health problem. It becomes a problem when it is combined with chronic inactivity, poor nutrition, and a lack of quality sleep. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported that the combination of healthy diet, physical activity, adequate sleep, and stress management determine overall health. Walking and other active hobbies and activities count as exercise, so even if you sit for your entire workday, taking frequent breaks to walk throughout the day is a good starting point for creating an active lifestyle.

Even if there is no miracle everyday food that guards against infections completely, there are many everyday foods which contain nutrients that are important for the functioning of the immune system. Focusing on one food to the exclusion of many others is not ideal, but a range of different foodstuffs across a week is a good approach.

Everyday Foods That Support Immune Function

1. Citrus Fruits for Vitamin C

Oranges, grapefruit, lemons, and limes are all good sources of vitamin C. Citrus fruits aid in iron absorption and collagen production. If you are looking to add fiber to your diet look no further than a whole citrus fruit. Fiber is crucial for aiding digestion. Add some citrus to your meal! Squeeze some lemons over salad and lentils or add some orange segments in the morning and a tangerine for a snack. Vitamin C overdosing is a myth. A good starting place for your nutrition should always be from real food.

2. Bell Peppers for More Vitamin C

Bell peppers and citrus are comparable sources of vitamin C. Bell peppers make for more interesting dishes as there are some prep-free ways to incorporate more into your meals. Slice some peppers and add to your sandwiches, salads, and stir-fries. Set aside some to cook with eggs in the morning. Different color peppers have different vitamin and nutrient ratios, but all are good sources.

3. Leafy Greens Such as Spinach

Leafy greens like spinach have multiple vitamins and beneficial plant compounds. Greens are better thought of as one component of your diet rather than a full cure-all. Easy ways to sneak greens into your diet is smoothies and cooking. All greens, no matter the type, are always beneficial to incorporate.

4. Yogurt With Live Cultures

Yogurt can have all the protein and calcium that you need. Live microorganisms can be in yogurt too! While the gut-immune connection is being researched, saying that a specific yogurt can improve your immunity is a stretch, more precisely a balanced diet containing yogurt is a nutritious part of your diet. Check the labels for added sugars, and a yogurt containing berries makes for a great breakfast along with some oats and nuts! Fortified, non-dairy alternatives are great for people who are lactose intolerant.

5. Almonds and Other Nuts

Nuts in general have tons of healthy fats, protein, fiber, and micronutrients, especially vitamin E which is in almonds. A small to moderate handful is a great snack and chopped nuts can be a great topping on oatmeal, yogurt, or salads!

6. Beans and Lentils

Beans and chickpeas have tons of protein and fiber as well as minerals like zinc and iron. Lentils are super affordable and can be made into tons of dishes like soups, curries, and grain bowls. A bowl of lentils with brown rice, spinach and bell peppers is great because it has a lot of different nutrients compared to adding one “immune boosting” food.

7. Garlic as a Flavorful Addition

Can’t say for sure that there’s tons of research on garlic, but using it to flavor your food versus thinking that garlic stops you from getting sick is definitely a fact.

8. Adding Flavor and Variety With Ginger

Healthy meals and drinks get a boost of flavor and an added je ne sais quoi with freshly grated ginger. Ginger is wonderful in a variety of dishes, including soups, stir-frys, and hot drinks mixed with lemon. Although ginger has been studied for its potential health effects, it is not a substitute for treatment for infection, and its real value is simply as a flavor enhancer and a bit of versatility.

9. Mineral-Rich Zinc Foods

Zinc has many functions of the normal human immune system. Rather than fixating on a single zinc-rich food, a variety of foods should be included, i.e., meat, seafood, dairy, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. This matters especially in a restricted diet, when a single food group is eliminated and a new source for those nutrients must be found.

Building Balanced Meals With Immune-Supportive Foods

An easy way to improve your diet is learning how to combine foods. This counts for a good lunch (lentils, brown rice, spinach, roasted peppers, and yogurt) or dinner (grilled fish, potatoes, broccoli, salad). Breakfast can be as simple as yogurt with berries and oats and almonds. None of these meals relies on a single ingredient, but they have variety. A good approach from the NIH is to eat multiple servings of different foods, like fruits, vegetables, grains, seafood, meat, nuts, seeds, and legumes, etc. rather than buying the same juice every day or a chore of multiple supplements.

Expert Tips for Maximizing Your Diet

Look at your diet over a week as a whole, rather than a single day. A less healthy lunch on a packed Tuesday doesn’t break the diet. A pattern of healthy lunches over a week is more important than one individual lunch.

Having healthy food available is the first step in having a healthy diet. Wash all the fruit you bought as soon as you get home. Keep nuts available. Prep veggies for the week. Cook a batch of kidney beans or chickpeas to use throughout the week.

Frozen foods keep for a long time, so it’s better to buy food that is frozen if fresh food is out of season or opens up the risk of spoiling. Also, supplements can have their use, but they should never replace the variety of food in your diet.

Examples of Bad Practices

Searching for Miracles in Single Foods

An overall nutritious diet is what matters, not replacing single foods.

Megadoses of Supplements

More is not always better with supplements. The balance of some nutrients can cause health problems.

Ignoring Protein

When it comes to protein, don’t forget to include some in every meal, unlike other nutrients.

Maintaining a Sick Diet

A good diet should be practiced every day, not only when symptoms occur.

Substitution of Fruit Drinks

Don’t be fooled by a fruit-flavored drink, as it contains none of the nutrients of an actual fruit.

Restriction Diets

An unnecessarily restrictive diet can waste nutritional value. Restricting major food groups for no good reason creates nutritional voids.

Forgetting Sleep and Activity

Food is just one part of the equation. It needs to be combined with sleep, activity, and stress management.

Immune-Supportive Diet Analysis

Pros

• Inclusive of a variety of foods and more balanced meals.
• Easy to maintain and affordable.
• Easily incorporated into different styles of eating including vegetarian, vegan.
• Includes a strong focus on all aspects of everyday healthy eating.

Cons

• Requires consistency, since one meal can not build a healthy pattern.
• Food can’t fully protect you from getting all illnesses.
• Different food preferences need to be taken into account due to allergies or health conditions.
• Decisions on supplements are made confusing.
• More planning is required for preparing whole foods than buying convenience foods.

Frequently Asked Questions About Immune-Supportive Foods

What Foods Can Help Boost My Immune System?

Variety and balance of foods in your diet is more important than any “superfood.” Most foods that may help include fruits, leafy veggies, citrus, legumes, nuts, whole grains, eggs, seafood, and yogurt.

Can I Avoid Catching a Cold With Certain Foods?

No food can prevent you from catching a cold. Eating well is certainly important to supporting normal immune system function, however many other factors may come into play, such as overall health, age, stress levels, sleep, and even exposure to others. It is best to think of healthy eating as part of the overall healthy lifestyle to help avoid illness.

Do Vitamin C Supplements Prevent the Common Cold?

The common cold often leaves your immune system feeling run down and weak. Vitamin C deficiencies are known to cause this, but supplement intake does not keep you from catching a cold. Taking vitamin C every day may help you bounce back quicker because, according to the NIH, it may help alleviate some symptoms, but taking it post-symptoms won’t have a small effect on your recovery. You can get your daily dose through natural sources and some examples include oranges, grapefruit, peppers, kiwifruit, and broccoli.

Are Frozen Fruits and Vegetables Healthy?

Frozen fruits and veggies are, in fact, healthy and convenient options to incorporate into your daily diet, especially when other healthy options are expensive or likely to go bad before consumption. It is most important to incorporate all and various healthy foods daily rather than worrying about whether or not your food source is fresh or frozen.

Is Garlic a Natural Treatment for Infections?

Garlic is not a replacement for antibiotics and should not be treated as a replacement for your first-line defense against pathogens (vaccines). It is safe to say it can ADD flavor to your food and offer some professional health benefits as well.

Can Yogurt Help Support the Immune System?

Yogurt, like other foods and supplements, should not be treatment for, nor a replacement for, a deficient immune system. While yogurt does provide health benefits and protein, it is hard to say it should be your first defense against infections. Microorganisms found in some yogurts like probiotics can also help populate good bacteria and yeast in your gut, but the health claims are specific on a case-by-case basis.

How Much Water Should I Drink to Support My Immune Health?

There’s no specific answer to this. It depends on activity level, body size and climate. Focus more on how thirsty you feel as opposed to keeping track of how much water you drink. Drinking water should not be used to somehow trick your immune system into thinking it needs to work harder.

Is It Better to Take Supplements or Eat Food for Immunity?

Neither option is necessarily better. If your doctor has suggested that you take a supplement for some kind of deficiency, then that is reason enough to choose supplements. However, for the most part, food is always better than supplements.

When I’m Sick, What Should I Eat?

Try to eat and drink things that are easier for you to digest. Things like soups, vegetables, oatmeal, eggs, and fruits. Food will not cure you from your infection, and food should not replace going to get medical care when you are too sick to take care of yourself.

Can a Healthy Diet Keep Me From Getting Sick?

A healthy diet is not a substitute for vaccinations. Immune system function is just one part of the many functions the body needs to stay healthy. There is a big difference between the function of an immune system as it relates to fighting off an infection and as it relates to reducing the symptoms of an infection.

Conclusion

The biggest misconception is that giving your body one “superfood” will give you a super immune system. An individual food will never give you super immune system powers. Your body needs a wide variety of food in order to maintain optimal health. Everything from fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, grains, and more need to be incorporated into your diet in order to help you maintain a healthy immune system.

The best food for a strong immune system isn’t always the most expensive or exotic. Citrus fruits, bell peppers, garlic, spinach, yogurt, and even almonds or ginger, can all be purchased in a regular trip to the grocery store.

The refuge for disease is the body, and food is just one of many factors that contribute to disease resistance and overall health. Good hygiene, getting enough sleep and exercise and stress management are also crucial. Your diet won’t suffer all that much by making one small change today, like adding a serving of fruit to your morning meal, or even putting veggies on your lunch plate. Another simple switch would be to replace an afternoon snack with either unsalted nuts or yogurt. Maintaining good health is just as much about the little changes you make consistently, as the big ones.

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