How to boost your immunity to colds and flu


  As cold and flu season begins it seems that every place you go someone is sneezing! How can you boost your immunity so that you can stay healthy this fall and winter? Getting sick is not only unpleasant, but inconvenient, and  zaps your energy level too.

   If you have kids, you know how hard it is to avoid catching germs from those little slimy hands – they are like sponges! On average, school-age kids in America experience eight to ten colds a year? If you have two children, and the average cold lasts for ten days, and each parent gets half of their colds. That’s (8+8+4+4) x 10=240 days of someone possibly being sick in your household –more than half the year!

   Fortunately, there are some easy ways to strengthen your immune system by adding some common yet nutritious foods to your diet. They have high immunity-boosting nutrients (e.g. vitamins A, B, and C, zinc), anti-viral and/or anti-bacterial properties:

   1. Yogurt or Kefir (ideally plain as added sugar can suppress immunity) – probiotics help strengthen immune system.

   2.  Pumpkin seeds – high in zinc and omega-3, both essential for a healthy immune system.

   3.  Cold water fish – good source of protein and omega-3.

   4.  Fresh fruits and vegetables, especially carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, apples – they are rich in beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A.

   5.  Ground seeds, lentils, beans and whole grains – good source of B vitamins and protein.

   6.  Ginger – has anti-viral properties.

   7.  Garlic – has anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties.

   8.  Honey (raw) –has anti-viral properties.

   9.  Green tea –has anti-viral properties.

  10. Mushrooms (maitake, reishi, shiitake) – elevate flu-fighting agents.

  11. Avoid sugar and alcohol, both of which can weaken your immune system.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What are the best consumer review sites

Image
When it comes to making buying decisions, the typical consumer faces a dizzying array of choices. Starting with advertising, which floods the airwaves and internet, we can be bombarded by hundreds of messages each day.  In self defense, we do our best to ignore most of them. One way to get information of course, is through our social networks, where we can discuss our needs among friends and family. Besides the obvious social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, there are also neighborhood list serves and groups where you can ask questions and share information. Now that Google and other search engines have skewed their searches to favor advertisers, it can take a bit longer to dig through all the clutter and find what we want. When I recently went searching, I looked at a number of the top-ranked sites out there for consumer research. The list is not exhaustive. My for ranking would be overall usefulness and benefit to the user. As I practice mindfulness, I le
Read more

Coconut oil is a plus

Image
The average coconut isn’t much to look at. But hidden inside its unassuming exterior is a powerful force for good health:  coconut oil . Although it’s a saturated fat, current scientific research finds saturated fats are a vital nutrient that’s essential for life. Our cell membranes even need these types of fatty acids to function properly. And recent research suggests that the medium-chain triacylglycerols (MCTs) that make up coconut oil may have wide-ranging health benefits. Here are a few of them: MCTs Fight Fat with Fat The way our bodies process the MCTs in coconut oil reduces the opportunity for those fats to deposit into our existing fatty tissues. And it gets even better. Consuming MCTs from coconut oil has been shown to increase metabolism by turning up our bodies’ thermostats in a process called thermogenesis. When we produce more heat, our bodies utilize more energy.  Increases in thermogenesis and metabolism mean our bodies burn more fuel—fat. And coconut oil
Read more

Sweet potatoes and weight loss

Image
Sweet potatoes can be part of your low carb diet plan. They are relatively low in carbs, as 100 g of sweet potatoes have 20 g, about 7% of the daily requirement, and 4 gr of sugar. Plus they are an excellent source of vitamin A, as well as potassium, vitamin B6, and iron. Carbs are an essential macronutrient that get a bad rap. A diet that is too high in carbs, especially the unhealthy type of carbs found in sugar and junk food, is a leading cause of obesity, type 2 diabetes and other unhealthy conditions. But we need some carbs as they give us energy. So taking stock of which carbs to eat helps to burn off more body fat than you ever have before while giving you the energy you need to accomplish what you want in this life. Not all carbs are created equal, though, or are ideal in every setting, but sweet potatoes are healthy carbs because they may not spike your blood sugar as white potatoes do. But they will satisfy your desire for starchy carbs. Sweet potatoes are a healthy alt
Read more