How To Consume Foods For Boosting Your Immunity?

Do you want to fight infections this winter? You can boost your immune system by changing foods in your diet into consuming more nutrients.

How To Consume Foods For Boosting Your Immunity?

Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging of Tufts University’s nutritional immunology’s leader and senior scientist, Dr. Simin Meydani says that the food we consume affects our immune system’s response to pathogens.

Meydani said that micronutrients like Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Vitamin B complex selenium, and zinc boost the defenses of the body against flu, cold, and even Covid 19. But you cannot boost your immune system by consuming large amounts of a single food.

Christopher Gardner, a nutrition scientist of Stanford School of Medicine says that we should forget the concept of superfoods. A number of foods are required to get enough micronutrients in our body to form a robust immune system.

Gardner said that we cannot rely on anyone’s food. There should be an interplay of various micronutrients.

You should plan your daily diet around multiple colorful and fresh green, orange, yellow, blue and red fruits and vegetables, along with whole grains, healthy oil and lean proteins.

Grains and plants are also included in the DASH and top-rated Mediterranean diet. They help in preventing hypertension and high blood pressure. Both the DASH and Mediterranean diet doesn’t include processed foods and emphasize lentils, fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, seeds and nuts.

Following a Mediterranean diet can prevent dementia, high cholesterol, breast cancer, depression and memory loss. These meals have been linked with longer life, healthier heart and stronger bones along with helping lose weight.

Meydani says that how much immunity the nutrients will provide will depend on overall health, age and stress levels.

In addition to eating healthy, it is equally important to have a healthy weight, get quality sleep, get regular exercise and reduce your stress and keep your body in shape to fight. Without all this, your body might lose the match.

True Health Initiative’s President and founder Dr. David Katz say that The best way to combat acute covid 19 is chronically good health. It is a nonprofit organization that promotes an evidence-based lifestyle.

If you want maximum benefits on your immune system from the food you consume, you need to increase the intake of vegetables and fruit dramatically, advises Meydani.

She and her team studied responses of the immune system in animals Who were fed 2 to 3 servings of vegetables and fruits per day and compared their responses to those who consume twice to thrice as much.

She said that they saw the best effect on animals who consume thrice as much. So they concluded that it wasn’t about increasing the amount little by little but increasing it substantially. It is important to work to reach that level.

Finding ways to insert vegetables and foods into your snacks and meal every day helps pump up your immunity. A study carried out in 2017 found that by eating ten portions of vegetables and fruits each day, there was a significant reduction in the risk of stroke, heart attack, cancer and premature death.

The dietary guidelines at present in the United States recommend that it is important to consume at least 2.5 cups of vegetables and 2 cups of fruits every day. The US Department of Agriculture survey says that an average person in the United States consumes only 1.4 cups of vegetables and 0.9 cups of fruits per day.

It is not just about the people of the United States. 1 in 5 deaths around the world, which is around 11 million people globally, happened because of a lack of seeds, nuts, whole grains and too much sodium.