What helps boost immunity? 5 dietary tips to help strengthen your body!
We often think about boosting our immunity during the autumn and winter season, when the first autumn infections start to make their presence felt. However, it is worth taking care of a strong and disease-resistant body all year round. Although immunity depends partly on our genes, our lifestyle, especially what we eat, also has a major impact on it. Yes, diet plays a very important role in strengthening the body. So how can we boost our immunity? What choices should we make to enjoy greater resistance to diseases?
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What helps immunity? Above all, a balanced and healthy diet!
This may worry some, but we won't find a recipe for better immunity in the pharmacy. We can use supplements and look for magic preparations, but it will be useless if our diet is inadequate. Food has enormous power and can both support us and harm us. It depends on us what we choose.
What to eat for immunity? 5 proven dietary tips!
We already know that daily diet has a huge impact on immunity. But what exactly should we eat to improve it? See which 5 food groups to eat to strengthen the body.
Include anti-inflammatory products in your diet to boost immunity
The first group of products that support the body's immunity are anti-inflammatory products. They help reduce inflammation or prevent it. What products are these? If you eat healthily and diversely, you surely have plenty of them in your diet - they include fruits and vegetables, which we should eat every day. Both are a very good source of antioxidants. Anti-inflammatory products also include good fats (including essential omega-3 fatty acids, which we will write more about later) and whole-grain products. It is also worth paying attention to foods containing minerals, such as magnesium, and vitamins.
Products with a lower glycemic index and those containing more fiber also have anti-inflammatory properties. It is worth choosing coarse-grain groats, rye bread, oatmeal, or whole-grain pasta. Certain spices, especially ginger and turmeric, are also considered anti-inflammatory.
As you can see, many products that are part of a healthy diet are anti-inflammatory products. It is also worth mentioning pro-inflammatory products that we should avoid. The fewer of them in our diet, the better. These products weaken the body and negatively affect its immunity. We are especially referring to highly processed products, fast food, ready-made meals with poor ingredients, and sweets consisting mainly of sugar and saturated fats.
In Purella's offer, you will find the immunity supershot, which is a ginger drink with added turmeric. The product was created to support immunity. It is a delicious dose of vitamins that is good to have at home. It can be drunk preventively, but also during an infection – it may shorten its duration.
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Drink herbal infusions for immunity
The immune system can also be strengthened with herbs. Herbs are often ingredients in pharmacy preparations that stimulate immunity and help fight infections. This is the case, for example, with elderberry, which we can find in popular syrups. However, the doses of herbs in such preparations are often small, and they also contain other ingredients that are not necessarily beneficial to us, such as various sweeteners. It is therefore much better to opt for infusions made from single herbs or ready-made herbal teas containing several health-promoting ingredients. These herbs are inexpensive, and for some of them, we do not even have to pay, because they grow in our gardens or meadows. They were used by our grandmothers in the past, but now we are forgetting about them more and more often. It is worth returning to them and including them in our daily healthy diet.
We have already mentioned elderberry. It has strengthening and antiviral properties, and its berries contain vitamins such as vitamin C and vitamin B. Dried elder flowers are usually used for infusions. The infusion can be drunk preventively, to strengthen the body, but also during an infection to shorten its duration. Wild rose also contains vitamins B and C and is equally suitable for herbal infusions. Wild rose not only strengthens immunity but also has a number of other health benefits – among others, it works well on the circulatory system and joints.
Other herbs considered to support immunity include, for example, comfrey, ginseng, purple coneflower, and rowanberry. Some of them contain our herbal blends, such as the Superherbs 35 g herbal immunity blend in sachets. It is a dietary supplement that is quick and easy to brew. Drinking such a mix of herbs and fruits regularly can support immunity, and it also tastes great.
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When writing about herbs for immunity, we cannot forget about garlic. Most of us reach for it during an ongoing infection. This is a good step because garlic has antiviral properties, for example against the flu virus. However, it can also be consumed preventively. What often prevents us is its strong smell and taste, but when added to dishes, such as sauces or soups, it can be very tasty. People who cannot stand it can use supplements that contain it.
Eat fruits rich in vitamin C to boost immunity
A lot is said about the role of vitamin C in preventing colds. Sometimes we look for it in the pharmacy and swallow tablets that, besides a small amount of this vitamin, contain a lot of additives. At the same time, we will find large doses of vitamin C in fruits, which should be a permanent part of our daily diet.
Which of them contain the most vitamin C? Besides wild rose, which we have already mentioned, the best source of vitamin C is blackcurrant, which can contain up to 300 mg of this vitamin in 100 grams. Citrus fruits also rank well, especially lemons, oranges, and grapefruits. Among Polish fruits, strawberries, gooseberries, and raspberries also deserve attention. We can look for vitamin C not only in fresh fruits, but also in juices and dried fruits.
Superfoods are also good products for immunity. Peruvian maca Superfood 45g is one of them. It helps with regeneration. We can find it in the Purella store. Maca is not only a healthy but also a tasty addition that will enrich the taste of oatmeal, salad, yogurt, or any dessert. It can also be eaten as a snack.
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Include omega-3 products in your diet to boost immunity
We have already mentioned omega acids and their anti-inflammatory properties. Products containing omega-3 are one of the most important groups of products in our diet. Their best source is, of course, fatty fish. It would be ideal to eat them twice a week, but let's not hide that for many of us this is quite a challenge. Not everyone likes them, and they are also a rather expensive part of the diet. Fortunately, there are other products rich in omega-3 that are a little easier to include in the diet. These are especially walnuts, sold in the Purella store in a convenient 100 g pack of walnuts, and flaxseed.
While many of us like walnuts and eat them regularly, flaxseed is not such a popular product. At the same time, it is a relatively inexpensive and easy-to-include superfood in the diet. We can add ground flaxseed to soup, salad, smoothie, or any dinner dish. It is important to grind it – flaxseed in this form is much better absorbed. It is best to grind it fresh, but it can also be stored ground in the refrigerator for a few days.
Use natural prebiotics to boost immunity
Prebiotics are substances that stimulate the development of normal intestinal flora. And as we know – immunity has its source in the intestines. We can consume them in the form of supplements, but prebiotics are also found in food. They are naturally found in over 36,000 products of plant origin. Chicory root is a rich source of them, but also garlic, artichokes, asparagus, leek, or bananas.
It is worth including baobab in the diet, which is rich in calcium. Superfood baobab powder 21g can be added to baked goods, oatmeal, smoothies, or salads. It is a simple way to enrich any meal. Baobab also contains vitamin C, which helps the immune system function properly.
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Children's immunity
And what about immunity for children? As we know, they catch colds most easily, and we take special care of their health. All the above tips can also be applied to children, because strengthening their immunity depends largely on diet. Therefore, fruits with vitamin C, products rich in omega-3, prebiotics, anti-inflammatory products, or herbal infusions will be important. It is worth making sure that children eat unprocessed products, free from artificial additives and sugar. It is equally important to ensure variety, because this way it is easier to provide the body with all the necessary ingredients. In the purella.pl store, you can find snacks supporting immunity for children and adults. These include goji berries, black cumin, or children's favorite oatmeal with toppings.
We already know what helps immunity and how to wisely support the body. Let's remember that the process of building immunity will not take a week or a month. We should take care of the body all year round and permanently introduce healthy habits into our lives. The products we wrote about are not only healthy but also tasty. An anti-inflammatory diet containing vitamin C, prebiotics, and omega-3 acids affects immunity, but it also has many other health benefits.
Bibliography
Małgorzata Kwiecień, Anna Winiarska-Mieczan, Garlic as a herb shaping health-promoting properties, in: Probl. Hig. Epidemiol., 2011, 92 (4).
Trends in human nutrition, ed. Małgorzata Karwowska and Waldemar Gustaw, Kraków 2015.
Ewa Chlebda-Sieragowska1, Monika Skrzypiec-Spring1,2, Adam Szeląg1, The role of herbal preparations in the prevention of infections in athletes, in: Strzelectwo sportowe (Nowoczesne rozwiązania szkoleniowe), z. 9, Wrocław 2012.
Katarzyna Mojka, Probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics – characteristics and functions, in: Probl. Hig. Epidemiol., 2014, 95 (3).
Katarzyna Socha et al., Assessment of zinc content in herbal dietary supplements, in: Bromat. Chem. Toksykol., XLV, 2012, 3.
Public health threats. Part 2. Human health and the environment, ed. Andrzej Denys, Warszawa 2015.
