How to boost your immune system - #2 Diet

What are you doing to support your immune system during COVID-19 and Influenza season this winter?

As the winter cold and flu season approaches, ways to boost your immune system are amongst the most common questions people are talking about now. Taking preventative steps to strengthen your immune health will always be beneficial for your physical and mental health, now and in the future. If you’re older or have an underlying health condition, taking preventative measures is a great idea. Your overall immune system health may benefit from the following 6 practical actions, which you can easily do right now: 

1. Be active by participating in moderate exercise that you enjoy
2. Eat a nutritious diet
3. Prioritise restful sleep
4. Manage your stress
5. Take supplements for a boost
6. Minimise alcohol and drink in moderation

One of the keys to a healthy immune system is eating right. The gut and immune systems are connected. So, it should come as no surprise that eating healthy leads to a healthy microbiome, which leads to a healthy immune system that can help fight off infection faster. Food is medicine, and can also be your poison! Listen to what your body is telling you – it never lies.

Try:

• Including a “rainbow” of colours into your diet, which is a good way to ensure that you’re getting key vitamins and nutrients in your diet. The more varied your fruit and veggie intake, the better.
• Eating a wide range of fresh produce increases your chances of receiving a variety of nutrients, especially immune-enhancing antioxidant vitamins A and C which fight the free radicals that trigger inflammation and disease in the body.
• Including fermented foods (sauerkraut, miso, yogurt, and kefir) in your diet. These are prebiotic foods that “feed” the good bacteria in your gut.
• Taking a probiotic supplement if you can’t get enough fermented foods into your diet. With 70 percent of our immune system in our gut flora, it flourishes with supplements such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.
• Limiting your intake of processed/junk foods and fried foods, which are inflammatory. Sugar and alcohol add very little in the way of nutrition but instead decrease white blood cell activity.
• Drinking two litres of water daily helps carry oxygen to your body’s cells and helps remove toxins from the body - which can have a positive impact on your immune system. 

Final thoughts

See Covid-19 as a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reset the important things in your life and live the life you have always wanted to! To elevate the importance of your health and well-being. To make it a priority in your life right now. To reconnect with the people who are important to you and you love. To listen to your body as it never lies! To incorporate all the little nurturing and restorative rituals you’ve let go over the years that you used to do for yourself, before you put others before you as life got busier and more stressful.

Remember you still have ultimate control and choice in your life. Difficult times can diminish us. Develop us. Define us. Which do you choose? We believe that in most negatives there’s a positive to be found and we’re sure you will come out stronger than ever before in many ways! We’re all in this together.

Viva la vida (long live life)

Rob & Belinda

Australian Natural Drinks Co.

https://www.naturaldrinks.com.au/