Foods to help support a healthy Immune System

Filling your diet with lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds and lean proteins will ensure that you are getting essential vitamins and nutrients that help your immune system work effectively. Our diet provides essential nutrients our immune cells need to fight off bacteria and viruses. Eat a colorful diet rich in fresh fruit, fiber, and plant based products. Teach your children to eat a rainbow of foods each day.  Vitamins, anti-oxidants and bacteria are natural ways to maintain this balance.  Vitamins are organic compounds our bodies need in limited amounts.  We get some vitamins only through our diet and bacteria manufacture others in our systems.  Critical vitamins involved in the immune reaction are Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D,  Vitamin E and Zinc. 

VITAMIN C
Shoot for a goal of at least 500 mg of Vitamin every day to help prevent infections with cold and flu viruses.  Rose hip (the fruit of the rose plant) tea, orange juice and fresh fruits like mango are excellent sources of Vitamin C.

VITAMIN A

Orange colored vegetables like pumpkin, acorn and butternut squash, and carrots are rich sources of Vitamin A another key player in the immune system.  Milk and eggs are other great sources.

VITAMIN D

Don’t forget to get some sun to maintain healthy levels of Vitamin D.  Not able to make it out?  Dairy products are fortified with vitamin D.  Green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale also pack a punch of vitamin D and calcium.

ZINC

Order up a salad filled with spinach, pumpkin and squash seeds, chickpeas, and mushrooms to get your daily zinc, another key player in the immune system.  Oysters are fantastic sources of Zinc and just 5 oysters provides your daily dose.  

VITAMIN E

Vitamin E is a natural anti-oxidant, compounds that protect cells from the damaging effects of free radicals, found in nuts, seeds and vegetables oils.  Toss one ounce of sunflowers onto your spinach salad and your halfway towards your goal of 15 mg a day of Vitamin E.   

"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."

In my practice, questions about the relationship between the immune system and food are commonly asked.   I see in the news, grocery stores, and advertisements words like pre-biotic, pro-biotic, and vitamins and claims for improved immune function.  Patients complain about digestive issues, abdominal pain, bloating and possible allergies. Many are concerned about gluten sensitivity, wheat allergy, and foods to increase their immune system.  This month's Nature Reviews in Immunology is dedicated to research talking about "how dietary choices affect immune cells".  More and more research is being done in this area and thought with the eating season of the holidays rapidly approaching it was worth spending a few posts on this fascinating area of research. 

I couldn’t start this topic without a bit of a tribute to Jean Antheleme Brillat-Savarin – a French lawyer, author, and one of the first foodies.  More than any individual, Brillat-Savarin was a proponent in the role of food, digestion, and health.  He had so many wonderful quotes about food, life, and eating, but his adage “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who your are.”  illustrates the important relationship between food and our immune system.  I might modify it to say, tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you what kind of bacteria live within your intestines and how they impact your immune system.

The movement of local farming and farm to table dining illustrates the interest that our society has in the relationship with food and their bodies.  There's an abundance of information out on the Internet and in grocery stores about ways to increase your immune system through food products and improve the health of your intestines.  It's difficult to tell how to navigate the system and what's true. Over the next few weeks we'll start with the basics and move gradually through the topic in the hopes of helping you navigate the system, keep a healthy immune system, and survive the holiday eating push.  

I hope you enjoy!