Best Immune Boosting foods
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No one likes to be sick, and one of the best ways to avoid this is to make sure our body is running in tip top shape. Making sure you keep your immune system strong can help you avoid getting sick, or get you back to your old self faster. Here are some of the best foods to keep you healthy all winter, and help your body become a disease fighting powerhouse:
Oats and barley:
We don’t usually look at our morning meal as immune boosting – but these grains found in our warm cereal contain beta-glucan. This fiber has both antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, helping to boost immunity and promote healing.
Nuts:
Nuts have a healthy helping of Vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant. Besides vitamin E to help boost the immune system. And they have riboflavin and niacin, B vitamins that may help you bounce back from the effects of stress.
Yogurt:
Probiotics found in yogurt, are good bacteria that keep the gut and intestines healthy. Research has found that yogurt, owing to these probiotics, stimulated the production of white blood cells, fending off colds.
Cinnamon:
This versatile spice also happens to be a known antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial powerhouse. That means cinnamon not only strengthens the immune system but fights off all the critters that cause illness. It is also one of the easiest things to add to your diet, whether it be in your coffee, oatmeal, or after dinner dessert.
Citrus Fruits:
Vitamin C isn’t the only thing these fruits have to offer. While grapefruits, oranges, and tangerines are teeming with this great immune enhancing vitamin – Vitamin C is not their only benefit. These fruits are also packed with flavonoids, natural chemical compounds that stimulate the immune system.
Garlic:
Garlic contains compounds that increase the activity of immune-system cells. The active infection and bacteria fighting ingredient in garlic is allicin, which can fend off bacteria like H. pylori.
Zinc:
This mineral works to help to strengthen the immune system and in fact, immune cells like white blood cells NEED zinc to function. The most well-known place to get zinc is unquestionably oysters, which are rich in the mineral. However, it’s not the ONLY place. Meats like calf’s liver, beef and lamb, are also abundant in zinc.