11 Habits To Boost Your Immunity

Popular website “Eat This Not That” published a list of suggestions to help you build your resistance against coronavirus and other infections. By taking such protective measures, you will improve your chances of staying healthy, and if you do get sick, recovering quickly and completely.

Here are 11 ideas you can use to enhance your immune response and keep yourself as healthy as possible.

1. Stay away from processed foods. Our bodies expect fresh food as fuel, so choose wholesome organic food and avoid excessive sugar, salt and processed foods, like hot dogs, canned foods, margarine and frozen dinners. Eating fruits and vegetables, especially those rich in Vitamin C, can prevent and reduce inflammation, a key component of most illness.
2. Plan your meals and snacks. Provide nutrients your body needs to run and defend itself properly. Fruits and vegetables have vitamins and minerals your body needs to function right. Healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids, which you can get in nuts and seeds, avocados, salmon and sardines, feed your brain and reduce inflammation, while foods high in saturated fats like processed meats and fried foods increase inflammation and diminish immunity. Limit your alcohol intake, and if you tend toward overweight or obesity, work to get your diet under control, as obese people are more susceptible to serious illness and infection.
3. Cook with garlic and onions. Garlic contains allicin, an immune system stimulant that can help you avoid and fight colds. It has natural antibiotic qualities, combatting both viruses and bacteria. Onions give you quercetin, an antioxidant which regulates inflammation, fights viruses and boosts immunity. Onions also have selenium, zinc, sulfur and Vitamin C, making it one of the best foods you can eat to increase your resistance.
4. Increase your Vitamin C. Vitamin C helps you make white blood cells and T lymphocytes, blood cells that fight disease and improve immune function. A powerful antioxidant, it decreases cellular stress and promotes longevity, and may help to prevent some cancers and heart disease.
5. Turn on your natural killer cells. Your body defends itself with special blood cells that act as enforcers in your bloodstream. Food high in beta glucans, like shiitake mushrooms, yeast, seaweed and algae, have natural antiviral properties and activate immune defenses.
6. Don’t forget the greens, especially raw. Spinach and broccoli provide fiber that helps your digestion. They give you vitamins like A. C and D, and antioxidants which facilitate the immune system’s response to fighting and avoiding infection.
7. Your immune system loves Vitamin D. You can increase the amount of Vitamin D in your body by eating more fatty fish, eggs, mushrooms and oysters, and by spending more time outside in the sunshine. It’s great at fighting viral infection and building natural immunity.
8. Take care of your gut. Many people don’t realize that the inside of the digestive tract has friendly microorganisms that we need for our bodies to work properly. They don’t hurt you, they help you digest your food and get rid of waste. Many people benefit from taking a probiotic, live bacteria you can include in your daily diet to help you keep your body working at its best. You can take it in capsule form, or eat fermented foods like sauerkraut or kimchi.
9. Exercise regularly. Consistent physical activity is known to strengthen the immune system and lessen the probability and severity of diabetes, cardiac and lung ailments, and other chronic problems. Increasing respiration clears the airways and helps to prevent colds and flu by producing antibodies and disease-fighting blood cells. A recent study even found that exercising five times each week measurably reduced the risk of upper respiratory infection.
10. Learn and practice meditation. It reduces your stress and moderates your blood pressure and cortisol levels, which makes your body healthier and more functional overall.
11. Get enough sleep. Besides getting enough rest so your body rejuvenates itself, your brain uses sleep time to clean, maintain and heal itself. Plus, while you sleep your immune machinery is on the job, fighting invaders and learning how to fight them more effectively. Be sure to get seven or eight hours each night, to get the best impact on your brain physiology and your immune system.

The more you invest in taking good care of yourself, the less likely you’ll get sick. Develop better health habits – it increases your chances for a healthy, happy life for you and your loved ones.