The Best Ways to Keep From Getting Sick This Season
By Barb Biagiolli
Between the holidays, fewer hours of daylight and cold weather - we’re right in the middle of sickness season. These seasonal factors genuinely affect our health. The increase in sugar consumption, lack of vitamin D and fresh air, compromised sleep and poor food choices can make it difficult for your body to fight off invading illness.
There are wonderful foods, spices and teas that you can include in your daily regimen, that will boost your immune system and optimize your body’s natural defense against bacteria and viruses that are circulating at any time of year. To see how vulnerable you are to illness, let’s take a quick look at your lifestyle.
Are you run down?
Are you constantly living on-the-go?
Are the majority of your days riddled with extreme stress?
Are you getting enough quality sleep?
Are you eating quality, nutrient-rich foods?
The way you spend your days, the food you eat and the sleep you get (or don’t get) have major impacts on your body’s ability to ward off viruses, bacteria and impending infections. So let’s talk about how you can give your body the defense it needs to fight off sickness.
Choose Healthy Foods
Your diet greatly influences your immune system's ability to do its job. If you are consuming a diet high in sugar and high in processed foods, your immune system will suffer. When you consume plant-based foods, your immune system thrives - plant-based foods are anti-inflammatory and loaded with vitamins and minerals. But beyond just eating well overall, if you want to avoid getting sick, it’s important to prioritize your gut health.
A healthy interaction between your immune system and the gut microbiota is crucial for the maintenance of your body's homeostasis and health. Imbalances in gut microbiota may cause dysregulation of your immune responses and lead to the development of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune dysfunctions. So let’s dig a little deeper into the relationship between your immune system and your gut health.
The Immune System + The Gut
The intestinal wall of your gut is maintained by your immune system and acts as a barrier to foreign invaders, like bacteria and viruses. Your gut lining is home to millions (maybe even trillions) of good gut bacteria, that fight off bad bacteria and create homeostasis in the gut. The integrity of this intestinal barrier is fundamental for human health - when the gut lining or intestinal wall becomes damaged by exposure to free radicals and an influx of foreign invaders, the permeability of the gut leads to "leaky gut" syndrome, compromises your immune system health and results in chronic inflammation.
The short of it - a compromised gut lining causes major health issues. Leaky gut, candida overgrowth, autoimmune conditions and chronic illness are a result of a poor diet that is high in inflammatory foods. The microbes (good bacteria) that live in your gut get their nutrients from your diet. Your diet has a direct correlation on the function of your immune system - when you support the microbiota in your gut, and subsequently your immune system, with a diet that is rich in vitamins and nutrients you promote gut homeostasis. You’re also supporting a properly functioning immune system that is not burdened by bad bacteria and overloaded by toxins.
A modern standard American diet (SAD) or a diet of the Western pattern diet (WPD) is associated with a weakened immune system and characterized by the consumption of heavy, highly inflammatory foods, including large quantities of animal-based foods, animal derived saturated fats, sugars, processed foods, artificial ingredients, and salt, It’s also, typically, a diet that is low in plant-derived fibers which are positively associated with a healthy gut microbiome and optimally functioning immune system.
A plant-based diet of whole, real foods - vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains - can strengthen the immune system. Consuming a diet that is full of plant-based foods, boosts T cells. Healthy T cells are vital to the immune system because they are responsible for eradicating cancer cells, scanning the body for foreign germs and pathogens, destroying infected cells, activating additional immune cells, and keeping a database for germs that they’ve encountered across decades. They are also important for immune responses that include allergic reactions, autoimmune diseases, and organ transplant rejection.
When you consume a predominantly plant-forward diet, your intake of carotenoids and flavonoids increases. Why is this important? Increasing your intake of foods that contain carotenoids and flavonoids boosts your immune health and T cell health, because these antioxidants have antiviral, antibacterial properties and work systematically to protect the immune system.
Power Up with Immune Boosting Plants
Foods that are inherently high in antioxidants are anti-inflammatory and subsequently, immune boosting foods too. Foods that are high in these antioxidants are colorful - spanning the shades of the rainbow, work to include more of these plant foods on your plate this season:
MORE HELPFUL TIPS TO PREVENT SICKNESS
Beyond being more thoughtful about your diet, there are several other ways you can help your body fight off illness. Here are a few more tips to help you stay healthy.
Get The Right Amount of Sleep
You can eat the "perfect diet" but without proper sleep, your body has to work exponentially harder to sustain health, regenerate cells, and manage stress. Proper sleep promotes healthy digestion and improves immune system health.
Minimize Stress
Stress puts pressure on your immune system, overtaxing the body's ability to ward off illness and heal. If you are overworked, overtired, and anxious, you will have a more difficult time preventing illness and healing when sick.
Move More
Movement is crucial for mental health, not for body image. Exercising is also crucial for detoxing your body of invading pathogens - when you sweat you utilize your detox pathways to remove viruses and bacteria from the body.
No matter how you currently choose to feed yourself and your family, prioritizing nourishing and nutrient-dense foods will promote a happier and healthier home and improve everyone’s general well-being. Focusing on foods, spices and herbs with anti-inflammatory and immune boosting properties, while simultaneously reducing stress, increasing movement and sleeping well, will help reduce your risk of acquiring cold and flu viruses this season. Eating a plethora of plant foods will encourage physical strength, restful sleep, reduced anxiety and depression, healthy digestion, strong immune systems and ideal microbiomes. With the right choices, you don't have to get sick this winter!
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