5 Insanely Delicious Ways to Boost your Immunity
When it comes to immunity, there’s the prevention of acquiring a virus, but there’s also the defense mechanism.
Stimulating the immune system to defend you before you get hit by a virus is one thing, but waging war on the virus is part two.
In this post, we’ll dive into the 5 principles I find to be most effective when it comes to boosting strength in the immune system using nutrition.
Immunity: 5 mind-blowing ways to prevent getting sick (the insanely delicious way)
“Aside from these five principles, there are a few other things you need to consider about lifestyle
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Aside from these five principles, there are a few other things you need to consider about lifestyle first. Getting these out of the way will help you more than applying five new tasks to your task list.
The microbiome in your gut is helpful in breaking down fibre into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) to stimulate immune cell activity. Eating a high-fibre diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts and seeds encourages a healthy microbiome. Stress, toxins, and a diet of ultra-processed foods and saturated fat is troublesome for your microbiome. Look after your microbiome and it will look after you!
Reducing the amount of ultra-processed foods, that impair the production of immune cells and antibodies, is key.
Getting adequate sleep restores helpful cytokines, that help to fight infection.
Limit or eliminate environmental toxins.
Maintaining a healthy body composition can lower the risk for inflammation.
Enjoying a plant-based or vegan diet is helpful in supporting an already healthy immune system, and positively impacting a weaker immune system.
Take this a step further and consider that the impact you have on the planet with your diet can influence the state of the world. More meat = more land for agriculture = more fire = less diversity in plants = less clean water = more CO2 in the atmosphere = climate change = an unstable planet to live in. Sorry, I’m not going to sit back and tenderly put this any other way. There is absolutely no denying this truth. A vegan diet is better for you. the animals. the planet. and in turn you again.
5 Immune Boosters
eat colour
Eat colour: A diet rich in a wide variety of colourful veggies and fruits abundant in nutrients, including antioxidants helps to lower inflammation and support immune function.
Aside from the common vitamin C and zinc combo, ensure you’re getting enough B2, B6, folate, vitamin A, selenium, iron and protein are helpful in supporting the growth and function of immune cells.
Vitamin D is also encouraged and in northern climates, supplementing is often the only way to get enough.
This nutritional variety also encourages a more diverse and optimum gut microbiome. Which plays an integral role in producing short-chain fatty acids that stimulate the production and activity of immune cells.
Get out your salad bowl, because you’re going to want to add pretty much every colourful ingredient into that bowl!
2. herbs & spices on everything
Herbs & Spices: Enhancing the immune system with herbs and spices is an easy way to help lower inflammation.
Include spices such as:
turmeric (containing curcumin)
ginger
cumin
chili pepper
black pepper
garlic
onion
oregano
cinnamon
rosemary
thyme
lemon balm
coriander
sage
peppermint
cloves
basil
Spices have been used throughout human history in herbal medicine due to their known benefits in practical implementation.
Herbs and spices have been long used to preserve, flavour, and colour food, along with their innate health-promoting properties:
wound-healing, anti-mutagenic, antiviral, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, antifungal, anti-mutagenic, and even anti-cancer.
3. fibre
Fibre: Feeding your gut microbiome with the fuel it needs (aka prebiotic fibre) to help create an array of compounds essential for health, keeping pathogens at bay, improving your immunity, and encouraging a sense of calm through the gut-brain connection is critical.
As most of us don’t meet the recommended daily intake for fibre (25g for women, 38g for men), a focus on more legumes, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables is no longer a debate. We require fibre from these foods to have a flourishing, but optimal and diverse microbiome and a strong immune system, to name but a few.
4. healthy fats
Healthy fats: Including omega-3-rich fat sources that offer other nutritional benefits (fibre, vitamin E, protein) and opting for PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) over saturated fats helps to lower the risk for cardiovascular disease by lowering inflammation.
The anti-inflammatory properties of Omega-3 fatty acids, found in things like chia seeds help to fight inflammation and preserve a strong immune system.
Chronic inflammation can suppress the immune system, so by addressing inflammation through the inclusion of a healthy plant-rich diet, ensures success for better health and a boosted immune system.
5. fermented plants
Fermented plants: Our immune system is largely contained in the gut. More than 80% of all antibody-secreting plasma cells are found in the gut! Y
our gut has three ways to beat an infection from a pathogen: the microbiome, the lining (epithelial barrier), and its mucosal immune system.
When we introduce antibiotics, stress, pollutants, a low-nutrition diet, get older, or have a genetic predisposition for additional issues, we can compromise our microbiome and thus a weakened immune system.
So, yeah, you have to have the fibre (prebiotics) to nurture your gut microbiome, but including a bit of probiotics is beneficial. This can increase the diversity of gut microbes, alter their genetic expression, and fight off microbes that we don’t want, further strengthening the immune system.
5 Delicious Recipes to Get Your Immune System in Order
Get the recipes!
Eat all the colours fo the rainbow with this amazing salad. Select from the colour palette or your taste palate.
Serve with the Goddess of Herbs Dressing (below), some Apple Sauerkraut (below), and brown rice for a full array of immune-boosting possible plate combinations.
What better way to add in herbs and spices, than taking your chai latte to the herbalism max.
Love this for a night cap after a cold day outdoors.
Sheet pan veggies are so easy to make and always seem to be gobbled up quicker than you’d think. Plan on making a little extra for the next day. Serve with tofu on the side, some quinoa or in a salad. Top with seeds for added fibre and healthy fats.
Green goddesses love their herbs, but they also love a Mediterranean-style diet rich in healthy fats. Opting for avocado oil over butter, or adding nuts to your dressing are great ways to incorporate healthy fats and added benefits of nutrients such as vitamin E to help boost immunity.
No immune-boosting plate would be complete without fermented plants!
If you’re not into sauerkraut, then opt for other fermented foods: yogurt, kefir, miso, kombu. All available in plant-based options.
As always, prevention inside your own body and home is one thing, but leaving the house means the spread of viruses is at work. Vaccines work and can control the spread of disease. Other measures such as hand-washing and masks also help.
We’re in the depths of flu season and seeing the number of people out doing less-than-necessary tasks (strolling around IKEA) while coughing on the rest of us, grab a clue people and stay home! If you’re sick, get out of the mix. One pandemic in our lifetime is plenty, thanks.
Sources
Burgess, L. (2022, June 20). The best foods for boosting your immune system.
Feeling run down? 5 Ways to strengthen your immune system. (2023, September 28). Deliciouslyella.com. https://www.deliciouslyella.com/en-us/blog/feeling-run-down-5-ways-to-strengthen-your-immune-system/
Nutrition and immunity. (2020, May 1). The Nutrition Source. https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/nutrition-and-immunity/
Shoemaker, S., MS, RDN, & LD. (2020, April 1). 9 tips to strengthen your immunity naturally. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-to-boost-immune-health
(N.d.-a). Nih.gov. Retrieved January 8, 2025, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9462539/
(N.d.-b). Nih.gov. Retrieved January 8, 2025, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7815254/
(N.d.-c). Nih.gov. Retrieved January 9, 2025, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8001875/
