Our bodies have several mechanisms in which they fight colds and flus.  The first line of defense are the physical barriers such as our skin, tears and mucosal lining in our nose, mouth, and gastrointestinal tract.  Once a virus or bacteria has entered our body we use our immune cells to identify a pathogen and produce antibodies to fight and destroy them as well as to help recognize them in the future.

There are several foods that help boost our immune function.

Sweet potatoes, carrots and winter squash are rich in beta-carotene, a potent antioxidant that protects our cells from oxidative damage.  Beta-carotene can also help increase white blood cell productions and the production of natural killer cells.

Eating Sweet Potatoes: Homemade sweet potato fries baked in the oven or air fryer.  Roasted with other vegetables such as beets, fennel, carrots and squash.  Pureed into soup or mashed and topped with pecans.  Add them to a curry or toss leftovers onto an arugula salad with dried cranberries and goat cheese.

Brazil Nuts are excellent sources of selenium, a potent antioxidant and an essential mineral in our fight against pathogens.  Just one nut offers more selenium than you need in a day. 

Eating Brazil Nuts:  Eat them as a snack, chop them and toss on a salad or hot cereal.  Just don’t eat more than 4 at a time or you will get too much selenium.

Oysters are rich in zinc and Vitamin B12, both important for immune function.  Zinc works with interferon to prevent viral replication.  Vitamin B12 deficiency can suppress the activity of natural killer cells, white blood cells that help kill virus infected cells.

Eating Oysters: Oysters are fabulous raw with a squeeze of lemon but can also be eaten from the tin.  Spread them on toast or add them to vegetable soup.  If you don’t like oysters, yogurt, beef and pumpkin seeds are also good sources of zinc.

Bell Peppers are one of the best sources of Vitamin C.  Vitamin C helps to stimulate the production and activity of immune cells.

Eating Bell Peppers:  Peppers are delicious raw as a cut veggie or on salad but are also delicious on pizza, in stir fry or pasta sauce. 

Canned salmon is the best dietary source of vitamin D.  Vitamin D is known to boost immune cell’s production of microbe-fighting proteins.  Vitamin D may also help guard against the flu.  It’s hard to get enough vitamin D through food so take a supplement of at least 600-1000IU per day.

Eating Canned Salmon: Toss it in a macaroni casserole, have it in place of deli meat in a sandwich, put it in a wrap with cabbage or kale or add it to a frittata.

Kefir is a good source of probiotics.  Eating probiotic foods like yogurt and kefir can help create a healthy environment for our natural bacterial flora.  Eating pre-biotic foods, foods that contain fibre which act as a fuel for our gut bacteria, can also help support a healthy digestive tract and immune response.  These foods include asparagus, garlic, onion, leeks and Jerusalem artichoke.

Eating Kefir: use it in place of yogurt in smoothies, on top of museli or in salad dressings and dips.