Immune Boosting Foods

It’s that time of year!  Cold weather hits and everything from cases of the common cold to the flu start to rise.  But there is a lot you can do to keep you feeling your best all year round!  Some of the easiest ways to keep you feeling your best and working hard is all in your diet! The food you eat is fuel.  Gas for your body.  The better sources of gas, aka food, you fill it with the better your body will run, and the stronger all of it’s defenses will be!  This includes your immune system!  Did you know that 70% of your immune system lives in your intestines!  Before anything actually enters your body’s bloodstream it needs to get through your intestinal wall.  This is why it is so important to have a healthy gut! So what can you do to keep your gut healthy and strong?  Eat foods rich in probiotics.  Probiotics are all the good bacteria that essentially work as your bodys first line of defense, almost like an army keeping your gut healthy, balanced, and helping to make sure nothing gets past that is not supposed to.  Foods high in probiotics include kefir, kimchi, kombucha, and yogurt!   In addition to the probiotics, there are certain foods that are considered Prebiotics that help feed and support the growth and life of the probiotics.  Many of which you can find in Shredz Detox Greens!   Healing spices are another great way to help boost your immune system. I like to call these Super Spices because they help fight inflammation.  Inflammation is a major culprit to many illnesses, aches, pains, blood sugar imbalances, hormonal irregularities, and even increases when you are sick!  Some of these healing spices include Cinnamon, Ginger, Turmeric, and Cayenne.  It is best to consume these regularly.  Now you can add cinnamon to you coffee or oatmeal every morning, cayenne to spice up your chicken or other protein, but turmeric and ginger are not as common.  For this reason we included it in our Shredz Detox Greens, just another way we are trying to keep you feeling your best!  Alright, we all know Vitamin C helps boost your immune system, but besides your daily vitamin, what are the best source of vitamin C in your diet?  All citrus fruits, not just oranges, so even low calorie limes, lemons and their juice, broccoli, cauliflower, kiwi, kale, bell peppers, strawberries and even potatoes! The key is to not over cook any of these foods.  Vitamin C is heat sensitive, meaning it can break down when over cooked.  Another reason why green drinks with minimal processing are so packed with vitamins and minerals! In addition to Vitamin C, Zinc lozenges are very popular to help fight colds! Now you can continue to have the zinc lozenges which are packed with sugar and almost a candy, or you can eat it! Natural and better sources of zinc are meat, shellfish, nuts, seeds, and lentils.  So next time you are feeling under the weather, try making a kale salad, with nuts or seeds, bell pepper, grilled steak and squeeze some lemon juice on top! Lastly some popular immune boosters which have caught a lot of attention lately include elderberry, garlic, mushrooms, and local honey!  Each of these help boost your immune system in a different way.  The best way is to mix them up through your week or every few weeks.  As long as you are incorporating some of the ingredients from this article at all times you will be doing your body good.  But do yourself a favor, get yourself some Shredz Detox Greens this season to have daily, especially during the holidays to help keep you going healthy and strong, inside and out!