Foods that Fight the Flu!
Today more than 95% of all chronic disease is caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies and lack of physical exercise - Mike Adams, The Health Ranger.
Food is so much more than eliminating hunger pains. It brings families and friends together. It can provide comfort, like delicious warm soup on cold nights. It can create shared memories and is a large part of our culture and traditions. Food is vital for survival. It can not only help fight chronic diseases, but certain foods can fight the common flu. The best strategy to warding off the flu this season, is by building up your immune system.
Here are the top 10 foods to fight the flu (I think of it as KungFLU fighting):
1. Dark Chocolate - high doses of cocoa can boost your immune system's ability to defend against infection.
2. Mushrooms - contains selenium (helps clear sickness) and beta-glucan (finds and destroys infections).
3. Salmon (or foods high in Vitamin D) - people with higher levels of vitamin D are less likely to have respiratory infections.
4. Tea (black, white or green) - drinking 1-3 cups a day builds your body's immune defense system.
5. Yogurt (packed with probiotics) - keeps your digestive tract healthy and is vital for immune health.
6. Garlic - experts recommend 2 cloves of fresh garlic daily. Garlic has an antimicrobial compound (allicin) and people who take it have fewer colds and recover faster from the colds they catch.
7. Oysters or Crabs (foods packed with zinc) - helps your body to attack bacteria and viruses like flu's or colds.
8. Almonds - are high in vitamin E and reduces your chance of catching respiratory infections and colds.
9. Oranges or Strawberries - foods high in Vitamin C can help reduce the duration of a cold or flu.
10. Sweet Potato, Pumpkin (Orange foods) - contain Beta-Carotene and are vital in the growth and development of immune system cells.
Eating too much orange food can make your skin turn orange! Yes, unfortunately I'm speaking from experience. I was determined to eat lots of carrots as a hunger-eliminating tactic. Pumpkins just happened to be in season too... and surprisingly the palms of my hands turned bright orange. It wasn't the radiant glow that I was hoping for.