Foods to boost your immune system

A lesser known way to help remain healthy is to boost your immune system through the foods we consume.

For anyone who is unsure of what the immune system is, Live Science describes it as a complex network of cells and proteins within the body. Its role is to “protect against disease or other potentially damaging foreign bodies. When functioning properly, the immune system identifies a variety of threats, including viruses, bacteria and parasites, and distinguishes them from the body’s own healthy tissue.”

This can be done through increasing the population of friendly bacteria whenever possible. This can be done through eating:

When we say yogurt, it is specifically plain, natural, Greek style yogurts. A great way to check whether you’re getting the right ones is by looking at the ingredients and find the healthy bacteria listed on there – a common one to look out for is “lactobacillus”.

This can include fresh ones – such as butter beans, broad beans, French beans and string beans. They can also be the tinned variety – baked beans, kidney beans and black beans to name just a few. These all do wonders for feeding your friendly bacteria. 

This fruit can be wonderful for boosting your immune system. It's high levels of Vitamin C and potassium, helps to raise energy levels with natural caffeine, and aids in digestion.

Being out in the sunshine is the most natural way of increasing this – when we are out and the sun is shining, D3 is made under the skin. 

Vitamin D deficiency is surprisingly common in the UK, especially after the winter months, and it can cause some health related problems – not least a decrease in our immune system. 

When looking for a supplement either online or over the counter, make sure that the bottle says Vitamin D3 – this is the one that is most helpful for the immune system.

So let’s increase our intake of natural yogurts, beans, bananas and Vitamin D3 supplements – it will help boost our immune system. 

If you’d like more information on how diet can affect us, you might enjoy our article: How to eat well and feel good.