Fighting Off Colds and Flu: Foods to Boost Your Immune System

Welcome to the first day of Autumn! Along with the cooler weather and gorgeous explosion of colors comes cold and flu season. To boost the natural fighting power of your immune system, when planning your meals you may want to incorporate a variety of functional foods -- foods that provide health benefits beyond just basic nutrition.

For efficient immune system function, the body requires certain nutrients which you can easily find from food sources:

• Beta-carotene (Vitamin A): Found in Chinese cabbage, carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and kale
• Copper: Found in Brazil nuts, dried apricots, olives, avocado
• Folic acid: Found in beans, lentils, other legumes; green leafy vegetables; asparagus; oranges and other citrus fruit
• Iron: Found in pumpkin seeds, blackstrap molasses, soybeans, spinach, kidney beans, lima beans, prunes, raisins
• Vitamin B6: Found in potatoes, bananas, beans, sunflower seeds, spinach
• Vitamin B12: Found in meat, eggs, dairy
• Vitamin C: Found in guava, papaya, strawberries, kiwi, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, oranges, grapefruit
• Vitamin E: Found in nuts, green leafy vegetables, avocados, wheat germ, whole grains
• Selenium: Found in brown rice, wheat germ, beef, Brazil nuts, turkey breast
• Zinc: Found in seafood (oysters, crab), beans, eggs, pumpkin seeds
• Bioflavenoids: Found in apples, onions, green tea, cacao, red wine, various vegetables
• Allicin: Found in garlic
• Essential Fatty Acids: Found in flax oil and fatty fish (salmon, tuna, and mackerel)

While supplements are widely available, keep in mind that excess vitamins can be toxic to the body, can actually impair immune function, or can simply be excreted in the urine. Also, remember that in nature, nutrients do not occur in isolation – fruits and vegetables contain a variety of nutrients which may in fact interact with each other to give you maximum health benefit. Therefore, whenever possible, we encourage you to get your vitamins from natural food sources – and it tastes better that way!