How to boost your immunity

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Boost your immune system naturally with these nutrition tips:

Stop dieting! Diets don't work and can be a common cause of micronutrient depletion. Eat healthily and boost your metabolism so you burn more calories. This can be done by eating plenty of foods containing essential fatty acids, found in oily fish, nuts, seeds and avocado's and including some exercise.

Eat a balanced diet. Don't forget to include lots of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables too. Antioxidants are plants' own natural defence system – and they boost ours too.'

Be aware that sugar uses up the body's nutrient reserves in order to process it and can suppress immune function for up to five hours! So, if you have sugar at regular intervals during the day you could have a permanently depressed immune system!

Poor nutrition is the most common cause of a weakened immune response. Foods that are good natural sources of the immune-boosting antioxidants include kiwi fruits which contain more vitamin C than oranges, Chinese cabbage which is an excellent source of vitamin A and avocado, which provides the optimum healthy ratio of fat, carbohydrate, protein and vitamin E. 

Foods that are rich in vitamin B6, which boost the production of antibodies to fight infection, will also help. These include bananas, carrots, lentils, tuna, salmon, wholegrain flour and sunflower seeds.  You also need to step up your intake of dietary zinc by eating more seafood, eggs, turkey, pumpkin seeds and crabmeat.

Don't worry – be happy! Worrying has been shown to impair immune defences. Try relaxing in a warm bath with some essential oils, or even going to yoga or meditation classes.

If you're stressed, try supplementing with Siberian Ginseng for two months. Not only can it help to balance you emotionally, it is also used to counteract infections such as the common cold.

Herbal teas:  You can easily make your own immune-boosting herbal teas. Try ginger and cinnamon, which you can make by putting four large slices of ginger and a small stick of cinnamon into boiling water. Allow to “steep” for 10 minutes.

Cat's Claw tea from the Uncaria Tomentosa plant is another powerful immune system stimulant; drink it sweetened with apple or blackcurrant concentrate.

Kombucha Tea: The Kombucha or Manchurian “mushroom” is also now widely used to boost immunity. The name, though, is misleading because it is not a mushroom at all but a large, flat, pancake-shaped fungus-like growth that is a combination of health-promoting lichen, beneficial bacteria and yeast that has long been used in Asia as a natural energy booster. It is not eaten either but brewed into a strong antiviral and antibacterial tea after it has been left to ferment for a week or so in a mixture of water, sugar, apple cider vinegar and green or black tea.

Probiotics : Beneficial bacteria that help boost immune function.  They alter the balance of microflora in the gut by inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria and favouring those which aid digestion and promote a healthy immune response to infection.