Four basic nutritional steps EVERYONE can use to improve their immune resilience:
Immune resilience is your body’s ability to Immune resilience is your body’s ability to deal with biological pathogens such as the viruses and bacteria we encounter in daily life. Our level of immune resilience determines whether or not these pathogens infect us and cause a significant and ongoing immune response.
If you have an autoimmune condition, you may already be avoiding gluten, dairy, or other foods you know cause an immune reaction in you. Avoiding those foods helps keep inflammation and autoimmune symptoms at bay, but it can also help your immune system be resilient against viral and bacterial infections.
Why? Because if your immune system is not busy dealing with reactions to food proteins, it has more bandwidth left to deal with infections. For many people, this can make a profound impact on overall inflammation and immune function.
Having food intolerances isn’t the only reason to use diet to support your immune resilience.
Avoid concentrated and processed sugars. Candy bars, desserts, fruit juices, sweetened coffee drinks, and anything else that has a high amount of concentrated sugar all need to be avoided to improve immune resilience.
Eat foods high in antioxidants and flavonoids. Eat an abundant amount of fruits and vegetables of many different colors. Their high content of antioxidants and flavonoids will support your overall immune function. Important : When it comes to fruits, don’t overdo it, and stick to low-glycemic fruits to avoid spiking your blood sugar, which is inflammatory and can weaken immune resilience.
Improve your microbiome diversity. One way to improve your immune resilience is to have many different species of healthy bacteria in your gut. While many people believe taking probiotics is the best way to support the gut microbiome, with my patients I find the most effective way is to eat plentiful amounts of many different kinds of vegetables and fruits. This helps feed the bacteria in your gut and maintain healthy bacterial balance.
KEY: Avoid eating the same foods over and over and seek out different types of produce you normally don’t eat. It’s also important to regularly rotate the types of produce you eat.
Reduce your intake of foods that are generally inflammatory. Many common foods are actually quite inflammatory to the human body regardless of food allergies or sensitivities. This includes foods fried in vegetable oils, and partially hydrogenated fats, which are in packaged foods, fast foods, and processed foods. These foods will deplete your antioxidant reserves. Additionally, avoid starchy, high-carbohydrate, and flour-based foods that make you tired after you eat. This tiredness after meals is a sign you’ve had an insulin surge, which is very pro-inflammatory, depletes your body of antioxidants, and is harmful to your brain.