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Given the escalating situation of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the coronavirus, enhancing immunity through diet is paramount to safeguarding personal and familial health. In this article, Mytour provides simple yet effective tips to boost immunity through daily nutrition. Let's dive in.
Understanding Immunity: Why is Boosting Immunity Essential?
Immunity refers to the body's ability to defend itself against pathogens invading the system. There are two types of immunity: innate (naturally present) and adaptive immunity. The latter, adaptive immunity, is acquired through a balanced diet, regular exercise, and recommended vaccinations as per health guidelines.
The body's natural immunity alone isn't sufficient to ward off illnesses. Hence, enhancing immunity is crucial. Weak immunity renders the body susceptible to fatigue and susceptible to various weather and environmental illnesses such as colds, fevers, and flu. This is especially critical for infants and young children, who are prone to infections leading to common conditions like malnutrition, respiratory infections, and parasitic, skin, throat, and ear infections.
Most COVID-19-positive patients who have recovered and been discharged from hospitals share a common trait: robust overall health, youthfulness, and strong immunity. This explains why they exhibit mild symptoms, minimal fever, and return negative test results after a few days of treatment.
Amidst this corona pandemic, remember to incorporate the following foods into your meals to safeguard the health of your entire family.
Top 15 Immune-Boosting Foods to Combat the Corona Virus Effectively
Maintaining a healthy body requires a balanced diet, ensuring each meal incorporates essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. To enhance immunity, it's crucial to include plenty of fruits, vegetables, and consume at least 2 liters of water daily.
Below is a list of 15 foods rich in vitamins that boost immunity, effectively combating the flu:
- Garlic: Garlic is one of the immune-boosting foods that effectively prevents flu. You can use fresh garlic in cooking or as a seasoning in daily meals. According to experts' recommendations, each person only needs to supplement 1-3 cloves of garlic per day; excessive consumption can be harmful as it may cause toxicity. If you incorporate garlic into cooking, you can use more than 3 cloves a day because when cooked, some of garlic's benefits are lost.
- Citrus fruits: Fruits belonging to the citrus family contain high levels of vitamin C, which is key to enhancing the body's immunity as this nutrient boosts the production of white blood cells in the blood. Since the body cannot produce vitamin C on its own, you can supplement it by eating grapefruits, citrus fruits, lemons, etc. For those with gastric discomfort, they can supplement with certain types such as papayas, papayas, spinach, kale, corn, sprouts, etc.
- Ginger: Like garlic, ginger is an immune-boosting food found in most households' kitchens. Ginger has anti-inflammatory effects, relieves throat pain, and several other illnesses. Incorporating ginger into meals is highly diverse; you can use it for cooking, seasoning meals, making ginger tea, soaking ginger in alcohol, etc.
- Broccoli: Broccoli contains a rich combination of vitamins such as A, C, E, and abundant minerals. This is a very good vegetable for health, so it should be included in the daily menu. To ensure that the vitamins and minerals in the vegetables are not lost, the shorter the cooking time, the better.
- Beef: According to nutrition and immunology expert William Boisvert (Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA), beef contains abundant zinc content, which helps enhance white blood cells and the immune system, thereby effectively preventing bacterial invasion.
- Yogurt: Probiotic yogurts enhance your immune system. Yogurt is an excellent source of vitamin D, activating an efficient immune system. Avoid sugary yogurts.
- Spinach: Spinach is a food rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, carotene, boosting the body's immunity and infection resistance. Cooking spinach also produces a quantity of vitamin A and beneficial nutrients.
- Almonds: Providing a perfect amount of vitamin E to prevent and fight colds. A serving containing half a cup of 46g whole almonds provides 100% of the recommended daily vitamin E intake.
- Turmeric: Turmeric has various benefits in life from cooking, beautifying the skin to healing. Used as an anti-inflammatory and low-grade joint pain reliever, reducing muscle damage from exercise.
- Chicken: Rich in vitamin B beneficial for gut immunity, chicken is a good immune-boosting food, and chicken porridge also helps alleviate cold symptoms.
- Green Tea: Green tea is an excellent antioxidant. Additionally, green tea is rich in epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), another powerful antioxidant, while EGCG enhances immune function. Green tea is also a good source of the amino acid L-theanine. L-theanine may support the production of antimicrobial compounds in your T cells.
- Papaya: Papaya contains high levels of vitamin C, potassium, vitamin B, and folate. Furthermore, papaya contains a digestive enzyme called papain, which has anti-inflammatory effects. All are beneficial to your health.
- Kiwi Fruit: The nutrient content in Kiwi is similar to papaya. Vitamin C stimulates white blood cell production in the blood to help fight infections, while other components in kiwi help your body function well.
- Shellfish: Some shellfish such as crabs, clams, and oysters are rich sources of zinc, helping immune cells perform their functions effectively.
In addition to supplementing immune-boosting foods, some regular immune-boosting measures you can apply include:
- Drink plenty of water.
- Maintain personal hygiene and environmental cleanliness.
- Eat cooked food and drink boiled water.
- Exercise regularly.
Furthermore, supplementing vitamins for the body through vitamin pills or other functional foods is essential. However, choose products that have been tested and certified by the health department.
With these immune-boosting, nutrient-rich foods, maintaining a balanced diet and supplementing with plenty of water and regular exercise are essential factors in protecting the body from COVID-19 pneumonia.
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