As cold and flu season bear down on the northeastern United States many Delawareans are looking for natural ways to stay healthy by improving their diets. Many of us have heard of the benefits of Garlic and other herbs to boost the immune system but what are some other ways to stay healthy during the winter? This post details my findings on the subject…
1 Fruits And Veggies Rule
Study after study shows that fruits and vegetables are chock full vitamins, antioxidants and phytonutrients and other compounds essential to optimal human health. Carbs may be the “staff of life” and protein is undoubtedly necessary too, but when it comes to immune boosting be absolutely sure you are getting all of the fruits and veggies your body needs! As Will DeMarco of Nature’s Magic Gift points out: “doctors are still discovering all kinds of new healing and life sustaining benefits that you can get from consuming powerful super foods like kale, broccoli, parsley, blueberries and so forth…”
Some people are intimidated by preparing vegetables as they are used to eating take-out and pre-packaged meals. However it is truly quite simple. Most vegetable can be quickly steamed or boiled or even cooked in a microwave oven. If you ever have any questions about how to cook a particular veggie it is definitely very simple to just tyoe the question into your smart phone and you will immediately receive hundreds if not thousands of articles and blog posts offering suggestions and tasty recipes.
2 Avoid Processed Foods
This tips goes along nicely with the precious one. While processed foods can be easy to heat up and eat they typically don’t provide nearly as much real nutrition as meals comprised of freshly prepared vegetable, fruits, and quality meats.
Obviously if you are somebody who’s diet revolves around fast food and frozen pizzas then it isn’t going to be a quick or easy transition to eating wild salmon and steamed broccoli, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try swapping in a healthy home cooked meal one or two nights a week.
Also, if you absolutely refuse to cook you can at the very least try to buy healthier, organic frozen meals and supplement these with raw fruits and veggies that don’t require any preparation beyond rinsing them off and perhaps peeling them.
3 Keep Things Light
Eating too much heavy food can be taxing on the body and leave you feeling tired and icky even when you aren’t sick. One thing you can do is to replace a meal with a healthy crisp salad or light and refreshing smoothie. Both of these options can, depending on the ingredients you use, provide a good source of protein as well as those all important anti-oxidants I mentioned earlier.
If making smoothies is new to you then you are in for a real treat. One great idea is to try starting the day with a delicious fruit smoothie. Even if you have little time reserved for yourself during the mornings, you probably still have enough time to whip up a super healthy shake for breakfast.
DeMarco recommends keeping an eye on the balance between your macronutrients (protein, fats and carbs) when making a smoothie. Since fruit is full of carbs that macro is typically abundant already so the trick is making sure you get enough protein and healthy fats in there. Good sources of these can be nut butter, avocados, whole milk and yogurt and high quality grass fed milk protein powders.
Finally, try adding some “super foods” like Goji berries, kale, and turmeric to give your smoothie an immune powering super boost. You can keep things simple by stocking up on a quality greens powder that can be added to a smoothie with the flick of your wrist.
These three tips are a great start to eating healthy and boosting your immune system during the winter months. Just be sure to discuss these strategies with a licensed medical professional before implementing them as you should regarding any change to your diet, exercise or supplementation habits.
DISCLAIMER: This website does not provide medical advice. Information on this website is for informational and entertainment purposes only.
As tax payers most of us accept the fact that our tax dollars will go, in part, to pay the salaries of elected officials and other state employees. However, when we start talking about health insurance benefits the conversation gets a bit stickier. If people weren’t upset enough over the so-called “Affordable Care Act” aka Obamacare, consider this – even tax payers who are unable to pay for their own health insurance are forced to pay (via taxes) for the health insurance provided to state employees and their families. This is particularly shocking when you consider the fact that the maximum income to get subsidized care is set around a paltry $80,000 per annum. This means that many healthy young families are forced to pay 20% or more of their income in health insurance premiums, hence the reason why I have taken to referring to Obama’s plan as the “UN-affordable Care Act”.