Healthy Food List #10: Best Nutrition For Fighting Against Colds and Flu
Food list
1. Garlic: Contains allicin,which has antimicrobial and antibacterial properties. Also helps promote healthy gut flora, which rids the body of toxins, bacteria and viruses.
2. Beef: Contains zinc, which helps development of the white blood cells that defend your body.
3. Sweet Potato: Contain Vitamin A, which helps keep the mucosal surfaces ( inside of your nose, your gastrointestinal tract, and your skin) healthy .
4. Turmeric: Rich in antioxidants and chemicals that fights against inflammations and pain.
5. Dark Leafy Greens ( spinach, kale, Swiss chard and arugula): Rich in Vitamin C, which reduces the duration of your cold.
Also try Citrus fruits rich in Vitamin C.
6. Wild Salmon: Rich in Vitamin D, especially helpful in days with less sunlight, and helps fight against cold.
Also try: Other cold water fish such as tuna and mackeral, which are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which fight inflammation.
7. Chicken Soup: It warms you up and the liquid hydrates the respiratory tract. Nutritious too.
Also try: Bone broths.
8. Ginger: Contain sesquiterpenes, which help with stuffy noses and coughs. Also stops rhinoviruses from attaching to cells and helps in secretion of antiviral chemicals useful against viruses found in mucus membranes.
9. Fermented foods (Yogurt, kefir, pasteurized pickles, kimchi, and kombucha): Contain probiotics which also help with immunity.
10.Sweet potatoes: Contain beta-carotene, which may increase T cell function, and thus fighting better against infection.
11. Button mushrooms etc.: They increase the production of antiviral proteins against microbes causing common colds and the flu.
12. Brazil nuts: Contain selenium, a trace mineral, which improves the production of cytokine proteins, which support the immune system.
13. Pumpkin seeds: Contain high levels of zinc, which reduces the duration of a cold and improve immune function. They also have many antioxidants.
14. Water: Keep the respiratory tract (as well as the rest your body) hydrated.