It's that time of year again...
Outdoor Christmas lights, decorated store windows & Santa's in town!
ReD, gREen, SilVeR, bluE, GolD
Hot chocolate, pumpkin pie, candy canes, snowflakes...
And unfortunatly:
colds, runny noses, coughs, sneezing, fevers and how can we forget...
H1N1!!!
Since TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, etc., etc., seem to have this 'pandemic' covered I've decided to focus on something else...
Your Immune System
Your immune system is responsible for destroying bacteria and viruses that invade your body and make you sick. Many peoples immune systems break down because of stress and bad nutrition. Stress depletes the body of vitamin C, B vitamins and many immune strengthening minerals.
In order to help your body fight intruders, you need to work on your immune system. This includes incorporating immune boosters into your diet.
Immune Boosters
1) Eat from a variety of colourful fruits and vegetables.
2) Fruits and vegetables should make up the majority of your daily diet.
3) Drink 8-10 glasses of water a day.
4) Pay attention to your fat intake. Avoid trans fats and fatty foods.
5) Avoid having animal protein everyday. Try to limit consumption to 3 times a week.
6) Supplements: multi-vitamin, vitamin C, calcium and B complex
7) Try to get your 8 hours of sleep.
8) Juicing!
Foods to Incorporate
The following foods are rich in nutrients that boost the immune system:
Juicing
Many fruits and vegetables can be turned into a concentrated form of nutritional energy by juicing them. Raw, fresh juices provide the easiest way for the body to ingest vitamins and minerals found in these foods. Fresh juices are also alive with enzymes, which deliver vitality and energy to every cell of your body.
Some of my favourite immune boosting juice combinations are:
Blueberries + Grapes + Apples
Carrot
Orange + Carrot
Give them a try and see how you feel...
Stay Healthy!
Good tips! my beet cooking extravganza ended well tonight. So you can guess what I'm having for lunch tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteWhy should we limit consumption of animal protein to 3 times a week? does the limit depend on the type of meat we eat?
I'm glad the beets worked out!
ReplyDeleteAnimal protein is hard to digest so your body would work harder to break it down.
Its good to give your body a weekly break.
The foods you would be consuming on those animal protein free days would be fruits, veggies and legumes. Aside from being easier to digest, these would also help clean out the system.
To make things easier do it for one day in the week and then go from there!
Good Luck!