Start eating a RAINBOW of colours to bolster immunity

BEFOrE Covid, before our daily lives changed so dramatically, our immune system was not something most of us gave much serious thought to — while many people would express the desire for a trimmer waist, for example, or ‘to get healthier’, few would talk specifically about getting their immune system into shape.

But there’s no doubt that being able to fight off infection and disease has taken on a new and urgent significance, with Covid sweeping the planet.

But it’s not just Covid: a fully functioning immune system is all that stands between us and dangerous and life-threatening illnesses.

Consider this fact: every day we breathe in between 100,000 and a million micro-organisms — a potentially harmful soup of viruses, bacteria and fungi — on top of which our body has to do daily battle with the hordes of pathogens that can lurk in what we eat.

Although most of us are aware that our immune system evolved to deal with dangerous infections, what fewer people realise is that one of its other major roles is to destroy early cancerous cells before they can grow out of control.

Most of the time you are hardly aware of the work that this silent army is doing.

Occasionally, when you do something like cut your finger, you will notice that it can get a bit hot, red and painful. This is a sign of acute inflammation, that the body is rushing immune cells to the site of the injury and doing battle with would-be intruders.

DANGERS OF CHRONIC INFLAMMATION

BuT you can also get chronic inflammation, which is where the immune system stays in high alert for months or even years.

If it stays on high alert, over time the cells of your immune system can begin to damage your blood vessels and other organs.

You can think of it as a bit like a civil war taking place inside your body. Chronic c inflammation plays a key role in the development t of a range of conditions, ondiype from type 2 diabetes to heart disease e and cancer. It t also undermines your immune system’s ability to destroy dangerous microbes, such ch as the virus that causes Covid-19. So what are some of the major factors that lead to chronic inflammation? Well, high on the list is o obesity, particularly ticularly too much fat aro around the gut. Tha That is one reason son why people w who are overweight w or o obese are at much higher risk of ending up in hospital if they get C Covid than those who are slim. So, losing weight, particularly around the gut, is an important way to reduce chronic inflammation and improve the workings of your immune system.

And all this week I will be showing you easy ways, using my Fast 800 diet, to do just that.

Every day the Mail is publishing delicious and easy to prepare Fast 800 recipes developed by my wife, Clare, who is a GP with years of experience helping patients tackle their health problems through diet — and more recently, with a low- carb, lowcalorie approach.

But as well as losing weight there are other ways to bolster your immune system.

BE KIND TO THE ‘GOOD GUYS’ IN YOUR GUT

OnE of the best ways to keep your immune system in good shape is to ensure that you have a healthy diet, containing adequate amounts of iron, folic acid, selenium and vitamin C.

While I’m not a fan of supplements, at this time of year, when it is cold and dark, I do also top up with vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, which plays a vital role in developing strong immunity. But the impact of what you eat on your immune system is much more profound than simply vitamins.

The immune system is mind bogglingly complex; it comprises billions of specialised cells, each with a different role.

There are, for example, macrophages, one of the great watchdogs of the immune system, scavengers whose job is to roam around and eat anything they come across that looks suspicious ( macrophage means ‘big eater).

There are also killer T cells whose job is to seek out and destroy cells that have been

infected and taken over by dangerous microbes. There are also cells whose job is to boost an immune response, and others whose task is to suppress it.

And then there is the gut microbiome — the trillions of microbes that live inside our large intestine.

The microbiome does not only protect your gut from invasion by dangerous pathogens you may have swallowed.

The ‘good guys’ in the microbiome (known in scientific circles as ‘The Old Friends’ because they have evolved with us over tens of thousands of years) also play a key role in regulating our immune system.

For example, they convert fibre into a chemical called butyrate, which is brilliant at damping down inflammation.

Along with the ‘good’ bacteria there are also microbes down in your gut that love junk food and which can lead to chronic inflammation.

What is important for your health is to have diversity, lots of different bacteria species — in fact having a poor diversity of gut microbes could be one reason why some people develop more severe Covid symptoms.

A recent study in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology, where they compared the gut bacteria ( using stool samples) of 30 Covid patients with 30 healthy people, found that the Covid group had ‘significantly reduced bacteria diversity’.

This wasn’t an isolated finding and other work such as a paper in the journal Virus Research, in August, concluded: ‘Gut microbiota diversity and the presence of beneficial microorganisms in the gut may play an important role in determining the course of this disease.’

Having a healthy mix of gut bacteria won’t just affect your chance of catching Covid. Recent research has shown the profound impact that gut bacteria have on our physical and mental wellbeing — even the quality of our sleep.

A study published last year in PLoS One, which examined the habits of 40 men, found that those with a more diverse range of gut bugs had better quality sleep than those with a less diverse microbiome.

DITCH THE JUNK FOOD

SO WHAT’S the best way of ensuring you have a healthy, happy microbiome, packed full of Old Friends?

Genes play a part, but the biggest factor is our diet.

The more limited your diet, particularly when it comes to fibre, the more limited your gut bacteria are likely to be, and many of us even without noticing it limit our intake to a narrow choice of similar foods.

Modern ultra-processed food, packed with emulsifiers which are used to extend the life of certain products, can reduce the numbers of helpful species, as can eating junk food.

Yet the good news is that you can change the balance of your microbiome — and in a matter of weeks.

The key is getting lots of different plant-based foods into your diet, as these are rich in vitamins and minerals and contain the fibre that helps gut bacteria thrive.

This means aiming for at least your five-a-day and ensuring you’re getting a variety and not just eating the same fruits and vegetables day in, day out.

Data from the British Gut Project, which is headed up by Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, shows that the number one factor for a healthy microbiome is eating different plants, and the more variety, the healthier our microbiome.

He recommends we eat 20 to 30 different plants a week — this includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices — on average we are now eating around five.

Check out Clare’s recipes on these pages — not only are they delicious, but they will feed your ‘good’ bacteria the sort of nutrients that will help them thrive. They, in turn, will help you stay fighting fit.

For more information on how the Fast 800 works, go to thefast800.com