Boost your immune system by growing your own veg
Our immune system is vital to protect us from viruses and bacteria. Dr Rupy Aujla explains how eating an array of fresh, home-grown veg can benefit your gut and help you stay healthy
Having a robust and wellfunctioning gut protects and bolsters our ability to deal with infections on several levels. Specific gut microbes maintain the integrity of the gut wall, preventing harmful pathogens or materials inappropriately entering the bloodstream. The microbes themselves produce and release micronutrients that support our immune cells, as well as protecting us from harmful environmental toxins. Keeping our microbiota in shape improves our immune health and involves eating colourful vegetables, fibre and a wide variety of whole foods.
In recent years, we’ve also begun to recognise the profound importance of a component of our cells called mitochondria. Cutting a long-winded biology lesson short, we require healthy, functioning mitochondria for a robust immune system that can boost its metabolic activity to adapt to the increased demands of when our immune system needs to be more active. Things that damage mitochondria include high-sugar diets and stress.
The suggestions to follow will get you thinking about how nutrition is exceptionally important to building your immunity.
Orange, yellow and green foods
Bright orange and yellow foods, including winter squash and sweet potato, as well as dark greens, such as kale, contain vitamin A precursors called carotenoids. These plant chemicals are essential to our immune system and have a role in maintaining our gut barrier, the functioning of specialised immune cells, as well as the cells involved in the immediate response to stressors.
Along with vitamin A, brightly coloured foods also contain vitamin C, as do a number of green vegetables, including broccoli, parsley, spring greens and
Brussels sprouts, and by lightly steaming them we can maintain this vitamin content. Vitamin C can aid your ‘first response’ immune system activity and is a strong antioxidant that is important to protect your immune cells and limit the oxidative stress within mitochondria. For these reasons, many of my patients have bought into the advertising for vitamin C supplements. Although I believe these are fairly safe and well tolerated, there are added benefits of obtaining vitamin C, plus the abundance of other vital micronutrients, from whole foods rather than supplements in isolation. There’s a huge range of other nutrients contained in dark leafy greens and citrus fruits beyond just vitamin C. For instance, a pile of steamed greens with olive oil, salt and lemon would be a fantastic accompaniment to most meals, as it doesn’t just offer vitamin C, it delivers sulforaphane, magnesium and added fibre to your diet. I encourage people to think of their food as a wonderful collection of thousands of micronutrients and plant chemicals rather than just one or two vitamins.
Fibre
An effective strategy to improve our immune system would be anything that helps our gut environment – specialised prebiotic fibres found in chicory, endives, Jerusalem artichokes and garlic provide your microbes with a source of food. When digested, they’re able to make a fatty acid chemical called butyrate that helps maintain the lining of the gut wall. A well-fed microbiota is better equipped to carry out its immune-modulating role of reducing inflammation and preventing pathogenic microbes from colonising in the gut, causing ill health. There are some specific botanicals and herbs that have shown ‘immune modulating’ capacity, in that they may stimulate the production of cells of the immune system. However, improving your lifestyle and diet are much more powerful strategies than relying on a special flower or fungi for support.