Immune-boosting foods

If you want to rely on diet to improve your immunity, you don’t need to follow the hundreds of imported supplements and Internet celebrity “super foods”. Prioritize eating enough and the right four basic foods in your daily diet: high-quality protein, colorful fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats, which can cover the immune nutritional needs of more than 90% of ordinary healthy people.

In the past few years I have been doing nutritional consulting, I have met so many people who asked me immediately, "Should I buy lactoferrin?" I didn’t recommend any supplements to her, so I asked her to deliberately add a palm-sized portion of lean meat/eggs/soy products, a fistful of colorful vegetables, and a small apple or kiwi in the morning to every meal. With such simple adjustments, she didn’t even catch a cold throughout the winter, and the number of rhinitis attacks was reduced by more than half.

Speaking of which, there are actually quite a lot of controversies about "immune foods" nowadays. The mainstream nutrition community has always emphasized that no single food can directly "improve immunity." The human body's immune system is an extremely complex network that relies on the synergistic effect of multiple nutrients. It cannot be activated with one click by eating a certain "magic food." However, functional medicine practitioners will pay more attention to the role of specific phytochemicals. For example, anthocyanins in dark purple foods and glucosinolates in cruciferous vegetables have indeed been proven in in vitro experiments to regulate the activity of immune cells. However, to reach the effective dose in the experiment, you have to eat several kilograms of blueberries or broccoli at a time. The small amount you eat daily is more of a long-term accumulation of effects. It is impossible to have immediate effects after eating it once.

Oh, by the way, don’t believe the folk remedies on the Internet that “eating garlic kills viruses” or “drinking lemonade can prevent colds.” A few years ago, I met a young man who ate three heads of raw garlic every day to prevent the flu. In the end, his immunity failed, and he burned the gastric mucosa and went to the hospital to get fluids. It was totally worth the loss.

There is also a fierce debate now about whether "eating a vegetarian diet can improve immunity better" or "eating more meat can make you stronger." In fact, both sides are reasonable, but the core is whether the nutritional structure is reasonable. I know an outdoor team leader who has been a vegetarian for ten years. He rarely catches a cold all year round. I also have a friend who eats braised pork every meal. When the seasons change, he gets a fever and asks for leave. As long as vegetarians pay attention to supplementing B12, iron and high-quality plant protein, they can develop a good immunity. If people who eat meat only eat fatty meat and no vegetables, they will still be deficient in vitamins and their immunity will not be improved.

When I’m busy working on a manuscript, I don’t go out of my way to make a “rainbow meal.” The refrigerator at home always has mixed vegetables, shrimps, and corn kernels frozen. When I’m cooking soba noodles, I grab a handful and throw them in, then make an omelette. I can have a meal in 5 minutes. It’s full of protein, vitamins, and whole grains. It’s much better than eating instant noodles or ordering takeout with heavy oil. If you travel a lot recently and really don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, it’s okay to take a multivitamin supplement, but don’t take supplements as a meal. The synergistic effect of nutrients and other active substances in food can never be replaced by supplements. This is the consensus of all nutrition practitioners, and there is nothing to argue about.

In fact, to put it bluntly, immunity is like your body's "protective shield". It cannot be welded to death by taking expensive supplements once, but is built up by eating it every bite. There is no need to deliberately buy imported "immune foods". Drink less milk tea with dozens of grams of sugar added, eat less highly processed snacks full of additives, add two more bites of vegetables and eat enough eggs and milk with each meal, it will work better than anything else. Oh, by the way, if you happen to have a cold or are recovering from surgery, eating more high-quality protein that is easy to digest, such as steamed eggs and warm milk, will be more effective than drinking greasy tonic soup. This is what the director said to the patients every day when I was rotating in the clinical nutrition department. It is absolutely true.