The winter wind down
As the days shorten and our exposure to vitamin D providing sunshine and fresh air decreases, cold and flu season creeps in with all of it’s microbial critters. Many of my patients have had families caught in a seemingly never ending cycle of one bug “piggy backing” onto the next throughout the entire winter. While hand washing and other hygienic attempts to decrease the spread can be helpful, we as Naturopathic Doctors really focus on helping our patients to improve their immune resistance to infection. Three ways to increase that resistance is to increase fresh plant based foods to your diet, eat more omega three fatty acids, and add to your body’s bounty of beneficial bacteria.
Go eat a rainbow
When choosing fresh produce choose colorful, organic, not genetically modified whenever possible. The colors in food come from carotenoids and flavenoids, vital food chemicals for our immunity. All plant based foods contain plant cholesterol like structures called sterols & sterolins which act as immune modulators. Fresh and Frozen produce is also naturally high in anti-oxidants, the cellular repair molecules which are plentiful in dark pigmented fruit and vegetables. One relatively easy way to increase whole natural food consumption is to make sure you have two natural colors of food on your plate every time you eat. This is a fun way for kids to get excited about trying new produce too. When you go grocery shopping you should be sure you have several choices from each color group of the rainbow.
• Red- red pepper, strawberries, watermelon, apples, radishes, raspberries, grapefruit, plums, and tomatoes.
• Orange- mango, carrots, oranges, squash, pumpkin, sweet potato, peaches, apricots, bell peppers, cantaloupe, mangoes and yams.
• Yellow and Light green- yellow beans, yellow peppers, bananas, pineapple, avocado, bok choy, cabbage, celery, fennel, kiwi, pears, lemons, limes, onions, and zucchini.
• Green- lettuce, spinach, broccoli, green pepper, Swiss chard, asparagus, parsley, collard greens, peas, pear, cucumbers, leeks, Brussels sprouts, artichokes, and kale.
• Blue/ Violet/ purple- blueberries, blue kale, blue corn, grapes, beets, purple cabbage, blackberries, currants, eggplant, cherries, onions, and plums.
This ensures that you have good variety in your diet and that you are getting plenty of fruit, vegetables, and fiber. A great way to eat a rainbow with kids is to make skewers of colorful fruit or raw vegetables in the rainbow spectrum.
Want to take getting a full selection of fruits and vegetables one step further?
There are nine vegetable families: including one food from each family daily provides a full spectrum of phytochemicals necessary for optimum metabolism and immunity. Fitting in the full spectrum is easily achieved in salads, Stir fries or by juicing.
• Cabbage- includes broccoli, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens, cauliflower. Please note; members of this family should be lightly steamed so they won’t interfere with the proper functioning of the thyroid gland.
• Lettuce, sunflower
• Carrot/ parsley
• Beet/ Spinach
• Mint/ basil
• Tomato/ peppers
• Beans/ peas
• Cucumber/ Squash
• Onion/ garlic/leeks - garlic contains good organic selenium, imperative for immune system support.
Get your daily omega three fatty acids.
No doubt you’ve heard of omega three fats, how these fats are excellent for mood support, cardiovascular health, anti-inflammation. They are also excellent immune system balancers, supporting immune function without over stimulation. Omega three fatty acids are referred to as essential fats, meaning it is essential to ingest them. Our bodies cannot manufacture these fats from other components, You may have also heard that fish is the best food source of omega threes which is true. Cold water fish; salmon, tuna, mackerel, halibut, haddock, cod, sole, sardines, have the highest quantity. Plant foods high in omega threes include flax seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, and chia seeds. All plant based omega threes have to be converted by an enzyme in our bodies before our bodies can use them properly, unfortunately some people have less of this enzyme making the conversion slow, or inadequate.
Do not forget your healthy bugs.
Did you know that a big part of our immune system resides in and around our intestinal tract. When you think about how important it is to fight off any microbes that come into our body through food, this makes perfect sense. Part of what helps to win this fight is not really part of our bodies at all, but is provided by beneficial bacteria residing in our intestine. Probiotics have been made into a household word by the manufacturers of certain yogurt brands, and it does hold true yoghurt is probably the best food source of probiotics available to us. If you or your family members do not tolerate dairy products well (I have read that at least fifty percent of the adult population has some degree of dairy intolerance) any fermented food such as miso paste, raw sauerkraut, cultured vegetables, kimchee all contain probiotics too.
Now let’s put it all together.
How can you make practical meals with all of these immune boosting components? Here are a few examples of menus to give you an idea of how to get started with combing the concepts; Sweet- homemade granola (with flax, hemp hearts and walnuts) parfait with yogurt or soyghurt, blueberries and blackberries, or a green smoothie with chia and kefir. Savory- Miso Soup with lots of veggies and chunks of cod fish, or local organic sausage with sauerkraut, red onion, arugula and a flax seed oil dressing.
Sometimes thinking about food as more than caloric sustenance allows us to start to explore how helpful it can be in maintaining our health and preventing disease. Modeling healthy food choices is the only way to get your children to eat well. Folks cannot expect their children to want those fresh organic veggies if they “don’t like them”. I challenge everyone to have three different colors from the rainbow of fresh foods everyday this winter, topped up with a daily serving of omega three and probiotic rich food. See it as an experimental effort to help in making your household healthier this winter.
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