It's time to add this drink to your menu if you want to make it through the cold and flu season uninjured.
There are many reasons to enhance your immune system, whether you are frequently afflicted by colds and other viruses or want to give your body a fighting chance against germs when you return to the office and other indoor activities this winter. While eating a well-balanced diet, getting plenty of sleep, exercising frequently, and taking specific supplements can all help boost your immune response, they aren't the only strategies to boost your immune health quickly. In fact, according to registered dietitian Sophie Lauver, MS, RD, LDN, NBC-HWC of Plant-Based Perspective, there's one more way to promote a robust immune system: smoothies.
According to Lauver, "whole fruit smoothies can be a fantastic choice for immunological health." "Because our gut houses 70% of our immune system, we can boost our immune response by paying attention to what we eat and drink. If we eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, we're giving our healthy gut bacteria more food to eat."
"You can improve antibody production and arm your body to better fight against foreign invaders by putting veggies like kale in your smoothies, in addition to giving fuel for our immune system," Lauver explains.
Which fruits can help you boost your immune system?
However, it's not just vegetables that you should include in your smoothies to boost your immune system. In a 2018 study published in Nutrition Reviews, researchers discovered that eating berries helped the immune system with gastrointestinal and immunological health issues.
Similarly, a 2014 study published in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism found that a group of 98 school-aged children who consumed either 140 or 280 grams of canned pineapple over nine weeks had lower rates of both bacterial and viral infections than those who did not consume any pineapple.
The same can be said for practically any vitamin C-rich fruit, such as papaya, guava, oranges, cherries, kiwis, and lychees: according to a meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Immunology, increasing your vitamin C intake can help reduce the duration of upper respiratory tract infection symptoms and can contribute to the healthy function of natural killer cells, which can help fight infection.
What other components in smoothies can help your immune system?
Probiotic-enhanced yogurt is a terrific place to start if you're seeking more great ingredients to add to your smoothie.
Individuals who ingested yogurt enriched with probiotic bacteria had improved immune function, including higher natural killer cell efficiency, according to a 2017 study published in Nutrients.