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Fight against flu bug with healthy diet

I’m try­ing to do all I can to avoid get­ting the flu this sea­son. Is there any­thing in par­tic­u­lar I should include in my diet that could help?

When it comes to avoid­ing the flu, the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion says the best actions you can take are to get vac­ci­nated with the flu shot; take every­day pre­cau­tions against the spread of germs, such as avoid­ing con­tact with sick peo­ple and wash­ing your hands thor­oughly and often; and, if you get the flu, see your doc­tor quickly (within two days of becom­ing ill) and ask about tak­ing antivi­ral drugs to treat the illness.

A healthy, bal­anced diet won’t pre­vent you from being exposed to the flu virus, but it can help boost your immune sys­tem to help you fight off the flu virus and other ill­nesses. Recently, the Acad­emy of Nutri­tion and Dietet­ics issued a reminder about which nutri­ents are most often rec­og­nized as help­ing build immunity:

Pro­tein plays a key role in the immune system’s patrolling white blood cells (called macrophages), which attack bac­te­ria. Most Amer­i­cans get plenty of pro­tein, but often peo­ple cut back at this time of year to lose pounds they may have gained over the hol­i­days. Be sure your diet always includes a good vari­ety of high-quality pro­tein sources, includ­ing fish and seafood, lean meat and poul­try, eggs, beans and peas, soy prod­ucts, and nuts and seeds (prefer­ably unsalted).

Vit­a­min A helps keep the immune sys­tem reg­u­lated and keeps skin and tis­sues func­tion­ing prop­erly in the res­pi­ra­tory sys­tem, as well as the mouth, stom­ach and intestines. Good sources of vit­a­min A include orange veg­eta­bles, such as car­rots and sweet pota­toes, and red bell pep­pers, kale, spinach, apri­cots, eggs and foods for­ti­fied with vit­a­min A, such as milk or cereal (look on the label).

Vit­a­min C is a vital player in help­ing lym­pho­cytes, another type of white blood cell, to fight against infec­tious microor­gan­isms. A wide vari­ety of fruits and veg­eta­bles are good sources of vit­a­min C, includ­ing cit­rus fruit, red bell pep­pers, broc­coli, tomato juice and foods (such as cere­als) for­ti­fied with the vitamin.

Vit­a­min E, as an antiox­i­dant, helps pro­tect healthy cells from being attacked by the immune sys­tem and may help improve immune func­tion in other ways. Good sources include spinach, peanut but­ter, sun­flower seeds or oil, saf­flower oil, and foods for­ti­fied with vit­a­min E.

Defi­cien­cies in zinc can impair the immune sys­tem. Good sources of zinc include lean beef, wheat germ, crab, wheat bran, sun­flower seeds, black-eyed peas, almonds, milk and tofu.

Other nutri­ents may also play a role. The bot­tom line? Strive for a healthy, bal­anced diet rich in fruits and veg­eta­bles and lean pro­tein to keep your immune sys­tem run­ning smoothly.

Chow Line is a ser­vice of Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Exten­sion and the Ohio Agri­cul­tural Research and Devel­op­ment Cen­ter. Send ques­tions to Chow Line, c/o Martha Fil­ipic, 2021 Cof­fey Road, Colum­bus, OH, 43210–1044, or filipic.3@osu.edu.

Posted by Guest 1 Columnist on Jan 30 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.