What's the Best Diet to Keep Your Immune System Strong?

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What's the best diet to keep your immune system strong? This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times best selling author, celebrity nutrition expert and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ashley Ask the Health Expert. John from Facebook asks, what's the best diet to keep your immune system strong? I'll be right back with the answer.

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There are some very specific foods that can really help boost your immune system. And there's also some ones you should absolutely avoid. So I'm going to do that. First, I'm going to say a shout out to skip the sugar. I did write the sugar impact diet, after all. And let's talk about the foods that can boost your immune system. And these are foods that are rich in vitamins A, C, D, the minerals selenium and zinc, the antioxidants glutathione and quercetin, plus ones that provide natural antiviral and antibiotic and antifungal effects or are anti mucolytic. And what that means is they help reduce the production of mucus and keep it flowing. All right, so all the foods I picked out here are powerhouses. And one or several of these items. Here we go. The first one you probably don't think of, this one for vitamin C are red peppers. Turns out not only are red peppers vitamin C powerhouses, they also contain quercetin. And quercetin is important because it helps get zinc into the cells. Next up, pastured eggs. Now, of course, this is if you're not intolerant. And I'm not talking the, you know, cheap factoried eggs, I'm talking pastured eggs. So it should say that on the label. These are a rich source of vitamin A. Next up, wild salmon. And wild salmon's great. It's a twofer because you're going to get both vitamin D and vitamin D is so important for modulating your immune system. And then omega 3s, which reduce inflammation. All right, next, one of my favorite things to have in the morning is some lemon juice and a little cayenne and cayenne peppers. I talk about a lot because helps boost your metabolic rate. But it does another thing. It's mucolytic. It keeps mucus moving. And we want that. We don't want to get it stuck. All right, coconut. Couple different places. I love to promote coconut. Number one, I like to have it in my morning smoothies. And number two, I love my dark chocolate coconut bars. Why? Because coconut not only tastes awesome, it is antiviral and antibacterial. It contains a compound called monolaurin that's great for your immune system. All right, garlic, you've heard about this one plenty of times, but this is definitely one you're going to want to pump in as much as possible. Ideally, eat it raw, but if you're like me, I don't like it. So I throw it into my sauces and stir fries and use it that way. Okay. Sweet potatoes. So many great things you can do with sweet potatoes. The great thing about sweet potatoes is that bright orange color. That means they're rich in carotenoids and those carotenoids convert to vitamin A. Little spoiler though. If you have any issues with your thyroid, you're not as good at converting those carotenoids to vitamin A and you definitely want to have good vitamin A levels. So if that's the case, make sure you are either supplementing with vitamin A, you probably want to do that anyway, or getting things like those pastured eggs I talked about earlier. Okay. If you are an oyster lover. I wish I was, but I'm not. You will get a great dose of zinc and selenium, both two powerhouse minerals for your immune system. Zinc is a great antiviral and so is selenium. And actually, I'm going to do another shout out for brazil nuts because you can get all that you need in a day's dose of selenium by just eating two brazil nuts. We eat two every single day around the house here. Green tea. There's so many reasons I love green tea, but in terms of its immune system, it's got quercetin and again, quercetin is a great way to help transport zinc into the cells. Also, green tea is great for your gut microbiome. And remember, 80% of your immune system is in your gut. You want to have a microbiome that's healthy and balanced for the best immune health. Broccoli. I think no list is ever complete without adding broccoli. There's so many good things about broccoli, but in terms of your immune system, it's got vitamins and C and really important, it's got the master antioxidant, glutathione. This is the antioxidant that helps recycle all the other antioxidants. And another powerhouse for glutathione are avocados. Now, here's what I do with avocados. I buy them when they get to the peak of ripeness. I then put them into little containers. So you can put them into a plastic container, a glass container, bags, however you want to do it in the freezer. But you can freeze them into little chunks. And that's the important thing. Put them into little chunks so you can throw them into your smoothie. There you go. Plus, it really helps with a great consistency for Your smoothie. And speaking of smoothies, so you've got your coconut, you've got your avocados, and throw some strawberries in that morning smoothie because you're going to get a nice pump of vitamin C. And of course, just like most of the other things I've mentioned here, some great fiber too. Now, medicinal mushrooms can be fantastic for your immune system. Things like dried shiitakes and maitakes. But also if you get UV exposed portobellos, you can get a great dose of vitamin D. I make my shake from my paleo shake powder. It is concentrated bone broth protein. So I'm getting the collagen that helps seal your gut so you don't have things going out. Remember, your gut's really the foundation for your immune system. So you're getting the collagen, you're getting protein in there. So that's what I like to do. And then also I've got a freezer full of bone broth so that I can just sip it throughout the day. So that's a great thing to do. If you are doing intermittent fasting, get a little hungry throughout the day, sip on some bone broth. And finally, fermented foods. Again, I talked about the gut. You want to keep your gut microbiome happy. Of course, probiotics and prebiotics would be super helpful here. But I also like to include some fermented foods into your diet. So that could be something as easy as a coconut kefir or a coconut yogurt. Again, choose the ones that have as little sugar as possible. You can even make a water kefir. Or if you are really brave, you can make kimchi like my buddy Dr. Suzanne Bennett teaches you how to do. And what I like to do, it's simple. How I how I like to cook is with my blender. So I make my immune boosting smoothie recipe. Here it is paleo protein because you're going to get the bone broth protein. It's got collagen as well, strawberries for the vitamin C and fiber, avocado for that, glutathione and healthy fats and fiber. Then I throw in a little extra fiber and a little of my whole body collagen as well. And then whip it all up with some coconut milk for that monolorin and the mcts that are going to help you stay fuller longer and have great energy. There you go. There are some great immune boosting foods that are delicious too, to include in your daily diet. This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.

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