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Immunity Boosting Foods For Winter

The weather is changing and the time to boost your immune system has almost come. Seasonal changes bring a lot of health problems the most common being cold, fever and flu. Often a lot of people suffer from cold or flu when the season changes.

That is why, you need to make your immune system strong enough to fight winter chills and stay healthy. Introducing some immunity boosting foods in your winter diet is one of the basic rules to stay free from health problems.

Your diet, sleep and health conditions affect your immune system. So, it is very important to look after your diet and lifestyle so as to boost your immune system. For example, winter is a good season to enjoy some spicy food. They keep the body warm as it increases the body's temperature. This in turn helps to fight cold temperature and boost the immune system.

There are healthy spices that you can add in your winter diet to boost your immune system, and fight cold and flu. Black pepper and garlic are two popular spices that boosts your immune system and are healthy too. Here are the best immunity boosting foods that you must add in your winter diet to avoid cold and flu.

Immunity Boosting Foods For Winter:

Mushroom

Mushroom

Maitake, reishi, coriolus, agaracus, and shiitake are some of the healthy mushrooms that are well known as immunity boosting foods. The powerful compound beta-glucans boosts the immune system.

Garlic

Garlic

The spice is not just used for adding flavour to the dishes, but to also fight cold and flu. Garlic increases the number of white blood cells which strengthens the immune system. It also contains compounds namely allicin, ajoene and thiosulfinate which fights infections and kill viruses.

Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup

A bowl of chicken soup is always a tempting treat during the chilling winters. However, chicken soup has lots of health benefits. Apart from aiding weight loss and filling the stomach as well, chicken soup also boosts your immune system and fights cold and flu.

Spinach

Spinach

The superfood is one of the green vegetables that is rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals to keep your immune system healthy during winters.

Carrots

Carrots

We love having carrot in our winter diet. Carrot contains the popular phytonutrient beta-carotene which boosts the immune system's production of infection fighting cells.

Cocoa

Cocoa

Raw cocoa beans and not the cocoa flavoured chocolates will help boost your immune system. Cocoa beans are rich in flavonols which stimulates the immune system.

Black Pepper

Black Pepper

Black pepper is one of the remedies to fighting cold, flu and other winter related health conditions. Black pepper not only increases heat in the body, but has immune-supporting nutrient which makes it healthy.

Ginger

Ginger

We all know that ginger is one of the best remedies to treat cold and cough. Adding a little ginger in your dish will be one of the best ways to stay healthy during winters.

Berries

Berries

Blueberries and red grapes have strong compounds which works with Vitamin Din the body to strengthen the immune system.

Kale

Kale

The green leafy vegetable is rich in iron and Vitamin A and C. Vitamin A increases white blood cells in the body and remove harmful bacteria from the body. Vitamin C on the other side stimulates the immune system.

Oysters

Oysters

Apart from being good for the libido, oysters are also known to be immunity boosting foods. It reproduces more white blood cells and other antibodies which makes it easy to fight infections.

Yogurt

Yogurt

Lactobacillus acidophilus is a healthy bacteria found in yogurt which helps improve digestion, and also break down complex compounds into usable bits. To treat one of the common health condition, diarrhoea, have warm yogurt not chilled.

Salmon

Salmon

Salmon is one of the oily fish which is rich in vitamins especially Vitamin D. This vitamin boosts the immune system and increases its ability to fight many kind of infectious diseases.

Tea

Tea

Herbal tea is good to strengthen the immune system. According to surveys, tea drinkers have a stronger immune response to harmful bacteria.

Story first published: Monday, November 25, 2013, 18:28 [IST]
Read more about: wellness cold