Written by Lisa Baker, Nutra Organics Nutritionist

Supporting your immune system with immunity boosting foods is important all year round - not just in the winter months where we typically dose-up on the immunity support and immune support vitamins. Daily stressors, pollution, inadequate nutrition, insufficient exercise and not enough sunlight can all have an impact on your immune system. One of the best ways to get your immunity support is with wholefoods to deeply nourish, and we have just the immunity foods for the job. So if you’ve been wondering how to boost your immune system naturally, keep reading for some easy ways to give your body a big ol’ boost.

Eat Foods to Support Your Immune System!

The saying ‘you are what you eat,’ certainly rings true when it comes to foods to support your immune system. Food contains nutrition (yay for that as we here at Nutra really like our food) and there are certain immunity boosting foods that contain nutrients that do a fabulous job in supporting your immune system. Here are some of our top picks to include in your diet of immunity boosting foods.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is one of the most commonly known vitamins for immunity. Vitamin C supports white blood cells which support the immune system, this is especially effective when taken in combination with zinc (hello there Collagen Beauty). Did you know Collagen Beauty contains 100% RDI of vitamin C? Pretty cool right!

Vitamin D

Vitamin D, from wholefoods and also from sunshine, helps fight off infections as it supports a healthy immune system. Along with the classically known benefits for bones and muscles, vitamin D is a wonderful immunity support.

Zinc

Zinc is found in every cell of the body and supports the proper functioning of immune cells, especially when taken with vitamin C, as mentioned above. Zinc deficiency may cause a weakened immune system and a lessened ability to fight off disease when it strikes.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that supports a certain cell in our body called the T cells (should have been called vitamin T right?). T cells support a healthy immune system as well as playing an important role in fighting infected cells when the body is run down.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A supports immunity in a couple of ways: It supports the development of important immune cells, including myeloid and lymphoid cells, and it supports epithelial cell growth (epithelial cells are the cells that line the body, creating a protective barrier. This includes skin, gut, blood vessels and more. A strong healthy barrier is your body’s first line of defence from pathogens).

Pre & Probiotics

Pre & probiotics are great for contributing to a happy gut, and with such a large portion of the immune system being found in the gut, this means a happy immune system too.

How To Support Your Immune System in Other Ways

As much as immunity boosting foods will really bring the bolstering to support your immune system, you really do have to take a holistic approach. Here are other ways to boost your immune system naturally.

Exercising for Immunity

Exercise has many chain reactions that support whole body wellbeing, one of those benefits includes supporting the immune system. Exercise positively affects the antibodies in white blood cells which fight disease. Moderate exercise for 60 minutes or less of daily exercise is considered by professionals as optimum in positively affecting your immune system. Remember to always rest, especially when doing more strenuous exercise for longer periods of time, too much exercise with not enough rest can actually cause more harm.

Our Clean Active range and fitness supplements are designed to support you from every angle with premium pre and post workout supplements and protein powders to support your training and recovery.

Maintain Immunity with Enough Sleep

Getting enough quality sleep is more than just looking and feeling fresh after those beauty sleep hours. Getting enough sleep is actually crucial for immunity support and wellbeing. Sleep deprivation can lead to a decrease of cytokines which are needed when fighting inflammation or dealing with excess stress. Consistent and quality sleep supports the immune system and makes you wake up on the right side of the immunity bed. Captain Calm is a great and delicious choice to aid in the unwinding and calming routine before bed time.

Avoid Excess Alcohol Consumption

Excessive alcohol consumption can impair the body's ability to fight off disease, key word ‘excessive,’ so don’t stress, your glass of red wine here and there is totally a-okay! Excessive alcohol can wreak havoc for the body's organs when trying to fight disease, in particular in the gut as it can kill off healthy bacteria, and with 70% of the immune system living in the gut, cutting your consumption down is a great way to boost the immune system naturally.

Immunity Support Vitamins from Nutra Organics

Nutra Organics boasts a range of wholefood powders that contain key nutrients and foods to boost immunity as well as immunity boosters for kids. While many of our products contain fabulous immunity boosting foods, the below are our top four picks to really boost your immune system.

Broths

Our delicious broth powders and bone broth concentrates are especially great for immunity support over winter - but can be easily enjoyed in summer too. Bone broths have been famous for their immunity supporting powers for generations and for good reason. Bone broth provides essential amino acids and nutrients that are beneficial to gut health. The gut is where a healthy immune system begins, remember, it contains about 70% of immune cells.

Core body temperature plays an important role in immunity too. Studies have demonstrated that cold viruses are able to replicate more quickly when core body temperature drops below 37 degrees celsius, so that warming cup of broth is helping you in more ways than just providing immune supporting nutrients. So grandma was right: drink up that broth to boost your immune system naturally.

Super Greens + Reds

Our Super Greens + Reds is another immunity support super star. This product sometimes gets forgotten about when it comes to immunity powders, but Super Greens + Reds is such an amazing “all rounder”, making it so perfect for supporting immunity as well as an immunity booster for kids. Immunity is hugely complex and multifaceted, and it requires many systems working efficiently to work optimally as a whole. Super Greens + Reds contains pre and probiotics for gut health, immune supporting herbs, antioxidants to protect from free radical damage, and is a good source of multiple vitamins and minerals that support immunity. Super Greens + Reds is your most potent ally for immunity support and overall wellbeing.

Acai Berry Blend

Foods to boost immunity don’t have to be bland and beige - our delicious Acai Berry Blend is a wonderful immunity powder, made using premium refractance dried fruits that retain maximum nutrients. Refractance drying is a low temperature drying method that doesn’t disrupt the volatile nutrients (such as vitamins and antioxidant polyphenols) as the excess water is removed. This means that you are able to enjoy the benefits of these high antioxidant yielding fruits year round in a potent, delicious and super convenient form. Acai berry blend is particularly high in vitamin C which is essential for immunity support. Vitamin C supports the production of white blood cells, which help protect the body against pathogens.

When there is an infection present, the body’s requirements for vitamin C increases dramatically. Acai Berry Blend doesn’t only have to be used for making Acai bowls, it can mix into smoothies and be sprinkled on anything that takes your fancy (or just eaten straight off the spoon - we can confirm that that’s also a good time).

Berry Immune

This one is for the kiddies, but nothing is stopping anyone else who fancies it from enjoying it and all of its immune boosting benefits too. Berry Immune is an immunity powder that was naturopathically formulated to gently support the immunity, providing essential nutrients, superfoods and herbs to help protect little people from big germs. Berry Immune also provides a source of vitamin D, which is an incredible immunity support essential for healthy immune system function, and much harder to get from the sun as daylight hours get shorter and we rug up with more clothes. Berry Immune is a yummy and nutrient dense superfood blend which mixes really well into yoghurt, porridge and baking, so it’s easy to sneak into your little one’s diet as an immunity booster for kids.

When it comes to supporting your immune system, immunity boosting foods and immune support vitamins, remember to take a holistic approach! Try incorporating one thing daily or weekly, even taking one small step in the right direction will take you towards a strong and healthy immune system.