Your immune system is your bodies first line of defence and on the whole it’s very clever at defending your body. Several factors influence how efficiently your immune system works such as age, life stage, medical conditions, lifestyle and diet.
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A Healthy Immune System
What is the Immune System?
How can I Support a Healthy Immune System?
It’s easy to look for solutions to ‘boost’ your immune system, but there’s little evidence to show this is actually possible. Instead, making the right diet and lifestyle choice can best support a normal, healthy, functioning immune system.
Let’s take a look at what these are…
- Avoid the use of tobacco - tobacco use, particularly smoking, can considerably lower immune function.
- Choose a healthy, balanced diet – high in fruits, vegetables and wholegrains with plenty of colour and variety.
- Keep active – aim for 150 minutes over the week, anything that raises your heart rate!
- Maintain a healthy weight - check if you're a healthy weight here.
- Get enough quality sleep - find out how here.
- Maintain good food hygiene and hand washing to avoid infections.
What’s the link With My Diet?
Even the best diets can’t ‘boost’ an immune system or provide extra protection, however a healthy, balanced diet provides the vitamins and minerals your immune system needs to function at its best.
Having very low levels, known as a deficiency, of key vitamins and minerals has been linked with a reduced functioning immune system (including vitamins A, C, D, E, B vitamins, folic acid, iron, selenium and zinc). The World Health Organisation has identified that deficiencies in vitamin A, zinc and iron are prevalent across much of the world, particularly in women and children, so increasing these nutrients in our diets can help to support a healthy immune system.
For most vitamins and minerals, there’s no need to reach for the supplements as there’s often plenty of food sources available in our diets – if our diets are varied and well balanced.
Take a look below at some of the main food sources of these vitamins and minerals
Vitamin A
- Animal based dairy products – such as fermented yogurts, whole milk, full fat yogurts, full fat dairy.
- Fruits and vegetables - green leafy vegetables and orange coloured fruits and vegetables such as mangoes, apricots and carrots
- Liver
Vitamin C
- Fruit- fresh fruits espeically citrus fruits, kiwi and berries
- Vegetables - green vegetables, red/yellow/orange peppers (capsicum), tomatoes
- Potatoes with the skin on
Vitamin D
- We get most of our vitamin D needs from our skin’s exposure to sun light. In many northern hemisphere countries where sunlight is limited, or in countries cultural norms lead to limited skin exposure, a dietary supplement can be required to provide sufficient amounts
- Food sources include eggs, oily fish and fortified cereals or margarine (in some countries)
Vitamin E
- Plant based oils (e.g. sunflower, olive, rape, rice bran and soyabean oils), nuts and seeds
B Vitamins
- Widely available from wholegrains, grain flours, cereals, nuts, seeds, meats and green vegetables
Folic Acid
- Green leafy vegetables, brown rice, green peas, bananas, cereals
Iron
- Meat, fish, pulses, nuts, eggs, dried fruits, wholegrains, dark green leafy vegetables
- Tip: consuming plant sources of iron together with foods high in vitamin C helps boost your bodies absorption of iron
Selenium
- Grains and cereals, nuts (especially brazil nuts), grain flours, fish and seafood, most meats, eggs
Zinc
- Meat, shellfish, wholegrains, pulses, nuts, animal based dairy products
References
- World Health Organisation. Fact Files on Nutrition. 2017. Available at: https://www.who.int/features/factfiles/nutrition/en/
- Maggini, S; Pierre, A and Calder, P. (2018) Immune Function and Micronutrient Requirements Change Over the Life Course. Nutrients 10 (10): 1531
- Chandra, R. (2002) Nutrition and The Immune System From Birth to Old Age. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 56 Supp 3:73-6
- United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. Available at: fdc.nal.usda.gov.
- Public Health England. McCance and Widdowson’s The Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset. 2019. Available at: gov.uk/government/publications/composition-of-foods-integrated-dataset-cofid