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Load Up On Foods That Do Body Good

Posted on January 20, 2010
Filed Under Food, Health & Fitness | 2 Comments

As we hit the height of cold and flu season, grapefruit, sweet potatoes and almonds may not be the medicine we turn to.

But the antioxidant power of vitamin C in citrus fruits, vitamin A in orange-fleshed sweet potatoes and carrots and vitamin E in nuts and certain oils can give a boost to our immune system, experts say.

Because I’m more than a few years from college and high school biology, I got a refresher course in antioxidants from Gina Bucciferro, a registered dietician at Loyola University Health System in Maywood.

She reminded me that antioxidants protect the body from free radicals that can attack the cells in our bodies and open the door for infection.

While so-called functional foods — a beverage claiming to have added vitamins and minerals, for instance — continue to be big, Bucciferro suggests keeping it simple, and healthy, by:

— Loading up on fruits and vegetables, in addition to proteins, and trying new ways to prepare them.

— Eating seasonally. It’s less expensive and you may feel more satisfied because fruits and vegetables taste best at the peak of their season.

— Not fearing frozen fruits and veggies. They’re frozen at their peak of freshness.

— Avoiding canned goods, if possible, because they’re loaded with sodium.

“Wash your hands and wash uncooked foods that others are handling,” she adds, calling both the “first line of defense” in fighting viruses.

Lara Field, a pediatric dietician at the University of Chicago Hospitals and in private practice, says prebiotics, which stimulate growth of beneficial bacteria already in the gut, and the live microorganisms called probiotics also play a factor in strengthening the immune system.

“Probiotics feed off of prebiotics, preventing bad bacteria from growing and preventing infection,” says Field, who operates the Web site feedkids.com.

Prebiotics, such as Fructooligosaccharides, are found in breast milk and also in bananas, asparagus and Jerusalem artichokes, she says.

Probiotics are most famously found in yogurt, but they also are in some supplements, Field says.

Zinc, a mineral, also protects the immune system, and is found in  found in oysters, beef, red meat, turkey and beans, to name a few.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of what to eat in the cold and flu season, and no one is suggesting that food and the vitamins and minerals in them are the cure-all or substitutes for flu shots. But they help.

“I don’t think it’s a replacement, but I do think it could decrease the time you’re sick and off work,” Field says. By Lisa Donovan, Chicago Sun Times

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