How to Strengthen Your Immune System

With winter creeping in, it’s time to start making sure we’re keeping our immune system working at an optimal level. Unfortunately, this time of year is also a breeding ground for colds, flu, and illness due to the cold and dark days – nobody wants a bout of illness to rain on their parade.

We’ll be taking you through the best ways to keep your immune system working properly and hopefully make sure you stay healthy through this winter. With everything that has happened over the last two years, we’re more aware than ever of the importance of strengthening your immunity and fighting fit.

5 Ways To Boost Immune System

1. Exercise – we know the importance of a balanced lifestyle including making sure we get plenty of exercise. However, exercise has also been shown to lower your blood pressure, improve your cardiovascular health and protect against a variety of diseases.

2. General hygiene – since the pandemic, we’ve all been reminded of the benefits of making sure we’re on top of our personal hygiene. Making sure we’re washing our hands thoroughly after being on public transport or restaurants can help us get rid of any unwanted germs and bacteria and boost immunity. We also need to make sure we sneeze and cough into a tissue so as not to spread any unwanted germs to the people around us.

3. Minimise stress – it can be difficult to determine what constitutes as stress as it’s different for everyone however, constant feelings of stress are detrimental to our health. While it can be tricky to keep stress levels low, breathing exercises can be a great way to keep our stress levels at bay. Check out our Breathing Exercises to Combat Stress blog for more details.

4. Vitamins – Foods that contain vitamin C and selenium are well known for supporting the immune system. Good news, they are readily available in foods. Brazil nuts, spinach and green peas are sources of selenium. Goji, dark green leaves, and of course oranges, are also the go to for vitamin C. For more information about vitamin intake, check out our Guide to Essential Vitamins blog.

5. Stay hydrated with high-quality water. Staying hydrated can make a huge difference to our immunity as our immune system is dependent on the nutrients in our blood stream – and our blood stream is made mostly of water! Read some more about the Health Benefits of Drinking Water here.

Immune Boosting Recipes

One of the best ways to keep your immunity at an all time high is through certain foods you can include in your vegan diet. We’ve got some great recipes for you to try so you can improve your immune system.

• Make yourself an immunity booster tea out of: turmeric, ginger, black pepper, warm water (adding a little coconut milk may increase absorption of the fat-soluble nutrients). Ideally simmer the mix together for a few minutes before drinking.
• Raw garlic. This might sound a bit unusual but garlic is a well-tested super food and also a traditional medicinal food! Stick it in your smoothie, or on your eggs or if you’re feeling adventurous you could make a garlic tea or just chew on it!
• Hearty soups – why not try and make soups full of in-season local vegetables, roots and gorgeous spices like warming ginger, turmeric and black pepper. Or try our delicious soup made up of peas, broccoli, pink Himalayan salt, turmeric, black pepper, coconut milk. You can alter the quantities to suit your taste.
• Chaga tea – chaga is a mushroom which grows on birch trees. It has one of the highest scores on the ORAC scale (nutrient density), it has been safely consumed for thousands of years and is very well studied. If you’re intent on improving your immune system, this is an easy one you can implement straight away.
• Reishi mushroom – reishi is commonly consumed in the East as an immunity booster and is praised scientifically for its astonishing benefits. Though it’s quite bitter, reishi is one of the most respected foods from the mushroom kingdom.

For even more helpful advice read our article on immune boosting foods to see what other superfoods you can include in your vegan diet.

Remember, this is not advice from a doctor! You should always see a doctor if you get symptoms of illness. However, if you’re simply looking for ways to get the best out of your immune system then these are some of the best and natural ways to do so. If you need some more top tips on how to improve your well-being, why not take a look at our blogs on Everything You Need to Know About Antioxidants or Vegan Smoothie Recipe Ideas.