(calm music)
- Welcome, my friends to the Bob & Brad Podcast.
My name is Mike Kenitz.
I'm a physical therapist assistant
who's worked with Bob and Brad the last 10 years.
Today, I am doing this podcast solo and our guest is Jordan.
You may know her from our workout videos
on her YouTube channel.
If you're listening to the audio version of this,
you may have heard her in the past
talking about ketogenic diet with us.
Jordan's background,
she has a bachelor's in exercise science,
a master's in nutrition
and she's a certified personal trainer
and today, we are gonna talk
about ways to boost your immune system naturally
through food and possibly supplementation.
So stay tuned.
So today's podcast is actually gonna be
about boosting your immune system for all you listeners.
So the first question I have
are what foods should I eat to boost my immune system?
- So food specifically, yeah,
so first, I have, before I like go on a rant about this
'cause this is a pretty loaded question,
what I'm gonna tell you to eat to boost your immune system,
if you've heard me talk at all on the Bob and Brad channel,
any other podcasts or videos that I've done,
I'm gonna sound like a broken record
because a lot of the nutritional advice
that I would give somebody if somebody were just to say,
what should I eat for a normal healthy diet,
I'm gonna say pretty close to similar information
to boost your immune system.
So I'm gonna talk a little bit about that
but then I'm also gonna give you little specific foods
if you're already eating a very healthy diet
and you wanna just really dial in
what could I specifically eat
that might have higher nutrients
specific to the immune system?
Make sense?
- Yeah, I have a feeling I know what you're gonna say
but our audience may not so.
- Do you wanna answer, Mike or?
- No, you go ahead.
- So I'm a big whole foods first person.
If you hear me talk on here about nutrition on this channel
like I am not gonna be the person that's gonna talk to you
about counting calories and any fad crash diets.
I'm a whole foods first person.
So just gonna start the conversation like that.
So the main focus
when you're thinking about boosting your immune system,
what should your diet be comprised of?
First of all, I wanna talk about fruits and vegetables
and plenty of them.
This seems like such an obvious one
but I would not be answering the question fully
if I didn't at least say that out loud.
Eat your fruits and vegetables.
I'm a big fan of like varying your types too
so don't be that person that goes to the store
and buys the same two vegetables
and fruit every single week.
- But that's what I like to do.
- You guilty, guilty there?
Yeah, it looks like you had the guilty look on your face.
Yeah, so super important just because every fruit
and vegetable is gonna have a very different
micronutrient composition, different antioxidant properties
so that's the big one there
to help increase your vitamin load so,
but I did wanna talk about
when it comes to fruits and vegetables,
there's ones that during the winter months
or maybe when you start to feel something coming on
that are a little extra loaded in vitamin C
that are good ones that you might wanna focus more on.
So we all think vitamin C,
what's like the number one thing we think of?
- Oranges.
- Yeah, right?
Actually, that is not even like a top source.
It has vitamin C but there are,
you can get better bang for your buck elsewhere
so some of the top ones are gonna be like bell peppers,
red peppers, green peppers, kiwi, strawberries.
Broccoli is actually super high.
That one usually surprises people.
- I didn't know broccoli.
- Broccoli, tomato.
- I think broccoli's high in potassium too, isn't it?
- Broccoli, yeah, yeah, yep.
- Sorry, continue on.
- No, yeah, that's fine.
Tomatoes, kale, Brussels sprouts, cantaloupe.
So those are some of,
that's not everything that has vitamin C in it
but just kind of covering
and then of course your citrus fruits too
but that's covering at least the top ones
if you wanna have that focus
especially during the cold and flu months
that we're about to be coming upon.
That's why I did this podcast now by the way.
- Yeah, it's a good time for it.
- Unfortunately, summer's closing out.
- I think we should say too that we're both omnivores
so even though we're talking about a lot of plants,
we're not anti animal product but.
- Yes, we are
and I actually am gonna touch on that too, Mike.
- Oh, okay.
- Yeah, so that kinda covers
the fruits and vegetables category
but actually, you read my mind.
The next thing I was gonna say
is you wanna also focus on quality protein sources too.
So I wanted to just kinda touch on quality
and I'll talk about how this relates to the immune system
but what I mean by that
is eating good quality grass-fed beef.
Yes, like Mike said, we are omnivores
so I'm sorry for my vegan listeners.
You can maybe take my advice
on what I was just talking about
and me out here if you want to but,
so grass-fed beef, free-range eggs, wild-caught seafood,
quality raised animal sources.
That's the big key especially when it comes
to some of the more fatty cuts of meat
and I try not to go on a side tangent here
but a lot of the toxins in animals are held in the fat.
Just a little fun fact.
So we wanna be focusing especially with like beef
and fattier cuts of beef to have those grass-fed sources
and a lot of the good healthy animals sourced fats
have immune boosting properties.
So that's my side tangent
and how it connects to the immune system there so.
- Right and I'd say like a lot of free-range
or free roaming grass-fed animals, whatever they are,
are typically better and ruminant animals
meaning they graze like elk, deer, bison, cows,
I mean, boars I guess, wild boars would
and like sheep are ruminant animals
for people that don't know 'cause they're,
typically red meat's more nutrient dense than white meat.
Not saying that they don't have their places
in your diet but.
- Correct.
- That's my side tangent.
- And I actually kinda like that side tangent too
in how you said that because most people think
I should stay away from red meat
and stick with the chicken breasts
and I would actually completely turn that upside down
and say opposite of that
like I'm gonna opt for the grass-fed beef
over the chicken breast any day.
I'm gonna get the chicken thighs
over the chicken breast any day.
So side note but.
So.
- Is there any other foods you wanna talk about
that boost immune system?
- Yeah, I think I wanna mention a couple more.
So what other kinda categories?
I already mentioned the plentiful amounts
of fruits and vegetables, good quality protein
but also, we can't have this talk
without talking about healthy fats too.
So some of the things I like to tell people to focus on
are avocados, avocado oil, coconut oil
which has a ton of actually immune boosting properties.
I sometimes will take a spoonful of coconut oil
if I'm trying to get over something but anyhow, nuts, seeds.
Did I say olive oil yet?
Olive oil and olives?
- You may have said it.
I'm not sure. - Okay.
- You can repeat it.
- What's that, repeat it, yes, hone it in
but yeah, so those are some of the main healthy fats
that you wanna be making sure
that you're getting in your diet too.
They play lots of roles but immune system being one of 'em
and then I'll kinda wrap up this question you asked me
with talking about like foods very specific.
If you're looking to maybe add some extra healthy
nutrient dense foods to your diet,
things that you could add in
that are specific to boosting your immune system.
So one of those would be fermented foods
and if you're like, I have no idea what a fermented food is,
I'll give you some examples.
Sauerkraut is one of those,
the kind that you actually find in the refrigerator though.
Not the can.
- Yeah, it's often called kimchi now, isn't it?
- That's, so kimchi is just like a different,
it's like sauerkraut
but it has different like spices and seasonings.
You can actually buy it like it'll be called sauerkraut
in the refrigerator but yeah.
So kimchi too, kombucha which is a drink, fermented tea.
- Yes, that's pretty popular nowadays in most stores.
- I feel like pretty much any grocery store
you go into has that.
You can go to a gas station now and buy kombucha so.
- Yeah, it's normally by the produce section.
- Yep, there you go.
Otherwise, like good quality,
full fat plain grass-fed yogurt or kefir
would be sources of or a fermented food as well.
So all of those and we might maybe touch a little bit more.
We'll see how we have time but I might go into a tangent
on fermented foods and gut health and all that but.
- Sure.
- Couple other just little random things too.
Ginger, super powerful for the immune system.
Garlic.
Green tea.
So to name a couple.
- I really like garlic
but unfortunately, it typically gives me bad gas.
- Really?
- So I normally stay away from it now.
I like the flavor but-
- Like any garlic, any form of garlic
or just like you're talking fresh?
- Onions too.
Like I'm pretty, yeah.
I'm pretty in the like FODMAP stuff
'cause I bloat easy but that's just me
probably from my terrible diet when I was young but.
- Yeah, that can, that can have some lasting effects.
- Yeah.
- For sure.
- All right.
(calm music)