In this video, I'll uncover some of the top foods that you must eat and must avoid if
you want to have a well-functioning immune system.
The foundation of good health all starts with a high-quality diet. The truth is today, most
people aren't eating high quality diet. In fact, most people are eating so poorly, it's
impacting all areas of their health, including their immune health. When you're eating low-quality
foods and you have a depressed immune system, essentially, you're not going to be able to
fight off foreign invaders, pathogens, bacterial infections, viral infections, you name it,
they can have a devastating impact on your health. So that's why in this video we're
going to talk about the foods you should eat and the foods you should not eat if you want
to have a well-functioning immune system. So, stick around to the end. But before we
get started, I'm Dr. Zyrowski and welcome to the channel. If you're new to the channel,
it's a pleasure to have you here. Be sure to subscribe, hit that notification bell,
and join our notification community. I'm going to help you excel your health and your life.
I also want to mention this is part of a multiple part immune health series. I did this immune
health series in response to many people being very concerned about Covid-19 thinking that
it was just kind of random chance whether or not they got it and random chance whether
or not they could die from it. And the truth is it's all about your health and your immune
system function. So that's why we're working on optimizing it and helping you live the
healthiest life ever.
Let's go ahead and talk about some of the things that you can do in order to improve
your health when it comes to food. Let's talk about first the foods that you have to stay
away from. First on our list is going to be sugar. Sugar is a really bad food when it
comes to your immune health. In fact, there was a study where they had a group of individuals
consume a hundred grams of sugar and after they consumed a hundred grams of sugar, they
looked at their immune system. And what they found is that the immune response in order
to help fight off bacteria was actually decreased during that time. So, if you ate a bunch of
sugar and then you were exposed to some sort of virus or bacterial infection, there's a
greater chance that you will become infected by it because your immune system is depleted
from consuming the sugar. And as a result, it's just not keeping you safe and healthy.
So, we want to make sure that we're keeping away from the sugar. It's estimated that the
average person is consuming about 152 pounds of sugar per year, which is devastating. If
we were to look back 40, 50, even a hundred years, I mean people were consuming like 10
pounds of sugar a year. So, it's really crazy to think that we're here in society, but we're
also in a society that is very sick and obese and insulin resistant in many other things.
So, we have to make sure that we're being careful about this and we're taking all the
sugar out. I mean, think of the sugary sodas. Think of all the candy and even the things
that has sugar hidden in it - cereal bars, you name it. So, we've got to watch out for
that stuff.
Next is going to be caffeine. Now caffeine isn't innately bad. I mean, if you're drinking
coffee for instance, it's got antioxidants, there's a lot of benefits to it. But the problem
with caffeine is when it starts to have an impact on your sleep. And the truth is that
many people are over caffeinating because they're not getting enough sleep and they're
pushing themselves too hard. So, they're just over caffeinating with energy drinks and coffee.
And as a result, what happens is that caffeine pours over and has an impact on your sleep
and once you start having a low quality that is highly linked to having an immune deficiency.
So, we want to make sure that we're being careful with the caffeine and we're not overdoing
it so that we can sleep well at night.
Next on our list is going to be her hydrogenated oils. We gotta to be really careful with these
because what research shows is that these hydrogenated oils, they go and they actually
increase C reactive protein, which is an inflammatory marker in the blood. Now when you increase
the inflammatory markers in the blood, essentially what it does is it actually has an impact
on the cytokine response with the immune system and the immune system can't function as it
should, so we have to be very careful when it comes to these hydrogenated oils. We're
thinking of peanut oils, we're thinking of vegetable oils, we're thinking of soybean
oil. We're thinking about all these fried foods out there at the restaurants. We have
to really be careful about consuming these foods and make sure that we're eating good
quality foods and of course eating good quality oils. We think of coconut oil, avocado oil,
I mean the healthy ones, olive oil that are actually anti-inflammatory.
Next on our list is gluten. Most people are familiar that gluten is a kind of a sensitive
food for most people. Many people are going to have a negative immune response when they
have gluten. And so, we just have to be careful that especially if we're someone who is gluten
intolerant, that we're staying away from it and by any means necessary. But the other
thing is, is that even those people who are not gluten intolerant, in many cases, they
still have an inflammatory reaction to it. So, gluten is a food that I always just recommend
that people stay away from all the time because it's not a health food by any stretch of the
imagination.
Now the next on our list is going to be refined carbohydrates. It's estimated that people
consume about 133 pounds of flour per year. When we think of all the different refined
carbohydrates out there, we're thinking of the pastas, we're thinking of white bread,
we're thinking of donuts, we're thinking of all these different foods that people are
consuming in excess amounts. I mean, 133 pounds of flour is a lot of flour. And so, we have
to make sure that we're avoiding these and we are consciously trying to make sure that
we're implementing a good healthy diet that's rich in leafy green vegetables, rich in foods
that actually nourish our body, have lots of nutrients. I mean there's not a lot of
nutrient density in consuming all these refined carbohydrates. Most of them in fact have no
nutrients at all. And when you're spiking blood sugar and you're increasing your weight
and you're just having all of these reactions that come as a result of eating refined carbohydrates
and sugar and hydrogenated oils and gluten, I mean essentially your immune system is struggling
here. We have to make sure that we watch out for this stuff.
And then of course, artificial sweeteners is another big one that we want to make sure
we take out of our lifestyle. I mean, think of things like aspartame or Splenda. They've
been shown to have a negative impact on the microbiome - so, your gut health. And they
also have shown to have an inflammatory reaction in the liver of mice. So, we just want to
be careful with this stuff and remove anything that has the potential of decreasing our immune
response.
Now, let's talk about the foods that you should eat. Bone broth is great. Now bone broth is
awesome because it's going to help improve our gut health. Now as you may know, because
I've talked about this before, is that most of our immune system is located within our
gut. It’s estimated about 80% of it is located within our gut, so if we have good gut health
then we automatically are going to have pretty decent immune health. So, we always want to
focus on consuming some bone broth here and there in order to boost up our gut health.
Next on our list is going to be citrus fruits. Now citrus fruits are great because they are
going to have lots of vitamins C in it. Vitamin C is going to help promote the health of your
white blood cells and just your overall immune response. Now, citrus fruits that I really
like to consume are going to be like lemons, limes, and also grapefruit. Those are some
of the low-glycemic ones that are going to be healthy for you and offer a good dose of
vitamin C.
Next on our list is going to be garlic. Garlic has a huge, you know, antiviral, anti-infection
benefit that it offers and so consuming garlic, throwing it in with your food, cooking with
it or even taking it in supplement form is a great way to go about fighting off any type
of infection. In fact, in this series, if you haven't seen the part where I break down
the most popular supplements that you can take, the most scientific based supplements
that you can take to boost your immune system, you're going to want to check that out. I'll
go ahead and link that up right here and then I'll also put it in the description below
if you have not seen that yet.
Now, probiotic rich foods are going to be great. We're thinking sauerkraut, we're thinking
maybe some pickles, some kimchi, some different dairy like yogurt, cheese, all of these different
fermented foods that are going to be rich in probiotics. They're also going to support
that gut health just like the bone broth does. So, these are definitely foods that we want
to increase because we want to improve our gut health.
Ginger is also great because it's anti-inflammatory and it has lots of could immune benefits as
well. Broccoli is great because it's going to be a food that is considered a super food
is rich in antioxidants, vitamin A, C, E, lots of different nutrients found in broccoli
and the same goes for a lot of your cruciferous vegetables. I mean eating a good amount of
kale is even good because you have so many different nutrients that you're going to get
from it. Eating these nutrient dense veggies is going to be such a powerful way to improve
your immune health.
And then red meat. Why red meat some people ask. Well red meat actually has lots of zinc
in it and once again, referring back to that video that I talk about all the scientific
based nutrients you could take in order to boost your immune system, zinc is one of them
and zinc is high up on that list and red meat is going to have a lot of zinc in it. A lot
of shellfish will also be rich in zinc, so you can consider that as well.
So, here's some of the foods right here that you must avoid if you want to improve your
immune health. And here's some of the foods right here that you should increase if you
want to improve your immune health because it is your immune system that will protect
you from all the different foreign invaders, the pathogens of viruses, the influenza, all
that stuff. Your immune system is incredibly, incredibly powerful. It's your innate ability
to actually fight these things off and express health. You know what? It's not chance that
you're going to get sick and die from the Coronavirus or influenza or anything else.
It's all about how you take care of yourself and how your body's able to respond. So be
sure to always work on boosting your immune system and check out the next video in this
series right here.
White blood cells that are spared, they remember that foreign invader. The immune system knows
it's coming, it knows what it is, it knows how to react, it knows how to kill it, and
it acts very fast.