How to Stay Well This Holiday

Aside from washing your hands and getting enough sleep, make these two dietary changes to bolster your immunity this Christmas:

1. Avoid Carb-Loading:
  • Refined carbohydrates rob your body’s store of vitamins and minerals in order to digest them, so you actually go into debt with each mouthful. Zinc deficiency, and insufficient amount of Vitamins C and E may hinder your immunity.
  • Sugar decreases the responsiveness of the white bloods that gobble up invading germs – at least for a couple of hours. So if you are nibbling on treats throughout the day, this could effectively take your immunity down a notch or two. Eat more fruits and vegetables instead, to provide antioxidant vitamins C and E. Snack on pumpkins seeds, and increase your meat intake to insure you are getting adequates amounts of zinc.
  •  Eating sugar steals B vitamins from your reserves and thus cripples your liver’s ability to detoxify your body.
  • Blood sugar dysregulation occurs in the absence of healthy. This in turn creates a free radical build-up, which puts the body into a catabolic (breaking down) state, rather than anabolic (building up)state.
  • A diet chronically high in too many carbs and not enough fats eventually leads to insulin resistance. Insulin Resistance blocks the anti-inflammatory PG1 pathway, leading to inflammation and disease.
  • A person with insulin resistance also has mineral resistance because insulin helps carry the minerals into the cells. Since zinc is needed to for healthy immunity, a person with mineral resistance is immune compromised.

Eat Natural, Unrefined Fats:

  • Omega 3’s are involved in the anti-inflammatory response. Inflammation is a well-known symptom of infectious diseases.
  • Fatty acids are used to construct the cell membranes of every cell in the body, including white blood cells. In a low-fat diet or diet composed of modern refined oils, the cell membranes cannot be constructed properly. Since that membrane is what allows the cell to communicate and interface with other cells, a poorly constructed white blood cell cannot do its job!
  • White blood cells also require adequate protein to be manufactured. Healthy fats and proteins often come together. (In nature, meat, dairy, and eggs are a combination of fats and proteins.) A low-fat diet usually means too many carbs and not enough proteins.