Immunity-boosting foods

Nutritionally balanced, make up for whatever is lacking.

A while ago, I helped my mother clean out her locker. There were half a box of various bacterial powders and berry extracts claimed to "enhance immunity". The total cost was nearly 3,000. As a result, she caught the flu twice in a row last winter and had a fever for almost a week. On the contrary, my best friend who works in public nutrition has never bought such health products for the whole family. Except for her son who caught a common cold last year, the whole family did not even experience the second wave of positive tests. I have read the family weekly recipes she posted. They are all home-cooked dishes such as tomato scrambled eggs, steamed sea bass, and cold spinach. There is not even a trace of "Internet celebrity super food".

There is a lot of talk about "immune foods" on the Internet right now. One group says that you just need to focus on a few foods that are rich in immune-related nutrients, such as blueberries to supplement anthocyanins, oysters to supplement zinc, and acerola cherries to supplement vitamin C. If you eat enough, it will be effective.； The other group says that the diet structure must be adjusted comprehensively, and eating certain foods alone is useless. In fact, there is nothing wrong with what both sides say. It depends on your own diet.

The basis for the former statement does come from public research conclusions: Vitamin C, zinc, beta-carotene, high-quality protein, and probiotics are indeed directly related to the activity of immune cells and the synthesis of immunoglobulins. If you usually eat takeaways and your vegetable and fruit intake is less than one-third of the recommended amount, then eating more of these foods can indeed make up for the gap. I stayed up late for a week working on a project a while ago, and my throat started to feel tight. I added a hard-boiled egg in the morning and two kiwi fruits in the afternoon for three days in a row, and I suppressed the cold.

But if you usually have a balanced diet, but insist on showing off a few boxes of imported blueberries and eating several oysters every day to supplement your nutrition, then it’s really a waste of money. I have seen nutritional comparisons from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before. The vitamin C content of 100g of blueberries is only about 10mg. If you eat 100g of winter dates (almost 2), you will get 243mg of vitamin C. Even if you eat 100g of Chinese cabbage, you will get 47mg. If you really want to supplement vitamin C, Chinese cabbage that costs two yuan a pound is not necessarily worse than imported blueberries that cost more than a hundred pounds per pound. Oh yes, practitioners of functional medicine here have different opinions: they prefer dark-colored berries, because in addition to vitamin C, they also contain a large amount of anthocyanins, which have stronger antioxidant capacity. They are suitable for people who rarely eat fruits and vegetables and have high inflammation levels. But the premise is that you can insist on eating them for a long time. If you only buy one or two boxes to try them out, it is really better to use two more chopsticks to stir-fry vegetables every day.

When many people talk about immune supplementation, they think of eating more meat, but this is not necessarily the case. The synthesis of immunoglobulins does require sufficient protein. For ordinary people, 1.2-1.5g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day is completely sufficient. As for whether it is animal protein or plant protein, there is really no need to worry. I have a friend who has been a vegetarian for five years. He has never bought any plant protein powder. He eats about 200g of soy products every day, plus half a pound of mushrooms. He rarely catches a cold throughout the year. The last time his work unit organized a physical examination, his protein index was better than that of many people who eat meat every meal. On the contrary, I had a relative who had surgery last year. His family stewed an old hen for him every day, saying that he should drink soup to replenish his nutrition and not allow him to eat meat. As a result, his albumin was still low after half a month. After being scolded by the doctor, he started eating chicken. Within a week, the index came up - 90% of the soup is fat and purine, and all the real protein is in the meat. Don't believe the old saying that "drinking soup is better than eating meat".

Some people also ask whether the supplement can be taken? Some people say that supplements are all IQ taxes, while others say that they must be taken every day. My own experience is that if you often go on business trips and eat takeout every day, and you really can’t guarantee that you eat a pound of vegetables, half a pound of fruit, and enough protein every day, then it’s absolutely fine to take some multivitamins, zinc tablets, etc. There is no need to carry it out. ； But if you can eat well at home every day and take a lot of supplements, it may increase the metabolic burden. For example, taking too much vitamin C can easily lead to kidney stones, and taking too much zinc can affect the absorption of copper. Too much is not enough.

In fact, after all is said and done, immunity is really not that mysterious. If you stay up until two or three o'clock every day and eat takeaways that are heavy in oil and salt, it will be useless even if you eat Cordyceps every day. Instead, add two more vegetables when cooking, eat an egg and drink a glass of milk every day, and eat enough fresh meat, eggs, vegetables, and fruits. This is more reliable than any sky-high-priced "immunity product." After all, your immune system has been with you for so many years, and what it wants is never delicacies, just a safe daily supply.