Nine Foods and Drinks To Significantly Boost Your Immune System

[David In Indy]

The cold and flu season is fast approaching. Those of us living in the northern hemisphere should start thinking of ways to keep ourselves healthy this winter.

Here is a list of 9 foods and drinks that will boost your immune system - in some cases up to 10 times its normal strength.

I'm already doing the black tea bit. I've been doing it for months. I'll be trying some of the other suggestions too.

And to our friends in the southern hemisphere, you may want to consider these too! Even though it is warming up down there, many of these foods and drinks will help protect you from infections and food poisoning. Your cuts and wounds will heal much faster too!

Let's all stay healthy!


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28982279/wid/11915773/?pg=10

[Kerry]

Many thanks for that useful info, David. I already do most of those things. I loooove garlic and probably eat way too much of the stuff every day. I can't get enough. Probably explains why I have no friends!      I take an Omega-3 fish oil capsule night and morning. It's a wonderful tonic and is so good for you on many levels, including lifting one's mood and combating depression. And I drink at least 5 cups of black tea a day - maybe more! 

[LauraGigs]

Yes, thank you for posting that!

It mentions orange-colored vegetables and fruit early on...  I love the fall traditions in cooking, where lots of pumpkin and sweet potatoes are used.  Cooked sweet potatoes can be kind of dense IMO, but I enjoy adding citrus to them.  A neat way of presenting it is to cut a bunch of oranges in half, scooping out the orange while leaving the skin intact, and mixing the orange in with the cooked sweet potato, along with canola-oil margerine and maybe some salt + pepper.  Then spoon the mixture back into the orange halves.  Optionally you sprinkle brown sugar on top, put the filled orange halves in the oven and brown them for just a minute.  My family does this as a Thanksgiving side.

[delalluvia]

Good list.  I eat and drink most of that already.

Yes, thank you for posting that!

It mentions orange-colored vegetables and fruit early on...  I love the fall traditions in cooking, where lots of pumpkin and sweet potatoes are used.  Cooked sweet potatoes can be kind of dense IMO, but I enjoy adding citrus to them.  A neat way of presenting it is to cut a bunch of oranges in half, scooping out the orange while leaving the skin intact, and mixing the orange in with the cooked sweet potato, along with canola-oil margerine and maybe some salt + pepper.  Then spoon the mixture back into the orange halves.  Optionally you sprinkle brown sugar on top, put the filled orange halves in the oven and brown them for just a minute.  My family does this as a Thanksgiving side.

I LOVE baked sweet potatoes.  Just a little butter, salt and pepper and they're perfect to eat!

[Jeff Wrangler]

I LOVE baked sweet potatoes.  Just a little butter, salt and pepper and they're perfect to eat!

I like them that way, too. I never cared for them "candied." Way too sweet for me. Makes me the odd man out in my family at holiday dinners. 

[delalluvia]

I like them that way, too. I never cared for them "candied." Way too sweet for me. Makes me the odd man out in my family at holiday dinners. 

Same here.  When I was a teenager, I was only exposed to the ultra-rich sweet kind with all the marshmallows and stuff on them - and I didn't like them.  Then my first boyfriend introduced them to me the baked way and I've loved them that way ever since.

[Clyde-B]

I didn't see beer or whiskey anywhere on the list.  Must be some kind of oversight.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Same here.  When I was a teenager, I was only exposed to the ultra-rich sweet kind with all the marshmallows and stuff on them - and I didn't like them.  Then my first boyfriend introduced them to me the baked way and I've loved them that way ever since.

Oh, God, the marshmallow. ...    In my family, both sides of it, the cooks just used enough brown sugar and molasses to bring on a diabetic coma.

When I was in college, we always had a campus Thanksgiving Dinner about a week before Thanksgiving. The turkey was always served with baked sweet potatoes, sliced in half, as sort of a garnish around the edge of the platter. I'd just slap a little butter and salt on them, and thought they were very good eating that way. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I didn't see beer or whiskey anywhere on the list.  Must be some kind of oversight.

Must be. Alcohol is an antiseptic, after all.

[LauraGigs]

The turkey was always served with baked sweet potatoes, sliced in half, as sort of a garnish around the edge of the platter. I'd just slap a little butter and salt on them, and thought they were very good eating that way.  

The traditional Thanksgiving dinner is actually quite healthy (and delicious imo).  I wish it were served more often.  I absolutely love real cranberry relish. I like it with ground-up cranberries, some orange (again), and some agave nectar to cut the tartness.  YUM!!  Vitamins and antioxidants out the wazoo, too.