How to Boost Immunity Naturally During Flu Season

You know those people who catch every single cold that goes around? That was me for the first 22 years of my life. And not only did I catch respiratory virus I encountered, but they seriously knocked me out, sometimes for weeks on end. At the time I thought this was just the way my body was. I figured I just had a bad immune system and there was little, if anything, that could be done. Sound familiar?

If you’re new here, let me take a minute to introduce myself. I’m Nicole, a Certified Holistic Nutritionist whose specialty is helping others live anti-inflammatory, immunity-boosting, low-toxin lifestyles. If this resonates with you, then keep on reading.

Part of what inspired me to earn my credentials as a Certified Nutritionist was impact that changing my diet made on my immunity – and I’m talking in only a matter of weeks! Not only did the colds disappear, but symptoms that I’d always had, such as eczema, chronic congestion, and IBS, disappeared almost immediately, too. When three or four months went by and I hadn’t caught a cold, I realized just how strong the connection was between what we put in our body and our health (duh, right?!).

As a Nutritionist, I don’t claim to be able to cure the cold or flu with any of these remedies and I don’t claim to be able to entirely prevent you from getting sick. But these are the steps that I take daily, especially during cold and flu season, to strengthen my immune system and keep my defenses strong.

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Warm lemon water

I drink this morning and night. I do a cup of hot water with half a lemon squeezed into it in the mornings and then I do a second cup at night with the other half of the lemon, so a total of one full lemon per day. You could benefit from using other citrus fruits such as limes or oranges as well if you wanted to change it up.

The juices from fruits like lemons and limes are rich in Vitamin C, which is important for supporting the immune system. Vitamin C is burned more rapidly when we are under stress, and we all know how stressful the fall and winter months can be with holidays and end of year deadlines. Therefore, I like to support my immune system with this daily ritual.

Warm lemon water also supports digestion. Good gut health is key for a strong immune system. Drinking this morning and night helps to keep me regular, meaning I’m consistently moving things along, flushing out toxins, and not becoming backed up and sluggish.

Eating my favorite fall colors

Fall is a great time of year to enjoy things like pumpkin, sweet potato, butternut squash, ginger, and roasted carrots. They’re in season so they’re not only delicious, but more affordable. These orange and yellow colored vegetables are also particularly great for supporting immune health! You can visit my recipes page for some quick and easy ways to incorporate these vegetables into any meal of the day (even dessert!).

I like to start heavily incorporating these veggies early on in the fall season so the nutrients they hold can start building up and arming my immune system.

Getting in my probiotics

Like I said before, good gut health is key to a healthy immune system. Keeping your gut health on track means having a good balance of the bacteria that live in your gut. A great way to do this is to ensure that you’re getting sufficient probiotics. You can, of course, do this through supplements, but those can be pricey and many of the probiotic supplements on the market have questionable results, at best. If you’re not looking to spend the money on supplements, or if they just haven’t worked for you in the past, a great alternative is to eat probiotic-rich foods.

I like to incorporate non-dairy yogurt almost daily. Foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha and pickled foods are a great way to get in healthy probiotics to support your gut health.

Antioxidants

Antioxidant-rich foods are crucial for supporting the immune system. Ensuring you are getting in antioxidant-rich foods year-round is important, but I like to especially double down during this season.

My first recommendation is to eat dark colored fruits – think blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries. These dark fruits are high in fiber, lower in sugar, and high in antioxidants that support immunity.

Second, I love to incorporate green tea daily. Green tea is another great source of antioxidants and, in my opinion, is warming and cozy during the winter months. If hot tea isn’t your thing, you can also enjoy it chilled. My recommendation is to add little to no sugar because sugar can disrupt gut health, cause inflammation, and force your immune system to have to work harder.

Finally, I recommend dark, leafy greens such as kale, spinach, and arugula. These greens are nutrient dense and fiber rich, so they’re supporting your immune system and aiding digestion. These dark greens are also in season this time of year, generally making them more affordable.

Supplementation

And of course, I always make sure to take a supplement. You want to talk to your doctor before adding a supplement to your daily regimen. Usually, a blood workup at a routine physical can tell you where you stand and what supplements would be ideal.

Personally, I use Ritual Multivitamins. There are a few reasons why I love Ritual so much. First off, they use clean, gluten-free, vegan ingredients. If you read the ingredients on most vitamins, you’ll find they might contain soy, dairy, sugars, weird gums, and God knows what else – as a Nutritionist, I feel like it’s very contradictory to take a supplement for health that has ingredients that are going hurt my health over time. Ritual has none of that weird stuff and is gentle enough to take on an empty stomach.

Second, the company believes in a food-first approach to health. They treat their supplements as just that – supplements. Many multivitamins have high levels of vitamins that are easily accessed in foods and lower levels of the vitamins most people generally are deficient in, such as Vitamin D or Magnesium. Ritual takes this into consideration, and their multivitamins are a perfect blend of high-quality nutrients your body actually needs.

Finally, and perhaps this makes me lazy, but they’re delivered straight my door each month. This means I don’t have to remember to restock, and I always have them available to take with breakfast. This is especially helpful during the fall and winter season where I have a million other things on my to-do list.

So, there you have it. Those are my daily habits for supporting immunity during cold and flu season. When in doubt, I remind my clients to keep it simple and focus on nutrient-dense, real food ingredients. If you want more information on supporting an anti-inflammatory, immunity-boosting lifestyle, make sure you subscribe to my monthly newsletter (below!) where you’ll get the latest information and tangible tips delivered straight to your inbox!

Until next time…

-Nicole