As an old saying states “Health is wealth”, we all have felt this hard for the past year. Coronavirus Pandemic gave a horrifying impression on the immunity and health sector all over the world. India was one of the most affected countries by novel coronavirus pandemic. Many people who had covid feel that still there is some recovery left. Studies show that majority of people with a strong immune system were more likely to tackle covid better. The immune system builds an army in your body to fight and prevent harmful viruses and bacteria. Thus, having a strong immune system is very crucial.
We may try to adapt many measures that can help us in boosting our immunity. But, it’s difficult to achieve positive results if we are of concentrating on avoiding things that degrade our immunity. It’s very important to know that what affects our immunity and how.
Diet is a very crucial part of your healthy well-being. Research shows that the food habits of a person affect his health the most. So, in order to boost your immunity, you should know that what food items favour or degrade your immunity system. Thus, here are some food items that you should avoid consuming in large quantities in order to achieve strong immunity goals.
1. Reduce Added Sugar
It is true that added sugar does not only affect your immunity but is also harmful to your overall health. Food with a high quantity of added sugar results in increasing the production of inflammatory proteins in our bodies. Some of the inflammatory proteins are tumour necrosis alpha (TNF-α), C-reactive protein (CRP), and interleukin-6 (IL-6). These proteins have a negative impact on your immune system. This is more relevant to the people diagnosed with diabetes. This is because people with diabetes have increased blood sugar levels. Hence, added sugar affects them more than people having stable blood sugar levels.
High blood sugar levels can be a hindrance in working of two most important immune cells, neutrophils and phagocytes. These cells help in preventing our body from harmful infections. Added sugar affects their working which ultimately results in degrading our immunity. A high level of added sugar may harm gut barrier function. This can result in gut bacteria imbalance which suppresses your immune response and makes you prone to infections.
A study conducted in 2012 including 562 participants shows that people with high blood sugar levels were less likely to respond positively against any infection. Hence, you must avoid added sugar in order to safeguard your immunity.
Also Read: 5 best possible ways for weight loss without dieting.
2. Avoid Food With High Fats
A diet rich in saturated fat is associated with the degradation of your immunity. Food rich in saturated fat may open the gateways that increase inflammation in your body. And as we know, inflammation suppresses immunity. Diet rich in fats may also make your body a host for infections. This hinders the functioning of white blood cells.
Studies also show that High-fat concentration damage the intestinal lining. This has the potential of increasing the chances of catching infections quickly. Also, food items with a high concentration of saturated fats carry a huge amount of calories. An increase in caloric intake results in obesity which is not a good sign.
Scientists from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging have found that the over-consumption of saturated fats may actually be a form of malnutrition that triggers the immune system to start attacking healthy parts of the body.
Though, healthy fats like avocados, seeds, olives are good fats that help you in boosting your immunity. Hence, it is very important to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy fats.
Also Read: 8 Easy Home Remedies for Weight Loss
3. Reduce Intake of Sweetened Beverages
As mentioned above, added sugar have a very negative impact on our immunity. But precisely, Sweetened Beverages have much worse effect on your body. Studies show that sweetened beverages contain more calories than solid food items. Artificially sweetened Beverage is associated with weakening white blood cells and suppresses the immunity response.
Research shows that such beverages also promote an imbalance in gut bacteria composition. Though not all studies support this argument, theory proves the potential of this scenario.
Beverages with high sugar like soda contain more calories and less nutritional value. Alcohol also contains calories and increases your appetite resulting in making you overeat. This results in weight gain. Weight Gain is a good sign for your overall health. It helps bacteria and viruses to enter your body easily.
Though, moderate intake of such beverages won’t affect your immune system. But excessive of it can have bad consequences.
4. Avoid Fried Food
Fried Food is an all-time favourite for foodies. But these lip-smacking snacks may fulfil your cravings but can have a very bad consequence on your immunity. Salt & oil are a lethal combination that not only hampers your immune system but also causes lethargy.
Fried food is rich in some molecules known as advanced glycation end products (AGEs). These molecules are formed when sugars react with proteins or fats during high-temperature cooking. Fried food fulfils this criterion completely.
An increase in the level of AGEs increases inflammation and results in cellular damage. Not only this but an increase in AGEs also results in depleting your body’s antioxidant mechanisms. It also induces cellular dysfunction, and negatively affects gut bacteria. Research shows that a diet rich in AGEs makes our body prone to many diseases like malaria. This also increases the risk of medical conditions like metabolic syndrome, certain cancers, and heart disease. So how to reduce the intake of AGEs?
Answer to is question is very simple. Avoid fried food such as french fries, potato chips, fried chicken, pan-fried steak, fried bacon, and fried fish as much as you can in order to boost your immune system.
5. Reduce Refined Carbohydrates
During the process of refining carbohydrates, they are stripped of almost all fibre, vitamins, and minerals. That’s why they can be considered as “empty” calories.
Refined carbohydrates have a higher glycemic index, which results in crashes in blood sugar. This increases the insulin level of the blood which results in the production of free radicals and inflammatory proteins like CRP. Diet rich in Refined Carbohydrates may alter gut bacteria, which can negatively affect your immune system.
Also, this leads to an increase in hunger and obesity. Studies show that people taking the higher value of refined grains are more likely to put on weight. Whole-grain products lead to reduce body fat. In order to boost immunity, one must avoid food items having refined fiber like pastries, pasta, white bread, processed food, etc.
