Vitamins play a significant role in building up your immune system, but which vitamins should you be taking for a healthy immune system?
Unfortunately, too many of us don’t eat the food and take the vitamins we should to feel the best we can. Taking steps to include vitamins in your overall daily life is always good for your immune function, and can help fight infection, as well as give your white blood cells a better chance at jumping into action faster!
Read on to find out the vitamins, fruits and vegetables we recommend you take to help build your immune system.
Vitamin C
If you are prone to getting infections or colds often, vitamin C can help prevent them and shorten their stay. Vitamin C is in a lot of different foods like citrus fruits, but there are many other good sources like spinach, kale, peppers, strawberries and papaya. Vitamin C is in so many day-to-day foods, that you may not need to take supplements to help build your immune system.
If you have been recommended by your doctor, however, then we have a wide variety of different Vitamin C supplements to choose from.
Vitamin E
Just like Vitamin C, Vitamin E can also be very powerful and beneficial when it comes to building up your immune system.
Your source of vitamin E will come from high-fat foods like almonds, peanuts, seeds and oils. Vitamin C is a crucial part of how your immune system functions. Because of this, it is vital to be conscious of your vitamin C intake.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A is the real immune system boost, an infection-fighter that comes in two forms – such as animal foods like fish and meat, but also from plant carotenoids. When it comes to carotenoids the more colourful the better.
These are some foods we’d recommend eating to boost your vitamin A intake:
- Carrots
- Sweet Potatoes
- Pumpkin
- Butternut Squash
Vitamin A is an essential nutrient that plays an important role in many physiological processes primarily in maintaining the normal function of the immune system and normal maintenance of vision and skin. It also contributes to normal iron metabolism by controlling iron levels in the body.
Vitamin D
Known as the sunshine vitamin, this is one of the most important and powerful nutrients for supporting your immune system. With winter coming, sunshine is not something that is around too often, but there are other ways to get your recommended dosage.
Food sources that you’ll find plenty of Vitamin D in are fish foods, like salmon, mackerel, tuna and sardines. But if you don’t often eat fish, you can take vitamin D supplements to help you boost your immunity during the colder months.
It’s also important to note that In the UK, everyone is advised to take a vitamin D supplement during winter months.
Folic Acid
Folic acid is a vitamin often added to foods because of its varied health benefits for our bodies. Folic acid is found in a lot of fortified foods, but mostly in enriched pasta, bread and rice. It’s another essential vitamin to consider in your diet. It’s also great to take when battling immune system issues or to prevent any immune system issues from occurring.
Iron
Iron is an important vitamin that helps your body carry oxygen to cells, playing a massive part in boosting your immune system. Iron comes in a variety of different forms – it can be found in red meat, chicken, turkey, clams, mussels and more meat & fish options.
But don’t fret, if you’re vegetarian you can still get your required dose of iron to help boost your immune system, it’ll just be through foods like beans, broccoli and kale. If these aren’t foods you would normally choose to eat, it is very common for people to choose to take iron supplements.
Zinc
Zinc is great for helping the production of new immune system cells and is found primarily in animal-based foods like crab, oysters, lean meats and poultry. Zinc can also be found in some vegetarian food like chickpeas. However, if you’d prefer to measure the amount of zinc you are taking, then we have a range of zinc supplements to help with your immune system.
