With cold and flu season just around the corner, are you doing everything you can to stay healthy this winter?  Cold and flu medicines may manage symptoms, but there’s little they can do to ease the severity of a nasty bug.  However, just by eating the right combination of foods, you can boost your immune system and shorten a cold – or even fight it off completely!

Whenever we’re battling an illness, our system boosts our white blood cell count.  White blood cells, or leukocytes, are the part of our immune system that fights off infections and diseases by attacking the germ or bacteria that has invaded our body.  A handful of vitamins and minerals are key in white blood cell production, including Vitamins A, B6, B9 (folate) and vitamin D, as well as beta carotene, copper and zinc.  The more nutrients your body has on hand to boost white blood cell count, the faster it can boost your immune system response.  Here’s a list of 15 excellent food sources with the vitamins and minerals our immune system needs to stay in tip-top shape:

Fresh vegetables are also rich in polyphenols , a disease-fighting chemical compound found in plants. Green tea is an excellent source of the health-protecting polyphenols, as are dark berries such as blackberries, red and black grapes, blueberries and red cherries.

Food isn’t the only thing that boosts your immune system; drinking plenty of fluids, especially water, keeps the lymhpatic system in tip-top shape.  Your body need fluids to balance the lymphatic system, which plays an important part in a healthy immune response by filtering out foreign particles. Lymph fluids circulate throughout the body, helping perform multiple daily functions – including balancing bodily fluids and fighting off infection.

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