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How to boost your immunity naturally? In this time of increased stress levels, fast paced lifestyles and poor nutrition our poor immune systems have taken quite a hammering. Here are a few steps to help give our immune systems a well deserved boost.

Step 1 is Nutrition

Good nutrition is absolutely vital for boosting your immunity naturally. A wide variety of foods is important to insure that you get adequate anti-oxidant properties. I always try to go for a rainbow of colour throughout the day, generally speaking dark green vegetables provide a good supply of folate , while orange & red foods seem to contain antioxidants. Having a variety of different colours seems to keep your best balanced nutritional choices.

It is important to have plenty of the anti-oxidant vitamins A,C & E. Antioxidents are nutrients that fight against free-radicals in your system. Free-radicals essentially damage cells, much as rust on a car, taking antioxidants is a bit like using a primer on your car body to prevent rust. Antioxidant rich foods include pumpkin, sweet potato, tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, carrots, peppers and broccoli.

You also require adequate amounts of the minerals zinc and selenium. Zinc is essential for supporting the immune system, it has been found that when zinc levels are low in the body then there is a lack in the number of white blood cells present. White blood cells are the soldiers of our immune system. Zinc is found in oysters, crab, turkey & some zinc-fortified breakfast cereals. Selenium causes an increase in the number of white blood cells and also mobilizes cancer-fighting cells. Good food sources of selenium include tuna, lobster, whole grains, brown rice and brazil nuts.

Omega 3 fatty acids are also important. Omega 3 helps to increase the activity of the white blood cells, as well as helping to protect the body against over-reactions to infections. Omega 3 is found in fatty fish such as mackerel and tuna and also in flaxseed oil. Flaxseed oil is actually one of the best sources and with it's mild nutty flavour is easy to use as a dressing on vegetables.

Pro biotics is essential for the immune system. Inside our body we have healthy bacteria that lives in our intestine, when "bad" bacteria upsets the balance with our "good" bacteria then it weakens our immune system. Pro biotics is found in "live" yoghurt. If you need to take anti-biotics it is a good idea to take acidophilus capsules to help maintain the healthy bacteria as anti-biotics cannot

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