The 8 Power Foods That Supercharge Your Immunity

Supercharging your immunity means protecting your health from the most serious diseases on down to the common cold.

And making sure you eat plenty of the following 8 foods is one of the smartest and easiest ways to supercharge your immunity!

1. Bioflavanoids protect your body at the cellular level from environmental pollutants, and prevent cholesterol from forming plaque in arteries, reducing the formation of blood clots.

Brussels sprouts, green tea, broccoli, tropical fruits (mango, papaya), strawberries and sweet peppers are among the best choices.

2. Carontenoids have antioxidant action that finds and eliminates the excess free radicals that are responsible for speeding up aging and causing serious diseases like cancer.

This popular "color" plant pigment is plentiful in carrots, pumpkins, spinach, sweet potatoes and broccoli. By the way, it's better to get your carontenoids from foods than supplements because they're more protective against cancer.

3. Vitamin E boosts the formation of cells that seek and destroy cancer and germs.

Fruits and raw vegetables like broccoli, spinach and tomatoes may be good sources for vitamin E, but oils (sunflower, safflower) and nuts (almonds, hazelnuts and peanuts) are among the best.

4. Vitamin C is a widely known immunity supercharger, but there's more variety to be had than strictly eating oranges.

A half-cup of guava contains an amazing amount of vitamin C (188 mg) as does red sweet peppers (142 mg), kiwi and green sweet peppers (70 mg), grapefruit juice (50-70 mg) and strawberries (49 mg).

5. Selenium, a trace mineral in food, can boost your immune system, too. (Just don't overdo selenium).

Only sample Brazil nuts occasionally (544 mg), and look instead for roasted turkey meat, an egg bagel, boiled egg noodles, cooked cod and skinless, roasted chicken breast.

6. Garlic, the very potent relative of the onion, naturally improves the production of white blood cells and optimizes the efficiency of your antibodies, possibly due to the sulfur-based compounds like allicin, allium and N-acetylcysteine.

For your good health, some nutritional experts strongly suggest consuming at least two raw cloves of garlic every day and adding crushed varieties in your cooked foods (be sure not to overcook any foods or garlic you may add to foods).

7. Zinc is another important mineral that speeds the formation of infection-fighting white blood cells and has been touted as a proven cancer-fighter too.

Shitake, reishi and maitake mushrooms have an upper hand in terms of providing you zinc, but spinach, venison and calf's liver are good sources too.

8. Omega-3 fatty acids are crucial, not only to boost your immune levels, but to reverse premature aging too.

Out of all the power foods, Omega-3 with DHA and EPA fatty acids are probably the most important ones to remember from this list.That's partly because today people are so dangerously deficient in Omega-3 with DHA and EPA.

Fish are an important source of omega-3 fats.

U.S. News and World Report

Prevention

The Daily Green