Welcome to Issue #30 of the Walking Inspiration Newsletter! This week, we're diving into the powerful connection between nutrition and immune health. In our fast-paced lives, supporting immunity often starts with mindful choices on the plate.
From antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables to essential vitamins, minerals, and even superfoods, discover how nourishing your body with the right foods can boost your defenses, support energy, and keep you feeling your best all year round.
“What most people don’t realize is that food is not just calories; it’s information. It actually contains messages that connect to every cell in the body.” – Dr. Mark Hyman
Step 1: Eat Your Vegetables
We would do better to eat eight or nine portions of fruit and vegetables a day rather than the recommended five. Aim for a daily rainbow of colors, as the different hues bring different nutrients - and go for more vegetables than fruit to avoid a high sugar intake. Include purple vegetables for powerful antioxidants and green leafy veg for the relaxing mineral magnesium, which also helps the body absorb calcium and strengthens bones.
Make simple switches, like using red cabbage instead of white for coleslaw and red onions when cooking.
Easy Health Tip of the Week: Balance blood sugar
Always have breakfast within an hour of waking, eat every four hours if you can and have protein with each meal as it slows the release of carbohydrate sugars into the blood, which stops our blood-sugar levels yo-yoing. When they swing, we overuse insulin, gain body fat and initiate inflammation. Too much insulin also triggers an inflammatory response that depletes the immune system and makes us more susceptible to winter illness.
Step 2: The Power of Omegas
We can boost our immune system year-round with the right diet. 'Omega-3 fatty acids are naturally anti-inflammatory and are found in oily fish - eat as much as you like of the smaller ones like anchovies and sardines, which are lower down the food chain and have a lower risk of toxins, such as mercury, than their larger cousins. Also try flax seeds, hemp seeds and oils, chia seeds and walnuts too, which are also naturally rich in omega 3.
An easy way to add omegas to your diet is to Add a tablespoon of ground flaxseed to your hot or cold breakfast cereal. Add a teaspoon of ground flaxseed to mayonnaise or mustard when making a sandwich. Mix a tablespoon of ground flaxseed into an 8-ounce container of yogurt. Bake ground flaxseed into cookies, muffins, breads and other baked goods.
Try Spectrum Essentials Organic Ground Premium Flaxseed, 24 Oz for just $11.80.
Did You Know: What to avoid Eating
When it comes to your 'avoid' list, remember that saturated fat is thought to contribute to inflammation. Avoid, or eat only minimally, high-fat cheese and intensively reared meat. Free-range and organic meat, which has had room to roam and eaten a natural plant-based diet, has a healthier fatty acid composition. Refined sugar - as used in sweets and cakes, colas and processed food - can spike blood-sugar levels and trigger the release of insulin, a hormone that may trigger inflammation.
Step 3: Get Plenty of Wholefoods
We need wholegrains, beans and pulses for inflammation-reducing B vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals such as magnesium (good for the nervous, muscular and cardiovascular systems), potassium (essential for the heart, kidneys, muscles, nerves, and digestive system to operate normally, and for regulating fluid balance and blood pressure). Antioxidants are lost from white refined products. Stick to wholemeal bread, brown rice and wholewheat pasta, and try other carb choices, such as quinoa, spelt and rye.
Step 4: The Power of Vitamin D
A Cambridge University study found that our immune system function varies with the season. And many of these seasonal genes are involved in the immune system and inflammation. A Danish study in 2010 also found that vitamin D “triggers and arms” the immune system and is part of a complex process in which white blood cells help to fight infection.
So how do we keep our vitamin D levels up? Most people need 10 to 15 minutes of Daily Sun exposure between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM, without sunscreen.
To counter the effects of winter inflammation exercise regularly. Your body reduces blood flow to your peripheral areas when it's cold to conserve the flow of warm blood around the heart, meeting joints become inflexible and painful period exercising keeps them supple.
Taking warm baths and wrapping up well is also reduces the stiffness and pain.
Two forms of vitamin D are available in supplements: vitamin D3 and vitamin D2. Both can help correct vitamin D deficiency, but most doctors recommend D3 because it is slightly more active and therefore slightly more effective.
The Benefits of taking Vitamin D3 and Vitamin K2 together:
While vitamin D3 helps your body absorb more calcium, vitamin K2 helps your body transport it to your bones and teeth rather than letting it sit in your arteries and other soft tissues in your body. This not only helps to promote bone health, but it also helps to keep your heart healthy as well.
Give a look at Nature Made Vitamin D3 K2, 5000 IU (125 mcg) Vitamin D, Dietary Supplement for Bone, Teeth, Muscle and Immune Health Support, 30 Softgels, 30 Day Supply… Just $11.96.
Product of the week:
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Walk on,
Frank Ring
Author: Walking for Health and Fitness, and Fitness Walking and Bodyweight Exercises, Walking Inspiration, and Walking Logbook Journal
Contact Frank at Frank@walkingforhealthandfitness.com
