Nutrition Hint--Boost Your Immune System With Some Holiday Favorites
Holiday Immune Food #1: Cranberries
There is a mounting pile of evidence behind the cranberry's immune boosting power. Research conducted at the University of Florida at Gainesville Food and Nutrition Institute showed that after just 8 weeks of eating them regularly, these bright little fruits enhanced immune cells and primed them to be ready to defend you.
Cranberries as sauce, juice or even dried can all give you some of cranberry's immune boosting help. But for best effects, look for recipes with minimal refined sugar, sweetened with other fruits or fruit juices instead.
Holiday Immune Food #2: Squash
Just the sight of squash's bright orange and yellows is enough to make you feel better. But it's not just their looks. Squash is high in beta carotene. Your body turns beta carotene into vitamin A which plays a key role in helping your immune system cells develop expert specializations so they can protect you better. See squash recipe below.
Holiday Immune Food #3: Garlic
When volunteers took a garlic supplement daily for 3 months, they experienced significantly fewer colds and spent significantly less time being sick than the placebo group.
There's a trick to using garlic to stay healthy, however. Garlic is really only effective when its unique sulfur compound, called allicin, starts to decompose. To get the decomposed allicin in your system, make sure you chop up your garlic and then wait for 10 minutes before cooking with it or mixing it with acids. This way you can be sure to get garlic's full fortifying effects.
Holiday Immune Food #4: Oats
Oatmeal is the perfect warming winter breakfast. And not just because it's hot .
Oats are high in beta glucans. Beta glucans are special carbohydrates that have been shown to help with immunity. Beta glucans seem to speed up your body's ability to locate invaders. And they seem to boost some immune cells resistance to viruses. In one study on firefighters, researchers found taking beta-glucan supplements daily reduced their rate of getting a cold by 23%.
(Source: Sun Chlorella, Natural Vitality)
He inspires me, encourages me and cooks for me so I can stay on track. I am very blessed to have him walk beside me on my journey to get healthy. I'm looking forward to more weight loss. 
It's kind of a double whammy . . . Just when the threat of getting sick is at its highest, we get hit with a festive parade of holiday sweets.
