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Super Foods to Keep Your Immune System Strong
In normal times, and especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, having a strong immune system can help you stay healthy. So what are some superfoods that can keep your immune system strong? We find out today with Karla Hamal, a Registered Dietician at Garden State Bariatrics and Wellness Center.
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Learn more about Karla Hamal
Karla Hamal
Karla Hamal, RD, has a wealth of experience and is highly trained, with a previous tenure at Saint Barnabas Hospital. Karla specializes in diet, nutrition, and eating adjustment after bariatric surgery.Learn more about Karla Hamal
Transcription:
Bill Klaproth: In normal times, and especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, having a strong immune system can help you stay healthy. So what are some super foods that can keep your immune system strong? Well, let's find out with Karla Hamal, a Registered Dietician at Garden State Bariatrics and Wellness Center.
Introduction: This is it, Living through Losing, a weight loss surgery, podcast from Garden State Bariatrics and Wellness Center.
Host: Hey Karla, thanks for your time. Great to talk with you. So why is our immune system so important when it comes to fighting off disease?
Karla Hamal: So your immune system is your white blood cells and the healthier that that system your immune system is, the better off your body is at fighting off disease, such as the disease that is the virus that we're fighting off currently. So if you have a stronger immune system, you have a better chance of fighting that off.
Host: And the good thing is we can ramp up our immune system, can't we strengthen our immune system through the food that we eat?
Karla Hamal: That's true. And evidence shows that nutrition and other lifestyle measures can influence your immune strength. Good nutrition is absolutely essential to a strong immune system.
Host: Okay, really good to know. So then what are these foods or super foods that we should pay attention to that will help us strengthen our immune system?
Karla Hamal: So eating certain types of foods, getting certain types of vitamins and minerals, show that it can help you with your immunity. So eating less fats. So lower fat foods are protective to your system because high fat fried foods, fatty meats, creamier white sauces can make a deficit and make it easier for certain types of viruses to break in, and they can also impair white blood cell function. And those white blood cells are the most important in keeping your immunity strong. Also, certain types of colorful foods, lots of fruits and vegetables. Studies show that the more fruits and vegetables and certain types of vitamins contained in them can help your immune system develop better and maintain its health.
Host: So when it comes to our fruits and vegetables, we should always look for a variety of colors when we're shopping.
Karla Hamal: Absolutely. The more color that you have in your body increases the different vitamins and minerals. And I can talk to you about some of those vitamin and minerals. But another very important component to this is something called an antioxidant. So the more antioxidants you can bring into your body, they block the negative cells. So I always tell people to think about an Apple and an antioxidant to stop the browning of an Apple would be the lemon you put on. It stops browning. So that is the antioxidant. It's blocking that action. So the more colorful, like you said, fruits and vegetables that you use, the different types of antioxidants, and blocking those negative viruses and bacteria that come into the system. So more colorful is very important.
Host: Okay. So that's very easy for us to remember. And yes. Let's quickly touch on vitamins. We hear a lot about Vitamin C and Vitamin D. how important are those two vitamins and what are the foods we should get to boost both C and D?
Karla Hamal: Absolutely. So Vitamin C supports your immune system. It formulates, it helps the body formulate those antibodies. And so in Vitamin C, people always think of just fruit, but some people are allergic to fruit. So citrus fruit is the first thing you think of. Oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, all those things. But if you're allergic to certain fruits, you can also try certain vegetables. Red pepper, papaya, strawberries, tomatoes and tomato juice are all strong components of Vitamin C. Vitamin D is the hardest one to get in. It's difficult to get that in, especially where we live because that's your sunshine vitamin. So the more sunshine that we get, the more our body is able to turn the Vitamin D into an active resource. A lot of us in this part of the country, we don't see the sun strong enough for several months. So that is an important vitamin because it reduces the risk for the viral infections that we're running into, including respiratory tract infections, which is exactly what COVID-19 is.
And by reducing production of your pro inflammatory compounds, so the more inflammation that you have in the body, the more that your body isn't able to fight as strong as it is. So it is your sunshine vitamin, but other places that you can get Vitamin D is more your fortified cereals and plant based milks. Things like that. It's one of those vitamins, like I said, that a lot of us do need to take supplements, but I do want to talk about supplements. No one food or supplement can prevent illness, but you want to make sure that you're getting it in, in your overall diet and you may need to take a supplement. Supplements are to help your body if you're not getting enough of that nutrient in. I happen to take a Vitamin D supplement. I love to be outside. I walk, but I do take a Vitamin D supplement.
Host: So obviously we're not dispensing medical advice, but what is a safe, normal general, if we're going to take a supplement amount of Vitamin C or D, we should try to supplement.
Karla Hamal: Well, daily RDAs are what you want to follow for Vitamin C, Vitamin D, it's constantly changing because they're finding how important Vitamin D is. So I happen to take 3000 IUs daily. If you're taking on a daily basis, under 5,000, they're showing it as safe. But some doctors are even saying up to 10,000, I take 3000 a day. I try to get out and walk on a daily basis because exercise also helps immunity, a healthy body. A healthy weight can also help. So if you try to get as much exercise and they eat as healthy as you can, you can strengthen your immunity. But, Vitamin C, I have a lot of people that are telling me that they're taking supplements. If you take too much of a supplement, you know, if you're taking a regular vitamin, it usually has your normal RDAs of Vitamin C for an average diet. But now people are supplementing to get 1000% of your RDAs and that's not necessary cause it's a water soluble vitamin. And so your body will only use what it needs and your body will get rid of the rest. So the other thing that they are finding from studies is if you have too much of certain types of vitamins and minerals, if you get 1000% of certain vitamins and minerals, it can also have a little bit of a detriment. So you want to make sure that you're eating as healthy as you can and if you feel like you, you can't get some of the things you need cause it's hard to shop. What you want to do is you want to take a supplement, a multivitamin that contains your Vitamin C 100% of your RDA.
Host: Okay. So help us out when it comes time to shop, when we go to the grocery store or have it delivered now because we're social distancing, what are the main foods we need to buy? Those super foods that are going to help us boost our immune system?
Karla Hamal: Well, you want to make sure that you get a healthy amount of protein in the diet because it also helps your immune system by helping with healing and any kind of recovery. If you do find that you're not feeling 100%. And you want to eat a variety of, again, low fat protein foods, seafood, lean meat, poultry, eggs. But I have a lot of patients that are vegan. So beans and peas, soy, tofu, nuts are also a very good source of protein. But you got to be careful again with the volume, a very small volume can have high calories. So if you're watching your weight, you want to really limit how much nuts and seeds, cause they can be very high. So I would say lean meats are very important to get another thing, Vitamin C so you know, stock up on some fruits and vegetables that you can get. We talked about protein, so scrambling egg and throw in some red pepper. Excellent. That's that way you're getting your Vitamin C and your protein. It also is giving you iron and iron is also extremely important to the body. And that comes in most of your proteins and it helps as well to have healthy blood to carry yourselves and to fight your virus cells. So those again are the same thing. So by eating lean protein, you're getting your iron and then it helps absorption of iron by having it with Vitamin C. So if you put that red pepper in protein or mixing the two together, you get better absorption. So that's a very good thing to do. Other things, other things that are also extremely good for you in protein sources are selenium. A lot of people don't hear about that, but that's very important for oxygenation of tissues and cells to help move those white cells in.
Host: How do we find what is, where do we find Selenium?
Karla Hamal: Selenium is again in your protein, chicken tofu. The same things come over and over and over. So you want to make sure that you are getting healthy, healthy, healthy protein. But it also is in things like shrimp. It's also in pork, seafood. And another thing, I love selenium, I love mushrooms. So now we're back to making that omelet. So you have an egg, mushrooms, red pepper, and you're getting a lot of mix of color and different vitamins. So all this is important.
Host: That's a really, I love that breakfast suggestion you just gave us. Okay. So keep going. What else should we be shopping for and maybe give us a lunch and dinner suggestion?
Karla Hamal: Again, we're talking about other types of vitamins. Zinc is another very important vitamin and mineral for immune system. Okay. And it helps again to heal you. So if you do not feel yourself or something is going on, where you catch a cold or zinc is going to help you get over it quicker. And that again is back to the same things we're talking about. Lean meat, poultry, seafood, milk is also important, beans, seeds, nuts, lentils, all those types of things. We talked about beans for protein. So you could for lunch, make a nice big lentil soup and you could put in different types of vegetables that might interest you or on the side, cut up an orange and have that on the side.
Host: I love lentil soup. You're making me hungry. Oh my goodness. Okay. So how about dinner? Give us a quick great suggestion for dinner. And what should we buy or shop for?
Karla Hamal: Again, you know, if you're keeping a colorful diet, so you're having some type of protein, whatever type of protein that you prefer. Let's say seafood. I love seafood, but not everyone does. So having a nice piece of fish for protein that also has a lot of that type of thing also has Vitamin E, and Vitamin E is also important for immunity. So if you're combining different things, you can combine a lot of, make a big salad, have lots of different colorful vegetables on your salad or even cut up again, some citrus fruit, some red pepper, put it tomato on it. All that type of thing is excellent. You're getting all your vitamins that you need. Another thing that's extremely important are probiotics. Another good option for say a breakfast is probiotics are extremely good to help again with inflammation and people are showing that the healthier the bacteria in your stomach, the healthier you can be more immune and your immunity is better. So in your healthy GI system to help with immunity, you can get a probiotic. I'm a huge fan of yogurt. That's another thing. Not as many people eat Sauerkraut. I happen to like it and kimchi. But if you wanted to get a supplement for a probiotic, that would be good as well. But yogurt with fruit would be a great choice for breakfast because you're getting your vitamins and all your different colors and you're mixing it with some probiotics and that's keeping your stomach healthy.
Host: You are a wealth of knowledge.
Karla Hamal: Thank you.
Host: Thanks again, Karla. We appreciate it. You have helped us put our shopping list together. Thanks again.
Karla Hamal: Thank you.
Host: That's Karla Hamal. For more information, please visit the Garden State Bariatrics and Wellness Center website at gsbwc.com. That's gsbwc.com. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is Winning Through Losing, a weight loss surgery podcast with Garden State Bariatrics and Wellness Center. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.
Bill Klaproth: In normal times, and especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, having a strong immune system can help you stay healthy. So what are some super foods that can keep your immune system strong? Well, let's find out with Karla Hamal, a Registered Dietician at Garden State Bariatrics and Wellness Center.
Introduction: This is it, Living through Losing, a weight loss surgery, podcast from Garden State Bariatrics and Wellness Center.
Host: Hey Karla, thanks for your time. Great to talk with you. So why is our immune system so important when it comes to fighting off disease?
Karla Hamal: So your immune system is your white blood cells and the healthier that that system your immune system is, the better off your body is at fighting off disease, such as the disease that is the virus that we're fighting off currently. So if you have a stronger immune system, you have a better chance of fighting that off.
Host: And the good thing is we can ramp up our immune system, can't we strengthen our immune system through the food that we eat?
Karla Hamal: That's true. And evidence shows that nutrition and other lifestyle measures can influence your immune strength. Good nutrition is absolutely essential to a strong immune system.
Host: Okay, really good to know. So then what are these foods or super foods that we should pay attention to that will help us strengthen our immune system?
Karla Hamal: So eating certain types of foods, getting certain types of vitamins and minerals, show that it can help you with your immunity. So eating less fats. So lower fat foods are protective to your system because high fat fried foods, fatty meats, creamier white sauces can make a deficit and make it easier for certain types of viruses to break in, and they can also impair white blood cell function. And those white blood cells are the most important in keeping your immunity strong. Also, certain types of colorful foods, lots of fruits and vegetables. Studies show that the more fruits and vegetables and certain types of vitamins contained in them can help your immune system develop better and maintain its health.
Host: So when it comes to our fruits and vegetables, we should always look for a variety of colors when we're shopping.
Karla Hamal: Absolutely. The more color that you have in your body increases the different vitamins and minerals. And I can talk to you about some of those vitamin and minerals. But another very important component to this is something called an antioxidant. So the more antioxidants you can bring into your body, they block the negative cells. So I always tell people to think about an Apple and an antioxidant to stop the browning of an Apple would be the lemon you put on. It stops browning. So that is the antioxidant. It's blocking that action. So the more colorful, like you said, fruits and vegetables that you use, the different types of antioxidants, and blocking those negative viruses and bacteria that come into the system. So more colorful is very important.
Host: Okay. So that's very easy for us to remember. And yes. Let's quickly touch on vitamins. We hear a lot about Vitamin C and Vitamin D. how important are those two vitamins and what are the foods we should get to boost both C and D?
Karla Hamal: Absolutely. So Vitamin C supports your immune system. It formulates, it helps the body formulate those antibodies. And so in Vitamin C, people always think of just fruit, but some people are allergic to fruit. So citrus fruit is the first thing you think of. Oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, all those things. But if you're allergic to certain fruits, you can also try certain vegetables. Red pepper, papaya, strawberries, tomatoes and tomato juice are all strong components of Vitamin C. Vitamin D is the hardest one to get in. It's difficult to get that in, especially where we live because that's your sunshine vitamin. So the more sunshine that we get, the more our body is able to turn the Vitamin D into an active resource. A lot of us in this part of the country, we don't see the sun strong enough for several months. So that is an important vitamin because it reduces the risk for the viral infections that we're running into, including respiratory tract infections, which is exactly what COVID-19 is.
And by reducing production of your pro inflammatory compounds, so the more inflammation that you have in the body, the more that your body isn't able to fight as strong as it is. So it is your sunshine vitamin, but other places that you can get Vitamin D is more your fortified cereals and plant based milks. Things like that. It's one of those vitamins, like I said, that a lot of us do need to take supplements, but I do want to talk about supplements. No one food or supplement can prevent illness, but you want to make sure that you're getting it in, in your overall diet and you may need to take a supplement. Supplements are to help your body if you're not getting enough of that nutrient in. I happen to take a Vitamin D supplement. I love to be outside. I walk, but I do take a Vitamin D supplement.
Host: So obviously we're not dispensing medical advice, but what is a safe, normal general, if we're going to take a supplement amount of Vitamin C or D, we should try to supplement.
Karla Hamal: Well, daily RDAs are what you want to follow for Vitamin C, Vitamin D, it's constantly changing because they're finding how important Vitamin D is. So I happen to take 3000 IUs daily. If you're taking on a daily basis, under 5,000, they're showing it as safe. But some doctors are even saying up to 10,000, I take 3000 a day. I try to get out and walk on a daily basis because exercise also helps immunity, a healthy body. A healthy weight can also help. So if you try to get as much exercise and they eat as healthy as you can, you can strengthen your immunity. But, Vitamin C, I have a lot of people that are telling me that they're taking supplements. If you take too much of a supplement, you know, if you're taking a regular vitamin, it usually has your normal RDAs of Vitamin C for an average diet. But now people are supplementing to get 1000% of your RDAs and that's not necessary cause it's a water soluble vitamin. And so your body will only use what it needs and your body will get rid of the rest. So the other thing that they are finding from studies is if you have too much of certain types of vitamins and minerals, if you get 1000% of certain vitamins and minerals, it can also have a little bit of a detriment. So you want to make sure that you're eating as healthy as you can and if you feel like you, you can't get some of the things you need cause it's hard to shop. What you want to do is you want to take a supplement, a multivitamin that contains your Vitamin C 100% of your RDA.
Host: Okay. So help us out when it comes time to shop, when we go to the grocery store or have it delivered now because we're social distancing, what are the main foods we need to buy? Those super foods that are going to help us boost our immune system?
Karla Hamal: Well, you want to make sure that you get a healthy amount of protein in the diet because it also helps your immune system by helping with healing and any kind of recovery. If you do find that you're not feeling 100%. And you want to eat a variety of, again, low fat protein foods, seafood, lean meat, poultry, eggs. But I have a lot of patients that are vegan. So beans and peas, soy, tofu, nuts are also a very good source of protein. But you got to be careful again with the volume, a very small volume can have high calories. So if you're watching your weight, you want to really limit how much nuts and seeds, cause they can be very high. So I would say lean meats are very important to get another thing, Vitamin C so you know, stock up on some fruits and vegetables that you can get. We talked about protein, so scrambling egg and throw in some red pepper. Excellent. That's that way you're getting your Vitamin C and your protein. It also is giving you iron and iron is also extremely important to the body. And that comes in most of your proteins and it helps as well to have healthy blood to carry yourselves and to fight your virus cells. So those again are the same thing. So by eating lean protein, you're getting your iron and then it helps absorption of iron by having it with Vitamin C. So if you put that red pepper in protein or mixing the two together, you get better absorption. So that's a very good thing to do. Other things, other things that are also extremely good for you in protein sources are selenium. A lot of people don't hear about that, but that's very important for oxygenation of tissues and cells to help move those white cells in.
Host: How do we find what is, where do we find Selenium?
Karla Hamal: Selenium is again in your protein, chicken tofu. The same things come over and over and over. So you want to make sure that you are getting healthy, healthy, healthy protein. But it also is in things like shrimp. It's also in pork, seafood. And another thing, I love selenium, I love mushrooms. So now we're back to making that omelet. So you have an egg, mushrooms, red pepper, and you're getting a lot of mix of color and different vitamins. So all this is important.
Host: That's a really, I love that breakfast suggestion you just gave us. Okay. So keep going. What else should we be shopping for and maybe give us a lunch and dinner suggestion?
Karla Hamal: Again, we're talking about other types of vitamins. Zinc is another very important vitamin and mineral for immune system. Okay. And it helps again to heal you. So if you do not feel yourself or something is going on, where you catch a cold or zinc is going to help you get over it quicker. And that again is back to the same things we're talking about. Lean meat, poultry, seafood, milk is also important, beans, seeds, nuts, lentils, all those types of things. We talked about beans for protein. So you could for lunch, make a nice big lentil soup and you could put in different types of vegetables that might interest you or on the side, cut up an orange and have that on the side.
Host: I love lentil soup. You're making me hungry. Oh my goodness. Okay. So how about dinner? Give us a quick great suggestion for dinner. And what should we buy or shop for?
Karla Hamal: Again, you know, if you're keeping a colorful diet, so you're having some type of protein, whatever type of protein that you prefer. Let's say seafood. I love seafood, but not everyone does. So having a nice piece of fish for protein that also has a lot of that type of thing also has Vitamin E, and Vitamin E is also important for immunity. So if you're combining different things, you can combine a lot of, make a big salad, have lots of different colorful vegetables on your salad or even cut up again, some citrus fruit, some red pepper, put it tomato on it. All that type of thing is excellent. You're getting all your vitamins that you need. Another thing that's extremely important are probiotics. Another good option for say a breakfast is probiotics are extremely good to help again with inflammation and people are showing that the healthier the bacteria in your stomach, the healthier you can be more immune and your immunity is better. So in your healthy GI system to help with immunity, you can get a probiotic. I'm a huge fan of yogurt. That's another thing. Not as many people eat Sauerkraut. I happen to like it and kimchi. But if you wanted to get a supplement for a probiotic, that would be good as well. But yogurt with fruit would be a great choice for breakfast because you're getting your vitamins and all your different colors and you're mixing it with some probiotics and that's keeping your stomach healthy.
Host: You are a wealth of knowledge.
Karla Hamal: Thank you.
Host: Thanks again, Karla. We appreciate it. You have helped us put our shopping list together. Thanks again.
Karla Hamal: Thank you.
Host: That's Karla Hamal. For more information, please visit the Garden State Bariatrics and Wellness Center website at gsbwc.com. That's gsbwc.com. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is Winning Through Losing, a weight loss surgery podcast with Garden State Bariatrics and Wellness Center. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.