SUPER IMMUNITY FOODS - UNDERSTAND IMMUNITY

Apples, Oranges, and Antibiotics

Understanding Immunity

"In the next ten years", says Katherine Tucker, Ph.D., of the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, "individuals will go to their doctors, have their genetics analyzed, and be told, for example, that fish oil can help reduce their risk of heart disease and Alzheimer’s.” But there’s no need to wait for the science of nutrigenetics to hit its stride—you have all the tools for taking your health into your own hands at your local grocery store. With the help of this book, you can start eating all the super foods that boost immunity so you can stay fit and healthy, starting with your very next meal.

Super Immunity Foods: What, Where, and Why

And what are those super foods? Berries, tree fruits, root vegetables, leafy greens, and grains; plus the ancient healing food, yogurt; and vegetables from the sea, such as kelp and dulse. According to a study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, people who consume eight or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day may reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease by more than 20 percent compared to those eating only three servings a day. Even better, the risk and incidence of every other major disease, including diabetes, cancer, and arthritis, also declines as the intake of red, green, blue, white, and brown foods goes up. Red foods, such as tomatoes and cherries, provide the antioxidants lycopene and anthocyanins for a healthy heart and clean arteries, while yellow and orange foods provide vitamin C and bioflavonoids for healthy vision and lowered cancer risk.
Blue and purple foods are rich in plant nutrients called phenolics for diabetes control and antiaging benefits, while white foods like garlic and potatoes help lower cholesterol and control respiratory disease. Every whole food dishes up something important, but the twenty five foods that top the list and do the most to support immunity are apples, berries, broccoli, carrots, citrus fruits, dark leafy greens, green food powders, figs and dates, garlic, flaxseed, legumes, oats, olives, herbs and spices, mushrooms, potatoes, sea vegetables, squash, tomatoes, soy foods, nuts and seeds, whole grains, and yogurt.

Apples Versus Antibiotics: More Reasons to Eat Super Immunity Foods

In addition to improved health and vitality, there are a number of reasons for taking a proactive approach to your immunity and wellbeing. From commonly prescribed drugs to pollutants in the air and water (not to mention stress!), you have plenty of reasons to take your health into your own hands with super immunity foods.

An Epidemic of Antibiotics

Reaching for an apple, some oatmeal, or an herb before you have to start taking an antibiotic is smart. Antibiotics are now the leading cause of adverse drug reactions in the United States and the cause of often deadly strains of resistant bacteria. In addition, antibiotics are commonly overprescribed. Even though, for example, most sore throats are viral and not bacterial in nature (therefore, resistant to antibiotics), 73 percent of viral sore throats are often treated with an antibiotic prescription, according to a yearlong study by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
While super pills may help with super infections caused by bacteria, drugs such as penicillin and sulfur drugs can lower your resistance even as they help you fight back. In the process of killing those bad bugs, antibiotics deplete a wide spectrum of nutrients that are the foundation for immunity, including vitamin C, iron, zinc, and most of the B vitamins, plus bone-building vitamin K, calcium, and magnesium. In addition, antibiotics wipe out your good bacteria, so they are best used only when truly necessary—and even better, avoid them altogether with super immunity nutrition.

The Truth About Water from the Tap

Even those of us who don’t take antibiotics intentionally are getting them unintentionally. In recent studies, every body of water that the United States tested for drug residues contained trace amounts of antibiotics from human waste and from animal farms that use antibiotics as growth promoters. Tap water may also be contaminated with trace amounts of a rocket fuel chemical called perchlorate (also used in fireworks and safety flares) that can disrupt thyroid function and cause cancer in adults and mental retardation in newborns, according to the Environmental Working Group in a 2005 study. Toxins in our waters all lower immunity. According to researchers at the University of Texas, simply taking showers and using the dishwasher liberate trace amounts of chlorine. These are then inhaled, releasing by-products such as dioxin, which according to the Environmental Protection Agency is 300,000 times more potent a carcinogen than DDT.

Bad Habits Break Down Immunity

Immunity also breaks down in response to our deliberate bad habits. According to a recent World Health Report, unhealthy diets, inactivity, and tobacco use are the main culprits behind chronic ailments that cause 60 percent of all premature deaths from cancer, heart disease, and cancer each year. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that if this trend continues, new cancer cases worldwide may increase by 50 percent. Smoking is bad, and the use of recreational drugs isn’t any better. Did you know that delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the most active component in marijuana, depresses the immune response and makes the white blood cells in the respiratory immune center or elsewhere 35 to 40 percent less effective?

You Are Only as Healthy as the Foods You Eat

Eating defensively to build resistance is an art. The discrepancy between who we are and what we put in our bodies using our knives and forks, as critics have observed, has laid the groundwork for the current epidemic of illness and disease. According to USDA nutrition information between 1973 and 1997, nutrient levels in all fresh vegetables declined significantly. Calcium levels in broccoli alone dropped 53 percent. In not-so-fresh foods, things are even less nourishing. Besides everything else wrong with them, 70 percent of all processed foods contain gene-altered ingredients, whose long-term risks are unknown.
Processed foods, it turns out, are also delivery systems for residues of the flame-retardant polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which bioaccumulate in the body with unknown health consequences. Nine out of ten common grocery products contain them, including cheese, butter, eggs, and fish. According to the Pesticide Action Network, nine out of ten people also carry traces of the insecticide TCP as part of their body burden, along with breakdown products of DDT, which are used in growing nonorganic and especially imported fruits and vegetables. In addition, many of these chemicals can cause cancer, disrupt hormone systems, adversely affect fertility, and weaken the immune system.

A Breath of Not-So-Fresh Air: Environmental Pollutants and Everyday Stress

Other factors that contribute to decreased immunity include exposure to a wide and increasing range of pollutants in the air, water, and soil. There’s a wide range of other immunity-busting triggers, from mercury amalgam dental fillings, to an underactive thyroid, to allergies, to exposure to low-level radiation from cell phones and other devices. Even a mental outlook that is more down than up can do in your immunity.

The First Step to Super Immunity

Food can help—the right foods. That means a lot more fruits and vegetables than most of us eat. Elephants put away more than 6,000 cabbages, apples, carrots, and other vegetables a year. All you have to do is put away a minimum of five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day—focusing on the super immunity foods—to boost your immunity. It’s still a tall order, judging by how far most of us fall from the mark. But it’s worth the effort.

Did you know . . .
▶ The older you get, the less heart-essential coenzyme Q10 you have? Not so good, since 95 percent of the energy produced by the body depends on this electron transport chemical, making it important to eat more and more energy-producing greens, grains, and beans.
▶ Beans or grains that are refined or processed have a higher glycemic index? This means they raise your blood sugar higher per serving than their natural counterparts, leading to weight gain.
▶ Raw mushrooms contain potentially carcinogenic compounds that are destroyed by cooking?
▶ A cup of the ancient grain quinoa supplies as much protein as a glass of milk—and more calcium?

And how about conventional kitchen wisdom? Is it true, for example, what they say about an apple a day? And what about the anticancer qualities of soybeans? Building immunity aside, what do you do if you already have a disorder or condition that is the result of impaired defenses? How do you eat your way out of cancer, heart disease, allergies, or everyday headaches caused by stress?


Excerpts from the Introduction of the book "Super Immunity Foods' by Frances Sheridan Goulart, CCN, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.U.S.A, 2009.  Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.