The beginning of the holiday season is also the unofficial beginning of the cold & flu season. The old adage ’tis better to give than receive is not part of my Christmas giving season tradition.
Did you get your flu shot? What other methods or precautions do you take to try to prevent getting the flu or giving your sickness to others?
I’ve always been a soap/water and germ X kind of guy. I also keep a arsenal of supplements ready to begin a steady barrage of “flu fighters” at the first sign of a cough/cold or any other ailment.
But there’s more research and experts who believe a healthy diet may be more a remedy than we thought in the past.
And yes, what you eat does matter. “We know for a healthy immune system you need a healthy diet,” says
Joan Salge Blake
, a registered dietitian nutritionist and clinical associate professor at Boston University. You need protein as well as micronutrients including vitamins C, A, and E and zinc, she says.The ideal way to get those nutrients, however, is to eat a healthful, varied diet, including sufficient protein and a variety of fruits and vegetables, says Poland. If you’re already doing that, it’s unlikely that you have major nutritional deficiencies. One exception is vitamin D, which is necessary for bone health and can be hard to get from food alone, though there’s not a consensus on the
cutoff for a vitamin D deficiency
.
Some
studies even say the good ‘ol Vitamin C
in studies isn’t much more than just a placebo or feel good way of dealing with the inevitable.
As much as I believe these. Something in me still tells me to keep the vitamin C, Zinc, sudafed etc handy. That’s if my hand washing and germ X don’t work.
Good luck as we head into cold-flu and Christmas season. Let us know if you have any secret weapons against cold-flu!
KFGO Morning Crew Digital Content – including Blogs, Podcasts
and social media posts are brought to you by the Wild Rice Bar and
Grill. Stop in for their Happy Hours Monday through Friday from 4 to 6! Wild Rice
Bar and Grill, a couple of minutes South of Fargo.
