How to Strengthen the Immune System With Vegetables

Building a strong immune system is an important step you can take toward protecting yourself form all sorts of ailments like colds and flu, and perhaps even cancer. For years, scientists have recognized that vitamins and antioxidants derived from fresh fruits and vegetables are the key to building and strengthening the immune system. Makers of vitamins and other nutritional supplements would have you get your share of antioxidants by taking a pill. However, eating plenty of fresh vegetables will provide benefits beyond building your immune system--benefits like tasty meals, dietary fiber and an interesting, diverse meal plan.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

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1. Locate a source of vegetables. Your vegetable source can be the frozen food section of your local grocery store, an organic produce stand, a farmer's market, the produce department at the store, or your own backyard or vegetable patch.

2. Eat the rainbow. Get past the relish-and-dip tray combination of broccoli, carrots and cauliflower circled around a big bowl of thick ranch dip. Include red, green, orange, yellow and purple vegetables in your daily diet to maximize your sources of antioxidants.

3. Eat orange, yellow and red vegetables for beta carotene. Carrots, peppers, pumpkins, summer squash and tomatoes are all full of beta carotene and potassium. Your body uses beta carotene to strengthen the immune system, resist colds and skin disorders, improve night blindness and day vision, and slow the aging process.

4. Eat cruciferous vegetables for phytochemicals. Vegetables from the cruciferous family, like broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts and cauliflower, all contain phytochemicals such as Brassin, Indoles, Glucosinolates, Indoles and Isothiocyanates. These biochemicals have an antioxidant effect on the body, building the immune system and resisting toxins and disease.

5. Eat allium vegetables for healthy arteries. The phytochemicals in onions, garlic, chives, leeks and scallions help decrease high cholesterol and atherosclerosis--conditions that cause arteries to block or age prematurely.

6. Eat vegetable leaves, or "greens," for vitamins and minerals. Dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, radicchio, chard and silverbeet are rich in Vitamin C, B Vitamins, calcium, iron and magnesium. B Vitamins improve your immune system, boost the metabolism, and help maintain healthy skin and muscles.

Tips & Warnings

• Buy local, organically grown vegetables whenever you can. Pesticides can counteract the positive antioxidant effects.
• Some small, local growers can't afford the expenses associated with organic certifications, but they grow organic crops anyway because it's better for their families, their community and the environment. Ask grocers and growers where the vegetables come from before you buy them.
• Fresh vegetables are the most nutritious, but fresh doesn't always mean raw. Frozen vegetables are often processed the same day they are picked, making a frozen brussel sprout potentially more nutritious than one that has sat in the produce department for a few days.
• Tomatoes and carrots offer different nutrition when they are cooked than when they are raw. Add raw and cooked portions of both these vegetables to your meal plans to maximize their nutritional value.

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