Unfortunately, germs, stress, and illness don’t take vacations. Even in the summertime, we can get sick and run down. If you’re serious about performing at your best year-round, it’s worth optimizing how you support your immune system. As you likely know, the resiliency of your immune system keeps you feeling healthy and able to fight off disease, bacteria, and infections for maximum energy, fitness, and performance.
Here’s our best expert-approved Bala tips to give your immune system the top-tier support it needs. Feel amazing in a few days with these diet, lifestyle, and supplement tweaks to boost your immune system.
Eating for Immunity
For us, the secret to health lives in the gut. What you eat is how you feel. Support gut health and stay healthy with our latest rainbow of immunity-strengthening foods that will perfectly fit into your summertime routine.
Red Like a Bell Pepper
Fun Fact: Ounce for ounce, red bell peppers contain three times as much vitamin C as a Florida orange!
You’ve likely heard of pounding vitamin C to keep your immune system strong and healthy. It’s no myth, it’s science. Vitamin C increases the production of white blood cells, which are key to fighting infections and producing antibodies. More white blood cells means a quicker and more efficient response to any bacteria that you may have picked up.
Red bell peppers are also a rich source of beta-carotene, which your body converts into vitamin A, which keeps eyes and skin healthy. RBPs are also rich in folate which supports cell growth and B6 which improves brain function. Lastly, they’re rich in micronutrients which give your gut health a boost, which pays off across full-body health.
Crunch ‘em solo as a snack or roast ‘em on a grill - but make sure to add some red bell peppers into your summertime eating!
The Classic Orange and Yellows: Citrus
It’s not the apple a day that keeps the doctor away - it’s citrus.
Citrus fruits like oranges, clementines, kumquats, tangerines, and grapefruits are all vitamin C powerhouses that keep your immune system, hormones, and adrenals healthy. Whether it’s a daily breakfast citrus or a glass of lemon water, we can’t stress the importance of adding a blast of vitamin C to your diet.
Green Gold: Artichokes
Artichokes are ranked as the #1 vegetable in antioxidant value. Antioxidants combat oxidative stress which often weakens immune function and contributes to aging. By increasing your antioxidant load, you’re increasing your body’s fortification against stress and disease.
Artichokes are both prebiotic and probiotic-rich, which means that they both feed and increase your gut’s bacteria density (which is good!). A healthy gut means a healthy body. Steam or boil a few of these bad boys and have yourself a feast.
Royal Blues & Purples: Berries
To finish up our rainbow of health, we’re 100% Team Berry. From blueberries to blackberries to goji or elderberries, berries have an incredible antioxidant profile which delivers major immune system benefits.
Elderberries are high in quercetin, a bioflavonoid that can help lower histamine levels. They also stimulate the immune system and are especially helpful in fighting respiratory conditions.
Goji berries are known to increase energy levels and focus and contain over 100% of your daily vitamin A. (Which, as you’ll recall, are great for eyes and skin.)
And lastly, blackberries are known to support immune function with their richness of vitamin C, K, and manganese.
Go big for berries and stay healthy through summer and fall with these natural immune boosters.
How You Live is How You Feel
Along with eating right, we encourage a quick check on your lifestyle choices:
- Are you sleeping well and getting enough rest?
- Are you exercising and moving your body daily?
- Are you hydrating with electrolytes to boost your performance?
Sleep. Exercise. Water. These three quick lifestyle vectors are the three simplest health tips to support your immune system to stay healthy all summer long.
Sleep
Taking care of your sleep routine and hygiene is essential for good health. When you catch your Zzz’s, you’re giving your body and mind a moment to recover and repair. When you sleep, your T-cells are able to tackle any inflammation to help your body heal.
Beyond that, when you’re sleeping your body releases proteins that protect against infection and inflammation. When you skimp on sleep, you’re depriving your immune system of the time and tools it needs to fight and heal infections or imbalances in your body.
A final (might we say, sleeper?) benefit of getting enough rest is weight loss! Recent research revealed that every additional hour of sleep led to 162 fewer calories being consumed the next day. More sleep = weight loss + feeling good in your body. Cut in on sleep and your body’ll be less cut too.
Improve whole-body performance with the sleep you need. Your whole body will thank you.
Exercise
While getting a workout in might feel stressful or the opposite of a “healing” activity, working out actually triggers important immune system functions. When you hit the gym or you go for a run, you’re creating a temporary state of inflammation which triggers an even more powerful restorative immune system response.
Exercise also gets immune cells moving throughout the body during activity. These white blood cells circulate more rapidly during exercise and they then stay active well after exercise is completed. When you exercise, you’re also moving and draining your lymphatic system which cleanses the extra toxins, wastes, and pathogens from your body.
Exercising also puts your body under a bit (or a lot!) of strain in a way that can strengthen your overall response to stress. This fortifies your body and immune system to future health-stressing moments. While it’s not always true that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” exercise strengthens a variety of body systems, including your immune system. It’s your best natural remedy to boost immunity.
Water: Hydrate
Drinking water supports your body in fulfilling all its natural functions, including your immune system response. Drinking more water improves cell-to-cell communication and biochemical pathways. Being hydrated also helps your lymphatic system drain, removing toxins, wastes, and pathogens from your body. The more you can cleanse your body - inside and out - the healthier you will be!
When you hydrate, we recommend you think about the source of your water. Not all water is created equal. Spring water tops the charts, as it contains important minerals that support all aspects of body function. After that, it’s filtered tap water, which removes the excessive toxins, heavy metals, flourides, and even medications often found in common tap water.
Lastly, wash your hands! We all learned this during COVID - but taking those 20 seconds really does make a difference. Every time you wash your hands, you’re getting rid of the nasty bacteria or germs you have picked up throughout the day. By giving your hands a rinse, you’re freeing up your immune response to focus on other problem areas.
We’d also encourage you to opt for natural soup if you can. Along with being inexpensive and easy to source, you’ll avoid the often unnecessary perfumes and additives which offer no benefit to you. Our favorites are XXXX and XXXX. And ditch the antibacterial soaps, if you can. Like antibiotics, they also kill the good bacteria that your body needs. While antibacterial soap makers will never tell you this, they’re no more effective than a thorough handwash with natural soap. If you can, go natural.
Support Your Systems with Supplements
Once you’ve honed your diet and lifestyle choices, consider adding an immunity-boosting supplement or two into your immunity protocol. Along with the vitamins and supplements already mentioned in our healthy rainbow of food choices (Vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, manganese, and Elderberry), here are some additional immune system supports:
Vitamin D
D is definitely for defense. Vitamin D enhances the power of white blood cells to fight pathogens and infections. In addition, vitamin D decreases inflammation which keeps your body healthy and ready to fight off any germs that might be coming your way.
Zinc
On the other end of the alphabet, Zinc helps immune cell development and communication, reduces inflammation, and protects the tissue barriers in the body. By increasing your zinc uptake you’re fortifying your body’s defenses and boosting your immune system response.
Probiotic
By taking a probiotic supplement or supplementing with whole foods that are rich in probiotics (like kefir or sauerkraut), you’re giving your gut a direct supply of the good microbes and food they need to function and operate at their best. By supporting the good bacteria in your gut, you're improving your immune system function and leveling up your overall health.
Boost Your Immunity with Bala
Our Bala programs help you optimize your diet, sleep, and lifestyle so you can feel and perform your best. We help you adjust your diet and habits to get the most from your body by building a healthy gut microbiome and immune system function. Naturally level-up your full-body health with Bala.
Try our 14-day reset and boost to strengthen your body’s response and get back to your baseline. If you’re looking for a deeper exploration around resetting and reintroduction, join us for our six-week Pro System, in which you take a holistic approach to support your immunity and meet your health goals.
We’re here to help you find and keep good health. It’s better with Bala.
