Bad Food & Your Immune System

Avoid these food to keep your immune system strong & maintain wellness

Studies have shown that spikes in sugar level can suppress your immune system

When the system is suppressed, you’re more likely to become sick.

• Consuming foods high in sugar or carbohydrates – which a body processes into sugars – may be reducing your body’s ability to fight off invaders.

Here are some definite No-No’s if you’re looking to boost your immune system:

• Sodas: There are about 40 grams of sugar in a12-ounce soda. That’s more than the amount of sugar a man should be getting daily (36 grams) and way more than what women should be getting (25 grams).
  • Even sugarless sodas contain harmful chemicals like artificial sweeteners and phosphoric acid, which are both bad for your body even if they don’t affect the immune system.

• Processed Foods: Processed, simple sugars can reduce white blood cells’ ability to fight off invaders.
  • They also may increase inflammatory markers like cortisol. High sodium may have a similar effect.

• Saturated fats, which have been proven to be inflammatory, may change immune cell membranes, thus reducing their ability to function.
  • Omega-6 fatty acids increase inflammation, though the jury is still out on how much they affect the immune system.

• Anything High in Sugar: It’s not just sodas that contain high levels of sugar. Fruit juices or dried fruits can also give you a sugar spike that affects your immune system.
  • adding sugar to your coffee or tea can give the same effect, along with the diuretic effect of the caffeine .

Let’s not even think about desserts …

• Refined Carbohydrates: These are sugars and refined grains that have been stripped of all bran, fiber, and nutrients.
  • just thinking about that tells you they must be bad for you, doesn’t it?
• Examples of refined carbohydrates include: white bread, flour, and rice, pizza dough, pasta, pastries, most sweet desserts and most breakfast cereals.
  • These foods contain sugars that have already been broken down into their simplest forms, which means your body doesn’t even need to digest them to get that sugar spike.

• Alcoholic Beverages: Alcohol slows the immune system, making your white blood cells sluggish and far less effective.
  • heavy drinkers, in fact, may be far more likely to succumb to illnesses like tuberculosis or pneumonia, and are at increased risk for developing some types of cancer.

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