IMMUNITY BOOSTING DIET PLAN

Immunity boosting diet plan

Where is your immunity: The ‘gut’?
Think of your immune system as the gatekeeper to your health. It protects you against external pathogens, parasites, viruses and most of all disease. Your immune system is further classified into the innate immune system and adaptive immune system. If you have a cut, bruise or injury, your innate immune system kicks in. To protect you, the antibodies attack healthy cell tissue as well—creating a state of chaos within the body. A prolonged imbalance of microbes in the gut eventually leads to an autoimmune state.

Your gut is like a tube actually starts at the mouth and ends at the anus. The collection of microorganisms that make our bodies their home are called human microbiota, and microbiome (the genetic code of each microorganism) is a miniature world of non-human organisms (microbiota) that flourish within your gastrointestinal tract. Microbes encompass: good bacterial, yeasts and enzymes. Our ‘gut flora’ defines our health. These sustain us and keep us going, and are largely concentrated in the ‘gut. ’Our gut microbes communicate with the part of the immune system located in the intestine.

The microbes in our gut control the responsiveness of the entire immune system. They dictate the small processes of immune response like a fever, to a larger response like determining how long you will stay with a cold. Your gut health is positively correlated with a strong immune system. An imbalance causes the T- and B-cells (also termed the killer immune cells) to attack harmless cells, triggering an autoimmune response.

How does Shonali help?

The Macrobiotic traditions cornerstone is including foods that strengthen the human microbiome, and this is what makes it unique. The Macrobiotic approach is one of the strongest ‘gut health’ diets in the World. Disease or lack of immunity stems from many reasons, but if you’re immune barrier (namely your ‘gut’) is weak, you need to work at it to strengthen it. Shonali is one of the only practicing Macrobiotic Graduates of the Kushi Institute in India and trained to handle your gut. She will work towards reasons that weaken it by removing triggers: medication, NSAIDs (painkillers), sugar, refined carbohydrates, refined oils, processed foods, stimulants: coffee, tea, alcohol, and many other foods that do not create a good ecosystem and create a strong immune system. A good immune boosting diet will also take into account inculcating a balance in food – the Macrobiotic tradition brings this in with its approach to ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ energies of foods. E.g., you have too much of sugar in the past and to make balance are also having too many eggs. This maybe hurting your immune system; in the Macrobiotic approach and its uniqueness lies in bringing you back to foods closer to balance, so you do not go through the yo-yo of ‘extreme’ foods.

Including wholesome, natural foods in an immune boosting diet are essential and a tailor-made diet to suit your health condition/ailment. For e.g., if you have candida; the way you manifest candida is very different from the way I would manifest it. Similarly, if you had ulcerative colitis; not everyone who suffers with this condition has the same symptoms.

These foods would include foods closer to nature: Whole grains, vegetables, whole beans/lentils, fruits, good health fats from foods, good quality salt, nuts, seeds, fermented foods. And a host of remedies made with these very foods to balance each condition and control symptoms.