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 diseases. Your immune system is further classified into the Innate and Adaptive Immune systems. If you have a cut, bruise, or injury, your innate immune system kicks in. To protect you, the antibodies also attack healthy cell tissue—creating chaos within the body. A prolonged imbalance of microbes in the gut eventually leads to an autoimmune state.

Your gut is like a tube that actually starts at the mouth and ends at the anus. The collection of microorganisms that make our bodies their home is called human microbiota. The 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 bacteria, 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 immunity diet plan in the world. Disease or lack of immunity stems from many reasons, but if your immune barrier (namely your ‘gut’) is weak, you need to work at it to strengthen it. Shonali is one of the only practising Macrobiotic Graduates of the Kushi Institute in India and is 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 diet plan for immunity will also take into account inculcating a balance in food – the Macrobiotic tradition brings this in with its approach to the ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ energies of foods. For instance, you might have had too much sugar in the past, and to balance it, are also having too many eggs. This may be hurting your immune system. The Macrobiotic approach and its uniqueness lie in bringing you back to foods closer to balance so you do not go through the yo-yo of ‘extreme’ foods.

Besides including wholesome, natural foods, it is also essential for immunity diet plans to be customised to your unique health condition/ailment. For instance, even if we both had candida, how you manifest it would still differ from how I do. Similarly, no two patients with ulcerative colitis would display the same symptoms.

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