How to boost your immune system and prevent infections through balanced diet ?
What is a balanced diet?
• Balanced diet contains proper proportion of nutrients to maintain good health
• Requirement of nutrients differ as per his/her age, sex and physical activity
“Nutrition needs to be looked at, as a means of contributing to the overall health and his/her resistance to chronic disease not as a means of preventing specific deficiency disease”
What are nutrients?
Nutrients
are the components in foods that body needs to grow and stay healthy
What is the role of Nutrition?
• The human body requires energy, carbohydrates, proteins, iron, fiber, calcium, minerals, fluids, vitamins etc to increase its resistance power
• Infection increases the rate of metabolism and breakdown of the tissues may cause anorexia, and may impair nutrient absorption thus creates the need for extra nutrients
• Nutrition increases the capacity of human body to resist the stress response of infections
• Nutritionally deficient body remains susceptible to infections
• One should develop healthy eating habits to get nutrition through a balanced diet
What are healthy eating habits?
• Each food group provides specific nutrients required to maintain good health
• Eating habits should be developed as per the food pyramid to get proper proportion of nutrients
• Healthy eating habits provide necessary nutrients to boost immune system and prevent infection through antioxidants
What are antioxidants and what is their role ?
• Anti-oxidants are the free radical quenchers ("Free radicals" is a term often used to describe damaged cells that can be problematic)
• The body needs plenty of antioxidants to defend itself against the assault of free radicals on healthy cells
• They boosts your immune system which prevents infections, reduce respiratory tract infections, inflammation in arthritis, risk of heart diseases etc They also play important role in cold and chronic fatigue syndrome
• The body produces a range of its own protective antioxidants
• Foods are rich in antioxidants and it boosts the body's own supply of antioxidants
Some of the dietary sources of antioxidants are given below
