4 Ways Nutrition Affects Your Health

Most of us know that good nutrition and physical activity can help us maintain a healthy weight, but it’s deeper than that — how you eat affects your immune system. Proper nutrition can help improve your body’s ability to fight off illness, and its ability to recover from it, too.

1. Having a good overall diet keeps your immune system in tip top shape.

Nutrients are the first line of defense when it comes to supporting our immune system. They can act as antioxidants, protecting healthy cells; support growth and activity of immune cells; and aid us in producing antibodies. Most of us already know this, and find ourselves stocking up on vitamin C and zinc supplements come flu season. However, while deficiencies in single nutrients like vitamin C and others can alter your immune response, the majority of us won’t get any real benefit from one single supplement.

The first and best way to have a great immune system is by maintaining a balanced, nutrient-dense diet. Many of the nutrients we get from food are better absorbed along with enzymes and other minerals naturally present in whole foods. They’re often not when it comes to synthetic vitamins with a singular ingredient.

Once you’re sure you have a great diet, the next step is supplementation, based on your genetic predispositions for absorption and conversion. You can always get tested by your doctor to see if you need supplements to achieve optimal nutrient levels.

2. Getting enough sleep improves nutrition, which improves your immune response.

We don’t often associate sleep with nutrition, but it greatly impacts our hormone production, leading to consequences for our immune system down the line. When we haven’t slept enough, our bodies produce more of the hormone that stimulates your appetite and less of the one that suppresses it, which leaves us feeling hungrier overall and less satisfied when we eat. This can lead to issues with calorie intake and portion control.

In one study, sleep deprived people ate 549 more calories per day on average than their well-slept counterparts. This has a profound affect on our immune system for two reasons:

1. A sleepy person’s diet is probably not ideal. When we’re tired, our body is stressed, and we are more inclined to eat more sugar, more fat and less nutrient-dense foods to comfort ourselves. This leads to inflammation, reduced immune response, and a cycle of hormone imbalance.

2. Higher body fat percentage is correlated with impaired immune function. It can lead to dampened immune response, due to decreased production of cells and molecules that watch for and mount a response to infection.

3. Drinking less alcohol reduces inflammation and speed up immune response.

The world loves its booze, but unfortunately, it’s not doing any favors for your immunity. Alcohol has been shown to affect your system in both the short- and long-term. Here’s how:

1. It alters your gut microbiome. Alcohol can simultaneously kill off good bacteria and promote bad bacteria in your gut. Over time, bacterial overgrowth of harmful bacteria can spill into other areas of your body, triggering a reactive response from your liver. This can lead to severe ramifications for both physical and mental health.

2. It triggers inflammation. Even a single episode of binge drinking can trigger a pro-inflammatory response in your body, lingering in your system for up to 5 hours. 

3. Damages cells and impairs function. Alcohol can impact the survival and function of cells involved in immune response, especially in the respiratory system. It slows down cilia that move mucus out of the lungs, and weakens barriers elsewhere.

4. Promoting good bacteria in your gut helps your body function properly.

We evolved to have a symbiotic relationship with the microbes that live in our gut. In an optimally-operating system, our cells rely on helpful bacteria to help us regulate immune response and let us know when there’s something to worry about. There will always be “good” and “bad” bacteria in our gut, but maintaining the correct balance is key. Here’s how to do it:

• Get lots of veggies

• Eat prebiotic foods like asparagus, onion or garlic

• Try probiotic foods like kimchi or kombucha

• Drink less alcohol

• Consume less sugars and sweeteners

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Sources:

1. Nutrition and the Immune System: An Introduction, RK Chandra

2. Nutrition, Immune Response, and Outcome, RK Chandra

3. Food synergy: an operational concept for understanding nutrition, David R Jacobs, Jr

4. Nutrition and Immunity, Harvard School of Public Health

5. Short Sleep Duration Is Associated with Reduced Leptin & Elevated Ghrelin, Shahrad Taheri

6. The Burden of Obesity on Infectious Disease, Erik A Karlsson

7. Lack of Sleep may Increase Calorie Consumption, Sleep Foundation

8. Alcohol and the Immune System, Dipak Sarkar

9. Alcohol and Gut-Derived Inflammation, Faraz Bishehsari

10. Sleep extension is a feasible lifestyle intervention in free-living adults, Haya K Al Khatib

11. The Connection Between Sleep and Overeating, Sleep Foundation

More Reading:

1. Mechanisms of Nutrient Modulation of the Immune Response

2. 9 Steps to Perfect Health – #4: Supplement Wisely

3. The Importance of Sleep for Everyone, Melissa Roza

4. 8 Myths About Your Immune System, Debunked

5. 10 Ways to Improve Your Gut Bacteria

6. The 11 Most Nutrient-Dense Foods on the Planet

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