The holidays are here and so is the stress. Shopping and attending Christmas parties make exercising a very hard thing to do this time of year. This stress has a negative effect on our immune system; so much, that this time of year it becomes very easy to catch a cold or a stomach virus. Now, catching either is not the end of the world but will definitely slow you down.
So, to prevent this from happening, you have to eat what I call “winter foods”. These foods consist of grapefruits, soup, tuna fish, and roast beef. Allow me to give you a quick run-down of these foods.
Fruitilicious
Grapefruits are probably one of the hardest fruits to consume in just one sitting due to their large size. Yet, if you’re able to consume just a medium size grapefruit, you will be consuming about 88 milligrams. That’s almost a day’s worth of vitamin C!
Consumption of vitamin C will not only strengthen the immune system but will also give you the capability to lose weight at the same time. There is some research stating that grapefruits contain fat burning enzymes which will aid in greater fat loss. With this fruit, you are definitely getting more by the pound.
Its Campbell good
Soup du jour? Thought by some as an old wives’ tale, soup has now been proven as one of the best remedies when a cold is present. Well, it doesn’t have to be the soup of the day, but most soups will allow you to reap the benefits!
Soup doesn’t really pack a killer of a punch in the nutrient department (a lot of empty calories), but it’s enough to slow down the spread of infection while decreasing inflammation and congestion. If you want to make it more nutrient friendly, add some chicken, turkey neck, ham, (tastes awesome in soup) and vegetables. Now that’s a super meal.
Roasting the chicken of the Sea
Roast beef and tuna? Who would have thought these foods brought more to the table than just another source of protein? Roast beef has a little known mineral called zinc. Zinc is a mineral that is known for cellular restoration in the human body, yet I have found that it also plays a serious role in the immune system. Zinc slows down or stops the growth of a micro-organism!
How awesome is that!? Talk about domination! In addition to that, tuna has some pretty cool benefits too. Tuna contains glutamine, which is an amino acid that aids in keeping the immune system in peak operation. There was a study done at Oxford University showing that people who ate tuna right after a workout had fewer cases of upper respiratory infections than people who didn’t have tuna.
So, the next time you do cardio, don’t be afraid to chow down on some roast beef and some chicken of the sea. Trust me, if you add these foods to your diet you’ll be laughing at the people around you because they’ll be sick and you won’t!
-Phil