Immune Boosting Foods

Immune-Boosting Foods - How Foods Fight Cancer

Antioxidants in nuts, seeds, and oils

If you were to look at a sample of your blood under a microscope, you
would see an enormous number of red blood cells, whose job is to carry
oxygen to your body tissues. Here and there among them are white blood
cells of various kinds, and they are the key soldiers that make up your
immune system. When abnormal cells arise in the body, it is the job of
white blood cells to recognize and eliminate them.

Some white blood cells are able to engulf and destroy abnormal cells,
such as viruses, bacteria, and other invaders, including cancer cells. Other
white blood cells facilitate this process in various ways, for example, by
producing antibodies, protein molecules that attach to foreign or abnormal
cells and flag them for destruction.

The immune system is critically important in fighting cancer. Individual
cancer cells can arise in all of us from time to time. Cancer cells can also
break free from an existing tumor and spread to other parts of the body. If
your immune system is vigilant, it recognizes and destroys cancer cells
before they can take hold. Thus, strengthening the immune system is a key
strategy in cancer prevention and survival.

Like soldiers anywhere, your immune cells fight more effectively when
they are well nourished. Certain antioxidants that we mentioned previously
have been shown to be immune boosters: beta-carotene, vitamin C, and
vitamin E. In addition, the mineral zinc is essential for the development and
function of white blood cells.