Each time this year, we all start looking for ways to keep ourselves and our families well during winter. After all, no one likes to be struck down with a cold or flu and the accompanying sore throats, stuffy noses, chesty or dry cough that keeps you awake at night, and aching muscles and joints.
Here’s the bad news. There is no cure for the common cold and flu. The good news, there are things which can help reduce their severity.
Annual flu vaccines can minimise your risk of catching the flu and reduce the severity of your symptoms if you do catch the flu. Speak to your doctor or pharmacist about flu vaccines for the whole family.
No such vaccine is available for the cold but there are some vitamins that are involved in keeping our immune systems healthy. Here are 3 vitamins to make sure your family is getting enough of this winter.
Vitamin A
Most of us know that vitamin A is an antioxidant and important for maintaining our vision. It is less known for its involvement in stimulating our immune system. However, it actually plays an important role in enhancing our immune system especially against infection.
Vitamin A helps maintain our mucous membranes which is our first line of defence against infections. In other words, when you get an infection, your mucous membranes secrete mucus to dislodge the virus or bacteria and prevent them from entering into your body.
When your body is low in vitamin A, these mucous membranes become tough and relatively inflexible. Less mucus is produced leaving the body vulnerable and defenceless against invading nasties.
There are 3 forms of dietary sources of vitamin A. There is vitamin A itself, carotenoids and beta-carotene.
Vitamin A is found only in foods of animal origin. The richest sources are beef, calf and chicken liver. Dairy products provide about half of the vitamin A consumed by most people. It can also be found naturally in whole milk and butter, but must be replaced in low fat and skim milk as vitamin A is lost when fat is removed from the milk.
Carotenoids are made by a wide variety of plants and is an`¨other source of vitamin A. Here’s a general rule to remember; yellow, orange and red fruits as well as vegetables provide significant amounts of carotenoids. This includes carrots, papayas, tomatoes, pumpkins, pink grapefruit and watermelon.
Beta-carotene, one of the most abundant forms of carotenoids, is another great source of vitamin A. They can be found in green vegetables including broccoli, squash, peas and spinach.
So how can you make sure vitamin A is included in your family’s winter meals? A good warm winter stew with beef, carrots, celery, onion, potato, peas and tomatoes comes to mind! Not only would it warm all their bellies but it’s a tasty way to help keep their immune systems healthy this winter.
Vitamin C
Most of us have probably been told to take vitamin C when we have a cold, and it’s no old wives tale. In fact, vitamin C whilst not being able to prevent or treat colds, has been shown to reduce the length and severity of cold symptoms.
Taking a large dose of vitamin C supplement at the onset of cold or flu symptoms, or just after exposure to the cold or flu virus, can help shorten the duration of the cold and improve cold symptoms. Evidently it plays a very important role in our immune system function, so much so that when we have an infection, our vitamin C levels are rapidly depleted from our body. So next time when someone tells you to take vitamin C when you have a cold, make sure to take their advice and give your immune system a boost.
Fortunately we can get vitamin C quite easily from our diet, namely fruits and vegetables. Excellent sources of vitamin C include oranges, green peppers, watermelon, papaya, grapefruit, strawberries, mango, broccoli, tomato, potatoes, raspberries and pineapples. Since vitamin C is sensitive to light, air and heat, eating vegetables raw or minimally cooked ensures maximum vitamin C levels remain by the time we eat them.
Another added benefit of vitamin C is its antioxidant ability, in particular, its ability to protect other vitamins such as vitamin A from damage. Since both are involved in keeping our immune systems healthy, that’s even more reason to make sure both vitamin A and C are included in your family’s diet this winter.
Vitamin D
It has long been known that vitamin D helps with the absorption of calcium which in turn is important for healthy bones. More recently we’ve begun to realise that vitamin D plays a very important role in keeping our immune system healthy.
Unlike vitamin A and C, few foods are natural sources of vitamin D. Meat products contain a form of vitamin D, 25(OH)D which is five times more active than vitamin D3. However, these levels are dependent upon the individual animal’s vitamin D status and whether fortified feed was used. Some other natural food sources include fatty fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel tuna, sardines, beef and liver.
Other food sources of vitamin D in Australia come from fortified food. These foods are fortified with either D2 or D3, and include edible oil spreads, margarine, skim milk, powdered milk, yoghurt, cheese, butter, egg and legumes.
The best source of vitamin D is actually from the sun. Our skin produces vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. This means there are certain things that can affect its production including how dark your skin is, clothing and sunscreen. Your location, the time of day and the season can also affect how much UV light is reaching you and in turn how much vitamin D you can produce.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) states that it is impossible to get enough vitamin D solely from our diet which is why vitamin D is sometimes referred to as the sunshine vitamin. That’s one more reason to get your family out in the sun this Winter.