True Health through Nutritional Immunology
4 Keys to Good Health
Still in the air of joyous celebrating mood for our Food Safety Excellence Award, I like to share one of my post I wrote for my Nutritional Immunology health blog here. May you enjoy getting all these health tips and start taking actions to lead a healthy, wealthy and happy life.
1. Stable Emotion ~ “Don’t worry, be happy!” Do you know that everytime when we are very angry or stressed, our body will secret a hormone call corticosteroid which will suppress our immune system? Long term anxiety and restlessness will cause our immunity to fall rapidly and unable to work optimally. As we’ve discussed how our immune system can protect us and keep us healthy, now I think getting angry or stressed is too high a price to pay, don’t you agree?
2. Exercise ~ The benefits of exercise has been emphasized over and over again. Do not overlook how light and moderate exercise can help us too. Regular deep breathing and after-dinner walks not only keep our fitness, it keeps us in calm and joyous mood as well.
3. Quality Sleep and Rest ~ Everyone needs sleep. It is during sleep that our body cells can repair and rejuvenate themselves. Quality sleep does not mean sleeping for long hours. Have you experience feeling even more tired and zombie after sleeping for too long? Quality sleep is going into deep sleep without disturbance. Adult that sleep about 7-8 hours is more than good enough.
4. Healthy Diet ~ Many people has their own definitions when comes to healthy diet. To some, healthy diet means taking a lot of vitamin and mineral pills. To some, healthy diet means boiling some soups with animal parts or some expensive parts of rare species.. According to Nutritional-Immunology, healthy diet means nutrients deriving from the plant sources. In fact, we use the below 6 criteria to determine if the food is a safe source of nutrition:
(1) Plant source – Plants are high in antioxidants and phytonutrients which are very beneficial to our immune system. On the other hand, animal sources contain fats, hormones, cholesterol, animal protein and viruses which can be very harmful to us.
(2) Healthy Plants – Not all natural plants are healthy. Some plants have medicinal properties, some are very toxic and some are additive which we cannot use them in big quantities and long term.
(3) Wholesome Plants – Wholesome means not going through chemical processing.
(4) Varieties & Quantity – Choosing a variety of plant foods is also crucial for there is no particular plant that can accommodate all of our nutritional needs. Scientists say that we must consume at least 10 different types of plant foods daily for an adequate supply of nutrients.
(5) Power Nutrients – Power nutrients like phytochemicals, antioxidants and polysaccharides are essential in our diet to boost, strengthen and balance our immune system.
(6) Functional Foods that can help our immune system to repair any damage cells in our body.