More immu­ne power with the right food

For the first time in my life, I have the fee­ling, the world came to a stop. Covid-19, a virus, only some 150 nano­me­t­res in size, holds the world hos­ta­ge. No one can fore­see the glo­bal con­se­quen­ces for health and wealth of peo­p­le around the world. Only now, we see a gro­wing com­pli­ance to govern­men­tal rules and an infor­med awa­re­ness of what to do.

I would like to pre­sent here a few recom­men­da­ti­ons, how you can make sure to have your immu­ne sys­tem in its best shape to tack­le the crisis.

First, keep moving and get blood cir­cu­la­ti­on, sun­light and oxy­gen powe­ring your bat­te­ries. Struc­tu­re your day accor­din­gly and make sure you get your dai­ly activity.

Then – I know, you’ve heard it befo­re: wash your hands – Period.

Now, when it comes to nutri­tion, plea­se make sure to:

• Cook fresh and avo­id too much con­ve­ni­ence or can­ned foods. We want to have nut­ri­ent den­se foods. Espe­ci­al­ly avo­id defi­ci­en­ci­es of the fat solu­b­le vit­amins A and E (you find them for exam­p­le in dairy, eggs, nuts, seeds, oli­ve oil, sal­mon, macke­rel) and water-solu­b­le vit­amins folic acid, B6, B12 (who­le grain pro­ducts, eggs, beef, tuna, sal­mon) and C (fresh fruit, veggies) impair immu­ne func­tion and decrease the body’s resis­tance to infection.
• Get your dai­ly pro­te­in amount (1.4 – 1.6g/kg body weight). Ina­de­qua­te pro­te­in inta­ke wea­k­ens your immu­ne sys­tem. This is espe­ci­al­ly rele­vant for peo­p­le that under­go calo­ry rest­ric­tions to lose weight – a calo­ric defi­cit a/​o not enough pro­te­in makes you more pro­ne to infections.
• When it comes to cer­tain mine­rals that can have an impact on our immu­ne sys­tem, the­re is equi­vo­cal fin­dings on many. It’s con­firm­ed that zinc, iron, magne­si­um, man­gane­se, sele­ni­um and cop­per have an impact on our immu­ne sys­tem, yet it’s only zinc and iron that we find iso­la­ted defici­en­ci­es in gene­ral. While excess mine­ral con­sump­ti­on (par­ti­cu­lar­ly iron and zinc) can impair immu­ne func­tion and increase sus­cep­ti­bi­li­ty to infec­tions, I think it’s best to eat your balan­ced diet with high value ingre­di­ents and assu­re you get the opti­mum in vit­amins and mine­rals wit­hout any sup­ple­ments. If the use of a sup­ple­ment gives you a bet­ter fee­ling, ask at your store of trust for a balan­ced for­mu­la that con­ta­ins a good blend of vit­amins and mine­rals ins­tead of swal­lo­wing high doses of every sin­gle nutrient.

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Spe­cial Focus for Athletes:

Sin­ce most sports events from ama­teur to pro­fes­sio­nal level are can­cel­led until fur­ther noti­ce and the­re are strong calls – from the ath­le­tes’ side ! – to can­cel or rather post­po­ne the Olym­pic games (July, Tokyo) as well, this is a com­ple­te­ly new situa­ti­on for all ath­le­tes out the­re. They can well address weak­ne­s­ses now, that had not had the neces­sa­ry focus or time to it, but at the same time, they need to stay in shape. Many take a break from their nor­mal trai­ning plan. This redu­ces ener­gy requi­re­ments as well. They should fol­low the gene­ral recom­men­da­ti­ons: keep your body weight sta­ble, try to keep up your acti­vi­ty as “nor­mal” as pos­si­ble. Think of your diet well: the­re are inte­res­t­ing stu­dies with ath­le­tes that show, that a diet rich in car­bo­hy­dra­tes gives you a stron­ger immu­ne defence than an equi­cal­o­ric diet rich in fat. So, for all ath­le­tes out the­re: don’t try to aggres­si­ve­ly lose weight the­se days. Make sure, you drink enough, to not only avo­id dehy­dra­ti­on, but keep your sali­va flowing – sali­va con­ta­ins anti­mi­cro­bi­al pro­per­ties, inclu­ding immunoglobulin‑A (IgA), lys­o­zy­me and a‑amylase to fight intru­ders in your mouth.

Con­su­me 30 – 60g of carbs per hour in lon­ger trai­nings (>2.5h) to keep cor­ti­sol and inflamm­a­ti­on mar­kers low, while avo­i­ding immu­ne sup­pres­si­on. Don’t sche­du­le your super hard HIIT block while being locked in to ride on rol­lers, becau­se fre­quent bouts of inten­se trai­ning will make you more pro­ne to infec­tions as well.

This goes out to peo­p­le too, that only start exer­cis­ing now. Recent stu­dies show that 60 minu­tes of mode­ra­te exer­cise should be met with a slight increase in car­bo­hy­dra­tes, in order not to atte­nua­te your immu­ne function.

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I hope this gives you a few tips to get through the­se dif­fi­cult times the best way pos­si­ble. We are in this tog­e­ther and we should sup­port each other in every pos­si­ble way. Make sure you stay safe, healt­hy and com­mit­ted to the offi­ci­al rulings to batt­le the Covid-19.

Source: Exer­cise, Nutri­tion, and Immu­ne Func­tion, Glee­son et al. Jour­nal of Sports Sci­en­ces · Febru­ary 2004