BACTERIA-FIGHTING FOODS
There’s no way to avoid germs entirely. What you can do, however, is eat your way to better health. Eating the right foods not only helps prevent infections, but can also help fight them.
A number of plant foods, such as apples, tea, onions, and kale, contain substances called flavonoids, which can prevent germs from taking hold, says Joseph V. Formica, PhD, professor of microbiology at Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia School of Medicine in Richmond. It may be the flavonoids in tea, for example, that make it an effective remedy for colds and flu.
One of the most powerful flavonoids is a compound called quercetin. Found in large amounts in onions and kale, quercetin has been shown to damage genetic material inside viruses, preventing them from multiplying. Quercetin appears to be effective at blocking the herpes virus as well as one of the viruses that causes flu. The research is preliminary, so doctors can’t say for sure how much quercetin (or other flavonoids) you need to block infections. For now, having several servings a day of flavonoid-rich foods will help keep germs in check, says Dr. Formica.
The next time you have an infection, reach for the garlic. “Formerly known as Russian penicillin, garlic is great for infections,” says Janet Maccaro, PhD, ND, a holistic nutritionist in Ormond Beach, Florida, who is president of Dr. Janet’s Balance By Nature Products and the author of Natural Health Remedies A-Z. Research has shown that these cloves contain compounds that can stop infections.
Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia School of Medicine found that water extracted from garlic was able to block a fungus that can cause a type of meningitis, a serious brain infection. In laboratory studies, garlic has wiped out Candida albicans, the fungus that can cause yeast infections.
“It’s very clear that garlic has antiviral, antifungal, and antibacterial power,” says John Hibbs, ND, a naturopathic doctor and clinical faculty member at Bastyr Center for Natural Health in Seattle. “For people with infections who enjoy eating garlic, we recommend that they chew as much fresh garlic as they can tolerate. Freeze-dried or other forms of garlic may also help.”
“I recommend this garlicky soup to people when they have really bad infections, and it also works as a preventative,” says Melissa Wood, ND, a naturopathic doctor in private practice in San Antonio, Texas. The recipe is as follows:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 head garlic, peeled, separated, and chopped
1 box organic chicken broth, or enough to make a quart
1 medium bunch parsley, coarsely chopped
In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes, or until softened. Add the chicken broth and parsley, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
“Drink a cup of the soup every hour,” says Dr. Wood. “It’s particularly good if you know something is coming—like if you feel you are getting a cold or the flu,” she says. “But it’s also good if you’ve already got an infection.”
You probably need to eat about a bulb of garlic a day to get the maximum healing benefits, says Elson Haas, MD, director of the Preventive Medical Center of Marin in San Rafael, California, and author of Staying Healthy with Nutrition. If the very idea of eating that much raw garlic makes you cringe, you may want to try cooking it first. Baking a bulb of garlic until the cloves are soft will take away some of the sulfuric garlic sting without taking away the health benefits.
If you think of your immune system as an army that battles infections, then two vitamins are its main generals. Vitamin A helps strengthen your body’s immune defenses, while vitamin C helps the immune system go on the attack. This two-pronged approach provides powerful protection against incoming germs.
The body uses vitamin A, which you get in the form of beta-carotene from foods such as carrots, spinach, mustard greens, kale, and yellow and orange squash, to keep mucous membranes soft and moist. This is important, because these membranes, which line the nose, mouth, throat, and other parts of the body, are your first line of defense against infection. As long as they’re moist, they’re able to trap viruses and other germs before they get into your system.
As a form of double protection, the body also uses vitamin A to manufacture special enzymes that seek out and destroy bacteria that manage to get inside the body.
While vitamin A’s role is mainly defensive, vitamin C helps the body take the offensive. Eating oranges, broccoli, and other foods high in vitamin C strengthens the “gobbling power” of the body’s germ-killing cells. In a study of people with respiratory infections, for example, Japanese researchers gave two groups of participants 50 milligrams and 500 milligrams of vitamin C respectively for 5 years and found that the rate of colds was 25 percent lower in the group taking the higher doses of vitamin C.
And a review of 12 studies on the effect of vitamin C on respiratory infection revealed that about half of the studies showed a significant reduction in respiratory infections in the groups taking vitamin C.
Of all the minerals, zinc is probably the most important for keeping immunity strong. Too little zinc can lead to a drop in infection-fighting white blood cells, which can increase your risk of getting sick.
In one study, for example, researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston found that children getting 10 milligrams of zinc for 60 days were much less likely to get respiratory infections than children getting less. In fact, the children who got enough zinc were 70 percent less likely to have fevers, 48 percent less likely to have coughs, and 28 percent less likely to have buildups of mucus. (Consult with your pediatrician before giving your child zinc, however.)
And in a review done at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, studies from 1980 to 2003 revealed that zinc can reduce cold symptoms when administered within 24 hours of the onset of a cold.
Despite the proven powers of zinc, many Americans don’t get enough of it. This is unfortunate because zinc is very easy to get in your diet. One Alaskan king crab leg, for example, has 10 milligrams of zinc, or 67 percent of the Daily Value (DV). A 3-ounce serving of lean top sirloin has 6 milligrams, or 40 percent of the DV, and 1 cup of lentils has 3 milligrams, or 20 percent of the DV.