Winter has all of a sudden hit us and it seems like everyone left, right and center is being hit with some sort of flu and it ̓s spreading fast!
So what can you do to limit your risk of catching a cold this winter? The first step we can take is with your food. If we want to look at getting in some vital vitamins and minerals we regularly turn to fruit and vegetables as our point of call, those vitamins and minerals are going to be essential if you want to try and avoid any nastiness being passed around.
The biggest and most essential player in helping us to fight and prevent colds, flus and any other nasties is going to be vitamin C, and when I say prevent I mean to reduce the effect of any symptoms of a common cold..
Several different cells of the immune system require vitamin C to perform their usual tasks properly. These include phagocytes (which protect the body by ingesting any harmful particles) and T-cells (a subclass of white blood cells). These are cells that are particularly important for fighting disease and keeping our immunity levels high.
A common food source associated with a good source of vitamin C is an orange, however an average sized orange will only give you around eighty -five percent (85%) of your recommended daily intake of vitamin C. So realistically our food alone is not going to be the best and most efficient way of getting our essential vitamins and minerals into our bodies? This is where supplementation can become really useful as they can allow us to get a lot more of our essential nutrients including vitamin C a lot more efficiently.
So lets look at an example, a normal sized orange will contain 76.5mg of vitamin C, whereas a good quality vitamin C tablet or multivitamin can contain around 1000mg of useable vitamin C which will be a lot more effective in helping us fight infection, and helping your immune system fight those nasty colds and flus from this time of year.
If you would like anymore info on dietary needs or supplementation then don't hesitate to contact us at Absolute Training & Nutrition.