Boost Your Immune System With Vitamin C

There are so many natural remedies for the coughing, sneezing, sniffles, and fevers seem to be spreading like wildfire this winter! Fire cider is a great go-to, but if that’s not for you, there’s always good old vitamin C. If you can believe it, orange juice is actually not the best source for it (not to mention that OJ generally has a lot of sugar in it.) I always recommend my patients follow this nutrition advice when it comes to increasing their vitamin C intake.

Eat More Vegetables

Vitamin C is just another reason to make sure you’re filling your plate with lots of vegetables at every meal. And if you can, incorporate them into your snacks too. These veggies have an especially impressive vitamin C content:

• Kale - just one cup contains 80 milligrams of vitamin C! To put that in perspective, 65-90 milligrams a day is all you need.

• Broccoli - with over 100 milligrams of vitamin C per cup, broccoli provides more than enough of the good stuff.

• Brussel sprouts - a generous handful daily is plenty!

Stock Up On Fruit

Vitamin C lurks in places you’d least expect it. So what has Vitamin C besides oranges? Berries and tropical fruit are a good place to start.

• Strawberries - a single cup provides more than your daily requirement of vitamin C.

• Mangos - if the vitamin C content isn’t enough to make you want to grab one, consider this: because mangos are high in natural sugars, they may kick cravings for refined sweets like ice cream to the curb.

The best nutrition advice I can give on this topic though, is to make sure you’re getting lots of vitamin C before you get sick. Think of it more like a preventative measure rather than something that’s good only for when you’re unwell.