5 Worst Foods That Weaken Your Immune System
It has become quite important in present times to ensure that we remain healthy to win this pandemic fight. That’s why people are more actively investing in air purifiers and other health care gadgets in 2020 to avoid any possible risks and threats such as viruses, bacteria, and other diseases. But above all, the most important thing is to make your body strong enough and boost your immune system. Be aware of the 5 Worst Foods That Weaken Your Immune System
What is the Immune System?
If you think of a body as a castle, the guards that are guarding your castle is your body’s immune system. The immune system plays a huge role in keeping a person healthy, and it is, therefore, no surprise that people are concerned about how best one can boost their immunity.
While a lot has been said about the things that a person can do to boost their immunity levels, not a lot of people give a second thought to what the possible factors are that affect their immunity negatively.
5 worst foods that weaken your immune system
The food you eat or the diet that one keeps plays a huge role in determining the strength of your body’s immune system. It is for this reason that one should be aware of the benefits that food brings to their body, but also be aware of what negative effects certain types of food could be causing to the immune system.
Here are 5 worst types of food and beverages that most people consume that impact their body and their immune system negatively.
- Alcoholic beverages
Everybody knows that consuming too much alcohol in extremely large quantities is very detrimental to one’s health.
However, the term large quantities is an extremely relative term and a lot of people do like to wind down at the end of a tiring day and relax with their favourite drink.
If you are one such person, you may not realize that the alcohol you’re drinking has a negative impact on your immunity. Researchers have noted that alcohol affects and detrimentally impacts the immunity levels of the body.
Ideally, a person should not be consuming more than one drink per day if you’re a woman or 2 drinks per day if you are a man. If you find yourself drinking more than this, try and control your alcohol consumption to improve your immunity levels.
- Excessive amounts of sodium
The negative impacts of taking an excessive amount of sodium are quite well known in society. An excessive amount of salt can lead to a variety of conditions such as cardiovascular conditions, cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
However, one thing that most people do not know is that consuming a lot of salt can also lead to a weak immune system.
Recent research has demonstrated that consuming extremely high levels of salt can increase the propensity of a person to develop bacterial infections.
Therefore, if you want to remain healthy and want to ensure that your immune system is working to the best of its ability, it may be time for you to control the amount of salt that you are consuming.
- Going overboard on your morning cuppa
A lot of people need coffee to function and rely on coffee to keep them awake throughout the day and help them get through work.
However, what a lot of people do not realize is that caffeine is also a drug of sorts and has properties that can increase the levels of inflammation in your body and also compromise your immune system.
This is because coffee affects your body’s natural sleep cycle and sleep is extremely critical to maintain proper levels of immunity.
- Foods containing MSG
Public discourse related to the harmful effects of MSG has been making rounds for the past few years. MSG or monosodium glutamate is an additive that is added to many types of fast food and other types of food preparation in restaurants.
It is a food additive that is usually incorporated into fast foods and processed foods to give the food an umami flavour. The toxic effects of MSG have been known, but it is still not a substance that has been banned.
Studies have demonstrated that continuous use of MSG in large doses can lead to several problematic conditions such as neurotoxicity, obesity, metabolic disorders, and negative effects on reproductive organs, and a detrimental impact on immunity levels.
You may not even realize that you are consuming a product that has MSG unless you read the labels carefully and properly. even your favourite brand of chips may be adding MSG to their products to make the chips tastier.
Therefore, if you want to ensure that your immunity levels remain high, it is important to read the labels and keep away from products that tend to use MSG.
- Diet soda
A lot of people are under the misconception that just because diet soda does not have sugar it is an inherently safer option than consuming aerated and sugary drinks.
But, if you ever pick up the label of a diet soda and glance at it, you will find that the soda is filled with artificial ingredients and preservatives.
In a study conducted in 2017, it has been demonstrated that consuming artificially sweetened soda and other artificially sweetened carbonated drinks increases the chances of developing conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or strokes.
Avoid Diet Sodas
In this study, it has been shown that people who drink artificially sweetened diet soda are actually at 3 times the risk of developing stroke or Alzheimer’s like somebody who does not.
Those who have conditions such as diabetes are usually tempted to think that it is safe or to drink diet soda because it does not have any sugar in it.
However, this may also be a false proposition. In a study conducted in the year 2014, it was demonstrated that a person who drinks diet soda is more likely to become diabetic than a person who abstains.
Most importantly one of the worst ways in which diet soda affects your body is by affecting gut microbes that improve your levels of immunity.
If you want to keep your body healthy and your immunity levels high, watch out for these 5 foods that you may be consuming without being aware of the negative impact that they are causing to your immune system!
Check out How do you ensure you stay stronger or Which nutrition can boost your diet and immunity.
Nice post! Much needed in the current times! We all focus only on how to increase immunity but often ignore the factors that cause harm to our immune system!
Thank you.. We are all committed to building up our immunity now