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Power Up!
Boost Your Immune System
By Leigh Brown Perkins
According to the NIH, physical activity may flush bacteria from the lungs, decreasing the chance of contracting airborne illnesses. Active families have increased circulation, so their antibodies may detect intruding viruses faster – before they've set up shop in their nasal passages. The body's temperature rises with exercise, too, which inhibits bacteria growth (similar to what happens with a fever). Just 30 minutes every day of blood-pumping fun will keep the immune system firing strong.
Making an impressionist painting of every meal – a little something red, a lot of green, a touch of purple, a splash of yellow – packs a wallop of nutrients. Add as much garlic as the person sleeping next to you can tolerate and you boost immunity even more. Reinforce your family's immunity every day with these 12 powerhouse foods, found by USDA researchers to be the highest in antioxidants:
- Small red beans
- Wild blueberries
Red kidney beans - Pinto beans
- Cultivated blueberries
- Cranberries
- Artichokes
- Blackberries
- Dried plums (prunes)
- Raspberries
- Strawberries
- Red Delicious/Granny Smith apples
- Pecans
- Sweet cherries
- Black plums
- Russet potatoes
- Black beans
- Plums
- Gala apples
- Walnuts
"Buy organic soft-skinned produce, even if you can't afford to go organic on everything else," says naturopathic physician Lisa Amerine of Lafayette, Colo. Pesticides are much more readily absorbed into soft-skinned produce such as berries, grapes and potatoes than they are in thick-skinned fruits like bananas and citrus.
