The flu season is upon us and it’s hitting us hard this year! Especially, the H1N1. The media is exploding with topics on the swine flu and the government is campaigning for everyone to get the H1N1 vaccine.
As a mother with two baby boys, my head is spinning with the confusion the media has created. I want to make sure that my kids are protected against the flu and I want to ensure that their little bodies are not filled with harmful chemicals from the flu vaccine. Here’s a good post. So for me and my family, I have decided to take steps on how to prevent the flu. In this post I want to talk about prevention and steps we can take for our health starting with Vitamin D!
Vitamin D
According to Dr. Mercola, “seasonal nature of flu is that influenza is a vitamin D deficiency disease.” It really makes alot of sense. During the summer, when everyone is out and about enjoying the outdoors, we seem to be healthier. Our body takes in UV rays from the sun and coverts them into vitamin D by a process called vitamin D synthesis. It comes to no surprise that during the winter season when the mass majority of us are indoors that the flu season starts and sickness begins.
So what can we do to increase our Vitamin D Levels?
- Natural exposure to the sun. Fair skinned people need at least 15 minutes a day and dark skinned people need at least an hour a day. In Iowa, although it’s freezing during the winter, we have a good amount of sunlight. Last year I started to expose my boys to natural sunlight by undressing them and sitting them by a sunny window. I would then play with them for as long as I could keep their attention.
- Fermented Cod Liver Oil – When you just can’t get the sunlight you need, we can supplement. I started giving my family Fermented Cod Liver Oil. My mother in Spain remembers her mom giving her Aceite de Bacalao. Unfortunately for her, they didn’t have the variety of flavors and capsule forms that we have today. I have never been a person to use supplements. However, after researching Cod Liver Oil and knowing that it has been used for years traditionally, I felt comfortable in adding this to my family’s diet. As long as we have the right amount of calcium in our body to absorb the CLO, I am quite excited to see how this helps my family this year during the flu season. I’ll soon have a post specifically on Cod Liver Oil, until then here is a great article on the Weston Price Foundation website. I chose to use fermented Cod Liver Oil because Fermented fish liver oils are extracted without heat but rather a natural lacto-fermentation. But more on that in my CLO post to come 🙂 One thing I was pretty excited about is when I recently caught a short part of a Dr. Oz show. In his show he was talking about Vitamin D and also recommended Cod Liver Oil. I’m not a huge Dr. Oz fan, but what do you know, thanks Dr! –Before adding this to your diet, make sure to do the proper research and talk to your health professional. Green Pastures is the brand of FCLO that my family is currently using.
Natural Foods to Boost Our Immunity
Besides loading up on Vitamin D during the winter, I’ll also be adding many super foods that will boost our immunity.
- Antioxidants – Antioxidants help rid the body of free radicals. They boost the immune system and help fight off infectious diseases like the cold and flu. Vegetables and fruits is the way to go during the winter. The brighter the color, the better!
Antioxidant Filled Foods- Berries – In my home, we like to load up on raspberries and blueberries during the winter.
- Elderberry Juice – Elderberry juice was used to treat a flu epidemic in Panama in 1995. Its antioxidant activity lowers cholesterol, improves vision, boosts the immune system, improves heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsilitis.
- Broccoli
- Tomatoes
- Carrots
- Red Grapes
- Garlic – The antiviral qualities of garlic may keep the flu at bay.
- Spinach
- Tea – Use herbs such as echinacea and goldenseal which are said to help with influenza, also try ginger tea to settle your stomach.
- Beans
- Whole Grains
- Vitamin C Rich fruits and vegetables – All year round, my boys start their morning with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Other sources of Vitamin C include leafy greens, cabbage, brussel sprouts, potatoes.
- Cultured dairy with live cultures and lacto-fermented veggies – The live bacteria in cultured dairy and lacto-fermented fruits and veggies aid in digestion by creating enzymes that help us absorb nutrients and vitamins. They also create antibiotic and anticarcinogenic substances. Examples of Cultured Dairy and Homemade ferments include, Homemade Yogurt, Kefir, Homemade Cultured Butter, Creme Fraiche, Homemade Cream Cheese, Fermented Saurkraut, Kimchi, Pickles, and Beets just to name a few.
- Homemade Broth – I’m currently working on post specifically on the benefits of homemade chicken and beef broth. Broth is a super food and one that should be used in every household. Not only for it’s superior cooking abilities but that it contains minerals such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and other trace minerals all required for good health. To boost your immunity and to help you fight off sickness, broth is the way to go!
- Drink Water – Water flushes out infections and keeps us hydrated.
Here’s a fun video on the Dr. Oz website about how to boost your immunity.
Other Ways to Avoid the flu
- Cutting down or eliminating sugar – The cold and flu season also happens to be the Holiday season where we are overtaken by sweets. Sugar negatively affects the body’s ability to fight infections. As we don’t celebrate Halloween, for me and my family, I’m going to be cutting down on all sugar and leaving a little room for pie and cookies during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- Wash your hands
- Try to avoid handshakes. This may be out of the question while at work.
- Avoid nose picking
- Watch where your sneezing! Sneeze into a handkerchief and teach your children to sneeze inside their elbows by covering their mouth and nose. (I once watched a shopper at a grocery store, sneeze into a large pile of apples, really!)
- Carry a bottle of hand sanitizer
- Wash door handles, telephones, computer keyboards, office desks
Now it’s time to take action, myself included. Here’s to a happy, healthy cold and flu season 🙂
Resources
- Web Md, October 6, 2008
- Mercola.com, October 12, 2008
- Nutrition Data, February 19, 2008
- In Good Health, June 7, 2009
- Kelly the Kitchen Kop
- The Miracle of Vitamin D, Krispin Sullivan, CN
- Ask Dr. Sears.com, 8 Steps to Prevent the Winter Flu
- Organized Wisdom, Antioxidants in Raspberries
- Web Md, Antioxidants and your immune system
- Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays Hosted by Cheeseslave and Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Home Remedies Carnival by Keeper of the Home.
4. Avoid picking your nose
haha. good luck with that one. or are my kids the only ones that try to itch their brain?? 😉
pleased you added references the key is evidence based advice from medical journals and double blind clinical trials lol
Thanks for this information Diana!!! This flu stuff is crazy!
LOL! Funny that you reminded people not to pick their nose. I'm glad to see someone else make yogurt, those live cultures do keep you healthy!
I'm still in cold days although I'm in spring and the flu is around excellent tips
I'd add wash your hands if you haven't water near, with alcohol!
Cheers!
Gera
Thanks for the comments! I worked on my site forever, but I figured it out….
I love this post. It is my go to…Thanks.
Thanks for the comments! I worked on my site forever, but I figured it out….
I love this post. It is my go to…Thanks.
Great advice! Thanks for sharing!
Your precious and beautiful boys are lucky to have such a good mommy taking care of them.
Thanks for the comments! This is just what I'm doing for me and my family. We'll see how we fair this year! We alway's get it pretty rough as both of my sisters and brother in law are in social services and constantly in and out of homes and surrounded by kids. As far as nose picking, that's my favorite to, lol!! Hey, those fingers are always reaching for them brains!!
can you suggest something other than cod liver oil for vitamin D? great suggestions.
The flu (possibly H1N1, we didn't bother to get tested to find out) has already made its way through our household. We are a pretty healthy family and do all the right things to boost our immunity. It doesn't mean we never get sick, but I do know for a fact that we don't get as sick as, and recover much faster than, others who get the same virus.
very nice and informative post – I have an 11 year old and dont think it gets any easier when they get older!
Great post and fantastic info you've here! Muchas Gracias.
This post comes in handy, we just found out today that there's a boy with H1N1 in my little boy's year. I also believe in the preventive virtues of good nourishing.
Hi Maybelle's Mom! From what I've read, best sources to get Vitamin
D are in Vitamin D fortified milk, salmon, mackerel, sardines. You'd need to eat alot though to get your recommended amount, so they do sell supplements in pill form. Here's a link I just got sent today..
http://www.vitacost.com/Are-You-Vitamin-D-Deficient?csrc=EM-FYH20091015:main
For me, I've never been a pill taker. My family never raised us taking supplements (besides that morning flintstone, lol!) so I've never felt comfortable taking a supplement in pill form. After reasearching Cod Liver Oil and finding out that it has been used traditionally for years, I did add this to our diet. Once my mother told me she was given it as a child, I knew my grandmother knew best!
Linda – what a great testimony and thank you for your sweet comments!
Thanks again everyone for such wonderful comments and sharing in discussion!!
I understand fear of this vaccine and the decision not to administer it to a child is up to each parent. But do note that the post the post you link to as "Here's a good post" is full of misinformation:
(1) The H1N1 vaccine does not contain adjuvants.
(2) The swine flu has been more deadly than other flus–certainly most people who get it will recover, but it is more deadly than previous seasonal flus.
(3) No study has linked flu vaccines to autism, and the H1N1 vaccine will be available without the ingredient (thimerosal) that some believe is linked to autism.
(4) The FDA did test the safety of the vaccine.
While there may be very good reasons that a parent decides not to give their child the vaccine, please don't do so based on misinformation.
See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/opinion/12offit.html?em
Anonymous, thanks for your comment. I do see where your coming from and am happy they are coming out with thimersol free vaccines.
I honestly don't feel that the video I had suggested was misinformation. I feel that there is alot that the FDA approves that isn't safe for the public. For me and my family, I do vaccinate my children for certain diseases. The flu is not one of them. I personally feel it weakens your immune system to battle the flu and for other flu's to come.
I've found some great articles at
http://www.naturalnews.com/027102_vaccines_H1N1_flu_shot.html
This is such a touchy subject and my intentions for this post was not on vaccinations but on prevention.
Thanks for your comment, great discussion 🙂
FABULOUS post thank you so much – I'm tweeting and stumbling and Facebooking this!
excellent post! Thank you!
also LOL picking nose
Anonymous –
This link you posted
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/opinion/12offit.html?em
is extremely biased.
Do you know who Paul Offit is? It's so misleading, even the way they wrote his bio on the op-ed:
"Paul A. Offit, the chief of the infectious diseases division of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is the author of “Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine and the Search for a Cure.”"
Oh, how nice, he's a doctor, right?
In truth, Paul Offit makes money from vaccines, lots of it, so whatever he has to contribute is completely tainted by greed.
http://www.pauloffit.com/
Also, Anonymous –
You may feel comfortable recommending that mothers get their children vaccinated and you can quote studies until the cows come home — but why not talk to a mother who has dutifully vaccinated her child who ended up with a vaccine injury?
I have spoken to many. They go to get the prescribed shots and suddenly their normally chatty babbling baby stops speaking and making eye contact. Starts having seizures. Loses all motor control.
Talk to those mothers, look into their eyes and listen to what they say, then go on recommending vaccines. I hear stories like this all the time. And I believe these mothers.
It's a crap shoot and if you actually looked into it — beyond what Paul Offit and other doctors and studies have to say (people who are MAKING MONEY off of the vaccines) you'd know that.
maybelle's mom –
Fermented cod liver oil is the very best source for vitamin D. It also contains vitamin A and K2, which work synergistically with vitamin D (meaning they work better together).
It's also a real food — not a synthetic vitamin. So the body absorbs it better.
And because it's fermented, it's also a probiotic food!
I can personally testify to the power of this fermented cod liver oil in its ability to kill a virus. I got bronchitis a coulpe weeks ago. The doctor said it could take me over a month to get over the constant hacking and wheezing. I was trying all kinds of things (vitamin C, chicken broth, coconut oil, and yes I even took a round of antibiotics) but nothing worked. The doc said it's just time.
Then I tried taking very large doses of fermented cod liver oil. I read that 16,000 IU of vitamin D 4 times will kill a virus and stop a flu. So I tried it. For 4 days, I took 1 1/2 TBS of fermented cod liver oil each day. By the 2nd or 3rd day, all the coughing and sneezing had ceased. I feel like a million bucks.
AnnMarie – Thank you for your comments and such a strong testimony to FCLO! I'm actually in the middle of a post on Cod Liver Oil and love how you mentioned vitamin A and K2! I'm also going to dive into certain CLOs to avoid. So much info and so much to learn! Thanks again!
What a fantastic post. I'm firmly in the camp of "enhance your health" not, "annihilate all pathogens". Diseases can be uncomfortable, debilitating or tragic, but living in a bubble of never interacting with germs can be equally debilitating. I am taking my CLO dutifully this winter, and sipping on my elderberry cordial. I also make a tonic of ginger, onion, garlic, chiles and horseradish in raw cider vinegar. We call it no sick juice around here, but others have called it firewater. It's medicine you know is working 🙂
Really great tips! I wish it was easier to get vitamin D – I'm still scared of cod liver oil! 🙂 Katie
Hello! I know this post was forever ago but I am assuming you still practice what you speak here. How old were your kids when you started giving them the Cod Liver Oil? My son is 19 months. We are not doing the flu shot because we don’t feel like it really protects you from the flu but I am still very worried about my son getting the flu. I still breastfeed, so if I took the cod liver oil would it benefit him even if he was unable to take it? I hope you are fairing this flu season well. Thank you for your post!
Hi Tanzi, thanks for stopping by. I started giving my kids cod liver oil at around 12 months of age. I know many people do give their children clo earlier. It would definitely benefit him if you were taking cod liver oil as your vitamin d levels would be up. We’re doing well here, however; it’s going around at my sisters home so we’re just trying to be VERY preventative right now. CLO, vitamin c, washing hands, extra ferments, broth, good food… cutting WAY down on sugar. It was my nephews birthday this past week so we did have ice-cream and cake today, however, I’ve pretty much CUT IT OUT! I’m also upping their vegetable intake. Prayerfully, we’ll get through this. I really don’t want my 7 month old to get the flu. I hope that helps a bit.
Thank you! I am planning on ordering some CLO tonight. I could not find elderberry syrup, jam, or flowers at the store but bought the extract as well as some tea that has it in it that is for kids. I’m guessing it has the flower which is probably not as beneficial? I just took him for a very chilly but sunny walk. Trying to get natural V. D in WA is a bit hard this time of year but hurray the sun came out today!
I will be praying for you as you and your family fight off the flu. I am so very much looking forward to summer. 🙂 God bless you, and thank you for your blog, I am enjoying it!