Dr. Giulia Enders

So I really try to tell my body, you know, it's good that you have this, but it's not always necessary.

You can be brainless for a minute, you know.

Do you have a friend or a family member who's really hard on themselves when they have a cold?

Why not share this episode with them right now?

It might completely change the way they think about their body's response and maybe even help them to deal with it better.

Can I move on now to diet that you mentioned?

And obviously we talk about nutrition all the time on this podcast.

If you were going to give us like a high level explanation of thinking about, you know, the food that is going to sort of balance my immune system, what would you be describing?

I mean, we have these typical formulations where we say, you know, Mediterranean diet, have some fiber so that your gut bacteria are well nurtured, that they don't eat your protective mucus and stress your gut lining and that stresses your immune cells, things like this.

It is...

Also about good fats, but that is included in the Mediterranean diet.

And about not riling it up, as I said, with sugar, for example.

And then we have some foods that are declared as pro-inflammatory.

Usually with all of them, it is really about the amount.

If you have too much of them, like peanuts, sesame oil, I suppose because of the omegas in there, too much like meat, butter, vegetables,

All these things that drive up your blood sugar, pasties.

It's a list, and I really don't usually like those lists too much, but you can pretty much tell it's the old story about having some veggies, some fruit, and some balanced carbs and good fats.

What about exercise, which I think a lot of people will be surprised is linked to your immune system health.

I think no one will be surprised listening to this that it's good for your health overall.

But why is that good for my immune system and therefore what kind of exercise should we be doing?