Fight the Flu with these Five Foods

Yeesh! It's definitely Flu season. So many of my friends have come down with it I'm doing as much as I can to stay away from them. Yuck! I'm pretty sure you are too.

Here are five ways we can fight it, with food.

I came across this in the newspaper's insert, Community Table, that said that although making sure we wash our hands often, get plenty of sleep and even get the flu shot there's five more ways we can fight the nasty sickness and that's with these commonly found foods.

1. Brazil Nuts - Eating 6 to 7 of those a day we can boost our immune system with the mineral selenium that's in the nuts. You can eat those whole or crush them up as toppings in your yogurt, oatmeal or cereal.

2. Berries - Berries are high in vitamin C. Eat strawberries, blueberries,citrus fruits even peppers to give your body that extra boost.

3. Sweet Potatoes - These are rich in antioxidants and help protect the mucous membranes in our throat and nose to help in fighting off the virus from entering our bodies. If your not a sweet potato fan, eat carrots.

4. Lean Poultry - The protein in chicken and turkey help give our immune system a punch to combat the virus. Also egg and beans are good to eat too if your a vegetarian.

5. Cocoa - The flavanols in cocoa have flu fighting properties.

Wow! That seems pretty simple to remember. Don't you think?

Plus, for me, I like all of those foods. All I need to do is increase my daily intake of those.

Also, if you want a prefect flu fighting cocoa that's low in calories yet tasty, Community Table gave this recipe.

Combine 2 Tbsp of unsweetened dark cocoa powder and a dash of salt . Heat 1 cup of skim milk in the microwave for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the hot milk to the cocoa mixture. Stir in 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract and 1 to 2 Tbsp of sugar.