Keeping your immune system healthy means looking after your body and mind

Boosting your immune system naturally can mean making some pretty big lifestyle changes – especially if they’re changes that you haven’t made already.

Looking after both your body and your mind will best prepare your immune system to do its job, which is to keep you happy and healthy.

We’ve listed a few tips and tricks on how to naturally aid and boost the inner workings of your immune system. These tips have helped us to stave off illness, and we know they’ll help you, too!

1. Eat a whole food, plant-based diet

As with most things health-related, food can be what helps you or what hurts you. When it comes to boosting your immune system, the best way to get it working optimally is to eat a healthy, nutritious diet. We recommend a whole food, plant-based one.

Hippocrates was on to something when he said “all disease begins in the gut”. Our all-natural prebiotic supplements harness the power of plant-based whole foods that work together to improve various bodily functions, including your immune system and gut microbiome.

2. Practice good hygiene

Washing your hands (and your body!) regularly will help to keep the bad germs where they belong – outside of your body, rather than in it.

By practicing good hygiene, you will prevent your immune system from having to fight off bacteria that a little soap and water can gently wash away.

3. Get lots of sleep

Sleep is important. When you don’t get enough, how does it make you feel? Grumpy, exhausted and stressed? Lack of sleep can also increase inflammation, blood pressure, and other negative effects in the body.

Getting enough sleep helps your body to regenerate T cells, which are the cells that help to fight off infection. That makes sleeping an act that should be high on your immune system-boosting priority list.

Create a bedtime routine and try to avoid staring at screens in the hour leading up to bedtime. Spending time on your phone or laptop before bed can keep your brain whizzing long after your eyes have closed.

4. Exercise often

Whether your version of exercise is going out for a walk or hitting the gym, just make sure you are doing it as often as you can. Exercise provides for optimal circulation within the body, and helps to improve cardiovascular health, lower blood pressure, control body weight and fight off disease.

Something more relaxed like walking around the park is an excellent practice that could be done daily. An intensive gym session, on the other hand, could be rounded down to 3 or 4 times a week. Getting your heart rate up is key!

5. Leave smoking in the 70s

Smoking isn’t good for you. While it might have been all the rage back in the 1970s, today we are very well educated on just how detrimental it can be to your health.

The good news is that most of the negative effects of smoking can be reversed if you quit. Your blood circulation will improve, along with your senses of taste and smell, energy levels, and – most importantly – the functioning of your immune system.

Giving up an addiction like smoking isn’t easy, but it will benefit you in many ways when you succeed. If you need help during your transition, don’t be afraid to ask for it. Let’s leave smoking in the past, where it belongs.

6. If you enjoy drinking alcohol, do so in moderation

There are some things in life that are okay in moderation, and alcohol is one of them. While enjoying a glass of wine with dinner won’t do you any harm, excessive consumption can lead to adverse health effects – such as the increased risk of blood clots and diabetes, among many others.

Be smart with how much alcohol you drink and keep consumption levels to a minimum. With less alcohol in your body, your immune system will be better equipped to fight off pathogens and keep you healthy.

7. Practice stress management where possible

Stress can be a hard thing to manage, especially when the contributing factors are outside of your control. That being said, you do still have the power to reduce your stress levels, and your immune system will function better as a result.

Stress reduces your immune system’s ability to fight off antigens, making you more susceptible to infections and other illnesses.

By taking part in activities that calm you – whether they be writing, walking, meditating or watching your favourite TV show – you will be able to better navigate your stress when it comes to the fore.

8. Spend time outside

When the sun’s bright rays come in contact with your skin, the reaction naturally produces vitamin D, one of the strongest natural sterilisers. This vitamin directly targets your immune system and helps it to function optimally.

Even when the sun isn’t shining, being in the big outdoors will help your mind and body exponentially. Breathing in the fresh air and spending time in nature can also help to reduce your stress levels, improve your mental health and set you up for a good night’s sleep.

Make your lifestyle a healthy one

When functioning properly, our immune system protects us from disease, infection and toxins, and keeps our body and mind healthy.

By working towards a healthier lifestyle with better food choices, improved hygiene practices and regular physical activity, your immune system will be ready for anything life throws at you.

Flourish’s natural prebiotic supplements work together to boost your immune system

Chicory root has been used as a traditional medicine for centuries

Grown widely in Europe, chicory root comes from the chicory plant, which blooms with blue flowers in summer and spring. Chicory root is commonly used as a substitute for coffee, boasting a similar taste and colouring with more medicinal and healing properties.

Used in traditional medicine for thousands of years, chicory root has been used in the past for relieving ailments like swelling, fevers and inflammation, just to name a few.

Benefits of chicory root

There are many emerging benefits of chicory root, with more studies yet to be done in order for us to truly understand the extent of its health properties – but here are the ones we do know:

Improves gut health

Chicory root is one of the best whole food sources of inulin, a prebiotic fibre that feeds the good bacteria in your gut.

By feeding the good bacteria, inulin helps to keep the gut microbiome balanced and on the side of health. The inulin found in chicory root also helps your body to combat harmful bacteria and reduce inflammation.

Aids digestion

Many people now know that fibre aids the process of digestion. As a source of fibre, inulin helps the digestive process in a handful of ways.

While consuming inulin fibre from chicory root adds bulk to your stool and increases bowel movements, it also slows digestion. This allows time for the healthy nutrients in your meals to be better absorbed in the body.

Weight loss

The inulin found in chicory root is a soluble fibre, one that helps to slow down the process of digestion. By doing so, it makes you feel fuller for longer.

When the stomach takes longer to empty (which eating fibrous foods helps to do), it suppresses your appetite and prevents your brain from thinking hungry thoughts. In this sense, consuming chicory root and the inulin fibre it contains could help with weight loss.

Helps to regulate blood sugar

By slowing digestion, inulin has the power to slowly release sugars – those broken down from carbohydrates – into the body.

Chicory root has been found to increase adiponectin levels, a protein that helps to regulate blood sugar. This could potentially help with managing, or even preventing, diabetes.

Chicory root has much to offer

Chicory root is packed with many beneficial properties, and its prebiotic properties make it the main ingredient in our gut-healing Prebiotic Blend. Its power to improve the gut microbiome using the inulin component is impressive and, more importantly, scientifically proven.

As a plant-based whole food with much to offer us in the way of health, chicory root is essential to your diet. Whether with a chicory coffee or a daily dose of our Prebiotic Blend, your body will benefit from this superfood.

Our chicory root-based Prebiotic Blend improves gut health. Try it today!

Why detoxify?

Ridding your body of toxins works to keep your body functioning at optimal capacity. However, recent years of fad diets and false promises have seen the term ‘detox’ come into a more negative connotation.

Detoxification is, in fact, not a bad thing. It’s an essential process that helps the body to remove harmful toxins and stay healthy. Detoxing is good for you – rather than a craze or a trend, think of it as a lifestyle change and an active choice to get the bad stuff out of your body.

Whether you are looking for a liver cleanse, a natural anti-inflammatory or a total detoxifying overhaul, you can help your body through the process by eating the right foods.

Your body’s detoxification system

The body’s detoxification system is impressive, with many organs working in unison to remove harmful toxins. The liver is the most powerful detoxifier, performing over 500 different functions to help eliminate toxins.

The kidneys filter blood and the intestinal tract digests food and excretes waste. The respiratory tract filters air and removes toxins like carbonic gas. The skin, our largest living organ, removes toxins through sweat.

The body already has a well-established detoxification system, but the foods you eat can really help or hinder the process. Consuming detoxifying foods will aid your body in getting the job done.

Foods that help with the detoxification process

1. Lemon

Packed with vitamin C, a hot lemon drink with water and honey is a go-to remedy for the flu. But that’s not all it can do! Drinking lemon water helps to remove toxins from the body by speeding up the digestion process and ensuring that food moves smoothly through the intestinal tract.

2. Turmeric

A natural anti-inflammatory, turmeric has numerous benefits that work together to keep your body functioning in full health. Studies have shown that turmeric can help to improve liver function, and by doing so, help with the process of filtering toxins out of the body.

Our Turmeric Blend helps the liver to do its job by targeting inflammation, alleviating pain and reducing the symptoms associated with some chronic health conditions.

3. Ginger

Ginger contains high levels of antioxidants that help the body with many things, including digestion. This renowned spice works as a detoxifier by assisting the intestinal tract with the digestive process and waste excretion.

4. Beetroot

Beetroot contains phytonutrients called betalains. These phytonutrients support enzyme production in the liver and, as with turmeric, help to keep the liver functioning optimally.

Our Daily Detox blend specifically targets liver function and works to improve overall cardiovascular health. Our Daily Detox will help to boost your body’s detoxification.

Heal your body naturally with detoxifying foods

Your body is an intelligent system with cohesive parts working together to keep you healthy. The way you can help with the detoxifying process is by eating the foods that best heal, protect and serve it.

Our plant-based, whole food prebiotic supplements help to naturally detoxify the body