Spring still feels like a distant dream away.

And to make matters worse, the office is swarming with coughs, colds, sore throats and cranky heads.

If you’ve succumbed to a winter cold or feel as if you are about to, it’s time to eat.

Hooray.

We spoke to Nutritionial Therapist Natalie Lamb, you can find her at Bio-Kult, to find out what we should be eating to fight off sickness.

  1. Eat a rainbow. Think colourful seasonal organic local vegetables. This will offer a wide range of nutrients that will work together to ensure your immune system is able to work at its best to fight off that winter bug
  1. Choose soup. Enjoy nourishing soups and stews with homemade bone stock, which is great to support a healthy gut lining where most of our immune system and bacteria lie.
  1. Layer on the protein. Good quality protein sources such as pasture fed meat, free range eggs and legumes are the building blocks for many immune cells and are delicious slow cooked on the hob.
  1. Ferment your food. 70% of your immune cells are located in the gut and are supported by the thousands of microbes that reside there. Consume fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, yogurt, kombucha, tempeh and miso. For those who don’t like the taste of fermented foods, supplement your diet with a multi-strain live bacteria supplement such as Bio-Kult (www.bio-kult.com) shown to significantly shorten common colds and reduce the severity of symptoms.
  1. Easy on the sugar. Reduce your intake of simple sugars and refined carbohydrates - (breads, pasta, biscuits, cakes etc) that are known to feed unwanted bacteria and yeast in the gut, encouraging their growth over beneficial immune supporting strains
  1. Go green. Eat plenty of leafy greens and citrus fruits to up your Vitamin C intake. Vitamin C is an essential when fighting the common cold, recent research suggests that upping your Vitamin C intake when battling the flu can also have a positive effect on the duration and severity of colds. For those who don’t consume enough Vitamin C rich foods, supplement your diet with a Vitamin C option.
  1. Bring flavour. Use culinary herbs in cooking - such as garlic, sage, rosemary and thyme reputed to have immune boosting and antimicrobial benefits. Garlic and sage are particularly favourites, and this list would not be complete without garlic which has been used for centuries as a natural antimicrobial to fight infections. Make sure you cook it lightly to retain the active ingredient allicin.