Food to Improve Your Immune Health

Check out the top ingredients to add to your meals that naturally support your immune system. Backed by our qualified supplement advisors!

Autumn and winter are prime time for coughs, colds and general illnesses so we’ve been working with our qualified supplement advisors to bring you the best natural sources of immune support.

Why is immune health important?

Our immune system is crucial to fighting off infection and as colder weather rolls in it’s never more prominent than right now. It’s an impressive network defending against germs like bacteria, viruses, fungi and toxins. Our immune system is made up of different organs, cells and proteins that all work together and they’re helped along by different factors.

What impacts our immune health?

Sleep is important for a healthy immune system and not getting enough can impact your health.
Getting enough vitamins and minerals like zinc, selenium, vitamin E, D, C & A all keep your immune system in tip top shape. Clinical deficiencies of these nutrients weaken immunity and can increase susceptibility to infections so it’s really important to get enough!
Smoking is very detrimental to your immune system and damages your lungs.
Drinking a lot of alcohol can suppress your immune system making you more susceptible to illness or make it a longer, harder illness to fight off.
Many health conditions, diseases and high stress levels can hugely impact your immunity.

You can find more information at the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

Good Quality

Hunger-Satisfying

2-3 Protein Meals each day

Your Health

Eating for a stronger immunity.

Eating more of these foods can naturally help support your immune system:

Bell Pepper s: high in Vitamin A & C.
Chilli Pepper: high in Vitamin A & C and contains compound capsaicin that’s good for congestion.
Mushrooms: contain beta glucose that’s good for the gut, the first line of defence for the immune system.
Oats: contain Beta Glucose (a surprising one for most people!)
Sage: antimicrobial, antiviral and antibacterial.
Pumpkin Seeds: high in Zinc.
Ginger: anti inflammatory.
Garlic: contains allicin which helps the immune system fight off infection
Honey: antiviral and antibacterial.
Elderberry tea: contains anthocyanins, an antioxidant. It’s antibacterial and antiviral.
Rosehip tea: high Vitamin C that supports immunity

Not sure what to make with this new list of ingredients?

Check out our recent recipes for a little inspiration…

Pumpkin pie overnight oats layered in a glass jar.

Overnight oats can be paired with a variety of toppings; why not add honey and pumpkin seeds?

Our pumpkin pie overnight oats recipe is simple and fully customisable, you can even eat them warm! Click here for the recipe.

Vegan scrambled egg made from pumpkin seeds on a bagel.

Get creative and turn your pumpkin seeds in to a vegan scrambled egg substitute!

Sounds crazy but we promise it’s delicious! Watch us make it here and give it a go! 📽️

More of our team’s lifestyle tips

A cosy cup of elderberry or rosehip tea is the perfect start to your day for winding down at night.

Make an effort to regularly wind down 30-60 minutes before bed, with no screens. It will hugely improve your sleep and a well-rested body is important for a health immune system!

Quitting smoking or vaping is tough but with the right support you can do it and make a huge improvement to your health!

Want more personalised advice? Our qualified supplement advisors are for your health needs. From nutrition, to natural supplements and lifestyle changes they have a wealth of knowledge – pop in for a chat!

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Earthfare

4.5

Based on 72 reviews

01:45 19 Sep 23

21:46 13 Sep 23

20:34 10 Aug 23

These guys are the hub of Glastonbury for supporting local organic and sprayfree growers of fresh vegetables, fruits and other fringe items. They stock a big range of Riverford Organic produce delivered fresh from Devon. They've got the pantry sorted with everything you need from breakfast cereals, coffee, vegan milks, cows milk, chocolate to crisps, cheeses to Sauerkraut. We bought the vegetarian sausage rolls which were great. They have another savoury selection in the display fridge but don't warm them up for you - I tried eating the Potato cakes and they weren't good cold. I took them home and heated them up and were way better. They gave a deal going where you can buy 3 for 5 pounds which was pretty good value. The takeaway coffee was good - we ended up walking down the road to the church grounds and sat in there to munch on our goodies before hitting some of the crystal shops and clothing boutiques. It makes for a good day out when you can good coffee, organic food and chilled out vibes meandering around the streets of Glastonbury!

Richard Sandwell

20:42 05 Aug 23

This place was great to buy nice local produce like the Pennard Organic Mead I enjoyed for Lammas. A great choice of natural soaps, lots of yummy foody treats, this is well worth a visit and a good browe.

Kate Bullock

15:58 03 Jun 23

Amazing selection of wholefoods and other 'health' foods and supplements. One of the best wholefood shops in the south west

Free spirit

10:34 26 May 23

This shop is increable.The staff are very helpful. I was given good advice regarding supplements.

Myra Champeney

14:47 23 Mar 23

I love this shop and would have given 10 stars if I could! Very friendly, knowledgable and helpful staff, top quality food. I am sad that your Portishead store has closed as that was much nearer for me. I will now resume my fortnightly trip from Clevedon to your lovely shop. Thank you to all of you. Best wishes Myra.

wranian

02:09 02 Dec 22

This must be one of the biggest and if not one of the best organic food stores in the UK. A real beacon for Glastonbury.

bihag patel

14:51 01 Dec 22

bought muldwine for a £2 very nice the chap was very friendly and so were all the staff and didn't feel ripped off as in bath.

Della Wilmot

09:39 30 Aug 22

Love it in here, staff are super friendly and there's a great selection of stuff at reasonable prices. Live in London but always make sure I come here when I am in Glastonbury to stock up on soaps, vegan chocolate and other lovely bits. The sausage rolls are fab too.

Joe Hetherington

11:09 11 Sep 21

Amazing variety of products, alternatives and essentials. Was really cool just to browse actual vegan products rather than buying all online (we don't have anything similar to this where we live!) On top of that the samosa from the bakery at the back was to die for!

Lily-Ela Butler

09:42 29 Apr 21

Love this shop, I come here for a lot of my organic supplies. Great range of foods. I particularly like how they have a lot of ready to eat food aswell can highly recommend the Fritata. I also really like their range of toiletries, it's the only place I will buy my shampoo bars from, Great value compared to other brands. Very helpful and friendly staff too. It's good to see they are trying to follow covid guidelines, but there did seem to still be a lot of people especially families not wearing masks or distancing