Lily Chapman shares her hero nutrients for supporting a strong immune system:

Energy: “Our body needs enough energy to help many physiological processes function properly, including our immune system,” she says. “Ensuring you are consuming enough calories to help support your immune system is therefore vital.”
Fruit and veg: experts suggest that we should be eating 30 different plants a week, and that becomes even more important if we’re trying to improve our immune systems. Try to eat folate-rich veg such as broccoli, kale and spinach (shown to produce an inflammatory immune response) and vitamin C-heavy fruits such as oranges and strawberries (which acts as an antioxidant to protect cells from damage).
Fat: for immunity, you want to be consuming at least 25% of your energy from fat, says Chapman. This should come from both saturated and unsaturated sources.
Omega-3: your body can’t create these unsaturated fatty acids itself, so you need to include them in your diet, in foods such as oily fish. Chapman explains: “Omega-3 plays a vital role in immunity, through activating immune cells and working as signalling molecules.”
Zinc: a deficiency in zinc has been shown to be associated with an increased susceptibility to infections. You can find it in lean meats, pulses, seafood, nuts, seeds and soy products.
Vitamin D: we’ve heard lots over Covid about the immunity-boosting nature of vitamin D. Try to get a little sun exposure first thing in the morning, and then aim to get the rest via diet (eggs, full-fat dairy and oily fish are packed with it, as are mushrooms) or a supplement.

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