Eating For Health – Nutrition And The Immune System

We’ve often encountered the truism ‘eat for weight loss, exercise for fitness.’  We frequently read about the values of eating foods high in antioxidants for health, the value of proteins and vitamins, but the subject of nutrition and the immune system seems to get less attention.  Let’s pay homage here.

Nutrition And The Immune System

I suspect that when most of us think about the immune system, we immediately focus on the ‘active’ system.   The one that responds to the invasion of foreign viruses and bacteria by attacking the offending invader.  It generates antibodies and mounts an assualt to destroy the trespasser.

There also exists another line of defense that activates passively, in response to low energy levels (i.e. starvation).   This system releases proteins that dissolves the cell wall of existing threats.

Scientists believe this system exists in mosts creatures, and may have evolved as a pre-emptive defense mechanism, intended to come into play during periods of starvation – when resources were scarce.

Of course, for many of us today, scarcity of food is hardly a problem.  By some estimates, as much as one-third of all food produced in the U.S. ends up in a landfill.   Putting these things together, it isn’t hard to imagine that overeating may actually disable the body’s passive defense system.

Now, before we go down the path of starvation, that’s not what I would suggest.   There’s nothing healthy, or sustainable, about that.  But, could it be argued that there are benefits to occasional calorie restriction?  There is certainly some evidence to support the notion that restrictive calorie diets prolong life.  Futhermore, there are those who adhere to this set of beliefs, and even consider the modern day equivalent to a fountain of youth.

Now.  I’m not going to stop eating, in the hopes that I’ll never get sick again.  But this is yet another bit of evidence in the mounting case that gross overconsumption of food in our society is leading to reduced quality of life.  It’s something to consider.

Resources

Direct Influence Of Immune System On Health

Fish Oil And Health

Harvard School Of Health

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