How Nutritional elements help in boosting immunity

Hi guys! Today I am writing this blog post as a mom finding solutions to build my child’s immunity.
With the changing weather, children catch cold & flu easily. This made me think about how I can improve my child’s immunity and make her strong.

Food plays a very important role in improving health as well as recovering from any diseases. There is a strong connection of food with nutritional elements and immunity system. We need to make sure that kids get proper balanced diet with all the nutritional elements needed for good immunity.

What are these elements and how do they affect our immune system?
Nutrients are broadly divided into the following categories:

1. Protein (1gm protein provides 4 Kcal energy)
   Some of the constituents of protein can’t be made by body so it needs to be taken directly from food.
   Milk, cheese, meat, fish, poultry, pulses contain proteins.
2. Fat (9 Kcal per 1gm of fat)
   Fats are an important source of energy for the body and kids need this to stay active.
3. Carbohydrates: ( 4 Kcal per 1 carbohydrate)
   They are mostly starch and sugars of vegetables origin and a major component of cereal.
4. Vitamin & Minerals
   Vitamins are needed for adequate functioning of body. Vitamins consists of mainly two groups: water soluble vitamin ( B1, B2 & Vitamin C) and fat-soluble vitamin ( A, D,E & K). Minerals such as zinc, selenium are also needed for proper immunity, cell development, etc.

Maintaining a Balance
Balanced diet is defined as one, which contains a variety of food in such quantities and proportion that can provide the needed energy, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates and other important nutrients that are required to maintain good health and proper immunity.

I am happy that I found PediaSure with this balanced nutrition to help boost immunity in children. I make sure to give my little one home cooked food that includes cereals, vegetables, fruits, and milk products. Adding PediaSure in milk also helps in boosting her immunity.

We are vegetarians so we try to maintain the protein balance by adding pulses, chick peas, sprouts, and paneer to our daily meal. Apart from this, we add dry fruits with black pepper, chia seeds and fennel seeds in shakes that we drink early morning as part of our routine. You can also add banana in this shake as it gives a sweet taste to it. (If you need detailed recipe for this shake, please leave a comment, and I will share with pictures)

With proper food it’s equally important to teach kids to maintain proper hygiene such as washing hands properly for a minimum of 20 seconds before eating anything. Most importantly right now, we should take care that our kids don’t go out to play until things get okay.

I hope these small changes can help make them stronger. Do share your valuable views and tips that you follow at home to improve your children’s immunity.