A healthy immune system is only one component of holistically healthy living, but it is a critical component nonetheless. Your immune system works tirelessly to prevent pathogens from making you sick, inactivating viruses, and capturing bacteria before they can gain a foothold. Caring for your immune health is every ounce as important as exercise and a healthy mindset, and is one of the blocks that make up the structure of overall health.

As you know, at Waterfront Gourmet, we’re not just the source of the best catering in Philadelphia; we offer healthy, innovative dishes as well as tips and tricks you can use to stay healthy in mind and body. Today we’re going to take a look at some ingredients that you’ll find in some of our menu items. Some of these items may surprise you, but as it turns out, they’re not just delicious and good for you, they may be good for your immune system as well.

Red Bell Peppers

Everyone’s favorite bell peppers aren’t just deliciously sweet and smoky when roasted and crisp when fresh – apparently they can also positively affect your overall immune health.

Red bell peppers are completely loaded with vitamin C, and even have more than the perennial vitamin C heavyweight champ, the orange. Vitamin C is good for overall immune health and is also implicated in keeping your skin healthy. In addition, to support immune health, red bell peppers are full of antioxidants that can help fight free radicals, so it’s just great food, and it’s delicious. You can find red peppers in many of our sandwiches and salads.

Spinach

Delicious cooked or raw, but maintaining most of its ingredients when raw, spinach is another big contender on the list of foods that boost immune health. Like the bell peppers listed above, spinach is loaded with vitamin C and antioxidants keep your immune system strong and healthy.

In addition, spinach is beta carotene and vitamin A, which support the health of your eyes and skin and can help the body absorb other nutrients as well. Evidently, spinach may also contain nutrients that are helpful in cell repair and division, which may be able to naturally fight the aging process.

Kale

Kale is a double-header; this one made our most recent post of superfoods that you can find on our menu. As it turns out, Kale isn’t just super healthy, it may even be able to bolster your immune system.

It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that kale is also loaded down with vitamin C and antioxidants that can help fight infections and beef up your immune system. Kale also contains a compound known as folate which is another immune booster.

In addition to these nutrients, kale is full of vitamin A that is important for the maintenance of healthy skin as mentioned above, along with vitamin E and other important minerals like iron. It’s a real powerhouse of a superfood, not only good for your immune system but for your total health.

Garlic

Garlic is delicious, but the tricky thing about it is to look for it for its flavoring rather than as an ingredient that you actually eat like the other foods on this list. It’s no recent discovery that garlic can help in fighting off infections, as it has been used in medicine for centuries if not longer.

Garlic contains many compounds such as allicin, which are known to be effective at bolstering the immune system and fighting off infections. Yet it’s not all about immune health with garlic; like the other foods on this list, garlic can serve up several other health benefits. There is some evidence to suggest that garlic can work against high blood pressure and protect against arteriosclerosis.

Chicken

There may be something to giving chicken noodle soup as a remedy for colds after all. Actually, to be fair, this entry should state poultry in general, as the meat of other fowls like turkey also offers the same benefits.

Chicken is loaded with protein, more so than the other ingredients in this list. That means that it can provide your body with the building blocks of antibodies that are used to stave off pathogens.

Also, interestingly enough, when you boil chicken or chicken bones to make broth, you produce gelatin and chondroitin in the process. Both of these ingredients can boost your immune system as well.

These are only some of the ingredients you will find on our menu that may be able to boost your immune system, so the next time you order some of the best catering in Philadelphia, you can impress your guests or your family not only with our delicious flavors but with your knowledge of some of the ingredients.

Currently, we are operating under a limited schedule at select locations that are open for order online or by phone, for pickup in-store, although we also deliver for free in the Philadelphia area. Be sure to call one of our locations for more information on our current schedule or to place an order; we’d love to hear from you!

Remember to check back soon to learn more about ingredients, healthy living, and healthy dishes from your source for the most delectable, original dishes, and the best catering in Philadelphia, Waterfront Gourmet.