Nutrition & Vitamins - Vitamins & minerals for the immune system

My name is Christine Marquette, and I'm a registered and licensed dietitian, and I'm going to talk to you about vitamins and minerals for the immune system. As far as the immune system is concerned, the primary things that you want to make sure you keep in mind, as far as your vitamins and minerals, are those that are considered to be antioxidants. As far as the vitamins are concerned,that's primarily vitamin A, C, and E. Beta carotene is also a precursor to Vitamin A, and is another item that is thought of as an antioxidant. As far as the minerals are concerned, selenium is the major mineral that's considered an antioxidant. Zinc is another mineral that can also affect your immune system, so you want to make sure in considering these particular vitamins and minerals, if you have a problem with your immune system, say for example, you recently suffered a bout of the flu, or the cold, or you're somebody who does get sick very frequently, it's probably a good idea to go ahead and get yourself a multivitamin, multi mineral supplement, that has about 100% of the RDA, from most of these major vitamins and minerals. It's kind of a good insurance policy. You don't want to rely strictly on your vitamin supplement, or your mineral supplement, because it should be just that. It should supplement your diet. It shouldn't take the place of a healthy diet, so as far as your diet is concerned, to get these particular vitamins and minerals through your foods, you want to make sure you're including a variety of fruits and vegetables. You want as many different colors, as you can get in, over the weeks time. Each color basically signifies a different type of nutrient in it, a different type of antioxidant in it, so as many different colors as you can, over the week. It is ok to use frozen fruits and vegetables. The way they are processed these days, they actually are harvested when they're at their ripest, and then flash frozen, so they don't lose any of their nutrients, so frozen could be a good way to go. Canned vegetables tend to have less vitamins in them, than the fresh or frozen varieties, and a lot of times, they have a lot of sodium, so if you're able to, stick with fresh or frozen, when it comes to your fruits and vegetables, as far as getting those vitamins and minerals, to help build your immune system.