Okay, so if you want to stay on a reality show, you often need to win “immunity.” It’s a good thing. You also need immunity if you want to stay healthy, and zinc should be your secret partner, your best buddy, the alliance that keeps you in the game. Along with Vitamins C, A, E and selenium. But this post will give you some more info on zinc and holistic health.

Whether you are young or wiser 😉 you are more likely to fight off infection, inflammation (such as with arthritis), aging effects like oxidative stress, and increase healthy cell and tissue regeneration, including that in your skin and for healing wounds. See this research study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and more information on the Vegetarian Society’s site.

Eating foods rich in zinc is a great way to stave off an incoming cold or flu. As soon as you feel even a wee bit under the weather, eat some oysters, chick peas (a major ingredient in hummus), baked beans, pumpkin seeds, dark meat turkey, clams, lima beans, lobster, pork, potato.

If you decide to take zinc supplements over an extended period of time, be sure to balance with copper, which is another mineral critical for health, because zinc interferes with the absorption of copper. Good food sources of copper are green veggies and shellfish. You’ll notice that by eating shellfish, you get a balance of zinc and copper in the same food. Great way to head off a cold.

For more nutrition information, see Peacock & Paisley’s blog posts on Nutrition.