5 Ways I Battle Seasonal Virus Potential

My days are busy with preparing things in my kitchen that I believe will help lessen or even help my family totally avoid the common illnesses of the season.  I know that once we or one of us receives a new virus, our bodies will make antibodies to it and it won't be able to attack again..that is if the immune system is kept strong.  I am okay with that too but, I am an avid hand washer and non chemical hand sanitizer user for myself and the children when we are in public!  I wanted to share some things here that take time away from more fun things to do but I feel are well worth the investment of time.  The payoff is a family of healthy folks.  I am not a health expert, just a mom who reads about this stuff often.

1. Take Vitamins.  We use quality assured ones which means the dose is what it says it is when some others are not "guaranteed"  but I think that taking them is just important even if you don't go through a practitioner but get them at your health food store.  Vitamins and supplements, a good overall multi is essential daily if possible.  That goes for children too.
2. Probiotics.  I buy them through our Frontier co-op but again, I have seen good quality, multi strain is ideal, brands, refrigerated at HEB or other stores.  Its important to take them as our immune system begins in our gastrointestinal system.  You are surely going to get plenty of the good fighting bacterias killed off is you drink soda water, drink water in restaurants or any other non filtered and fluoridated water, not to mention other bugs, literally, from salads and other produce.  Also especially, especially after antibiotic use.
3. Pesto!  This is a pile of Italian and Curly leaf parsley, some organic, some not, from the grocery store.  The recipe is for basil but since I cannot grow or buy that in bulk now, I use the two parsleys..the Italian makes the flavor milder.  For Walnut Pesto, in your food processor, toss in 1 cup walnuts, 6 garlic cloves, 1 tsp sea salt, 1 cup of olive oil, process till smooth.  Add 3.5 cups of fresh basil (parsley) and juice from half a lemon and process again until smooth.  Store in a mason jar in the fridge and it lasts for weeks.  Spread on toast or bring to almost room temp and drizzle on scrambled eggs or, toss to coat and flavor a hot pasta salad with tomatoes and seafood.  Delicious, nutritious, high in vitamins you need and easy.  My children like it!
4. Immune boosting herbs for all.  My husband and I take them in caps but for the children, I make Immune Booster pops using Wishgarden Herbs Immune Boost bulk herbs.  Drop a handful in a quart mason jar, add boiling water, steep till cool, mix with one part organic orange juice with pulp or fresh squeezed if you really want it fresh and a little liquid Stevia to sweeten it up a little more.  Juices seem to loose their sweetness when frozen.  The children love these, even in cold weather.  Wishgarden has other more specific herbal remedies too that have been effective for all of us.  Martin loves the Sore Throat Soother..calms his cough in seconds.
5. Eat orange.  Pumpkins, Butternut squashes, Acorn squashes, carrots, etc.  The high levels of Vitamin A are critical in battling viruses and bacteria.  See this book and this book for some ideas on preparations for these foods.  You can even make pumpkin smoothies with canned organic pumpkin..just don't overdo the sweet part.

So those are the basic things I try to do regularly around here to keep our bodies healthy during this cold and flu season.  What things do you do to boost your families immune systems?  Please share.