Your immune system can be complicated, but is highly efficient in providing multiple defenses as your body’s tissues and cells work together to resist and defend against unwanted bacteria intrusions, infections and diseases.

Besides fighting unwanted antigens or microbes, your immune system becomes activated when you eat foods that are allergic or intolerant to your system.  Processed or refined foods filled with fat, sugars, gross amounts of sodium and countless carbohydrates can also be terrible for your immune system:

• Impaired disease resistance is associated with deficient amounts of vitamins and minerals.  Since most processed food is refined, those key nutrients are gone and usually replaced by chemicals or substances that are not recognized properly by our immune system.  Food additives can affect the nutrient content of food and its chemical reaction in our body.
• Nutrient-deficient foods first impair your immune tissues
• If the nutrient replacement found in refined or processed foods cannot perform the metabolic task of the missing nutrient, your immune system is weakened

If you want to boost your immune system and not harm it in any way, stay away from sugar, fast food, processed or refined foods and the following foods:

• Any kind of salt or sodium
• Marbled meat, liver or any kind of organ meat, and processed meats
• Canned fish (including tuna and sardines).  If you “must” have this food, make sure you rinse it well to remove as much sodium as possible
• Salty snacks like chips, nuts, pretzels, or pork rinds
• Poultry with skin
• Full-fat dairy products, including butter
• Eggs (a couple per week is OK)
• Refined or packaged baked goods or snack foods
• Fried foods
• Pickled foods like herring, pickles, relish, olives, or sauerkraut
• Any food that contains trans fat
• Sauces or condiments like soy sauce, steak sauce, most salad dressings, ketchup and BBQ sauce.
• Any seasonings that include salt

Sugar is probably one of the worst foods for your immune system.  Ingesting less than 8 tablespoons – about 2 cans of soda – a day can reduce the ability of your white cells to ward off invading bacteria by up to 40 percent.

Most meats are bad because of their fat content, and when you get into specific kinds and cuts of meats, there are other issues as well.

Full-fat dairy products are not good for you because of their fat content as well.  When we ingest animal fats, our bodies tend to increase our production of cholesterol. 

Eggs are good, but only when eaten in moderation.  Just one egg yolk fulfills over half of your recommended amount of dietary cholesterol, according to the USDA.

Refining food strips the food of most of its nutritional value, including fiber, vitamins and other nutrients, and is usually more calorie-dense than whole foods.  By eating refined foods, you are only eating empty calories.

Fried foods taste good, but they are terrible for you, especially foods fried in partially hydrogenated or trans fat oils. These oils lower good cholesterol and increase bad cholesterol.  Some experts and studies refer to these oils as “the cigarettes” of food; there is nothing good about them.  Too much consumption of oil is a recipe for gaining weight.  Your body can only process so much fat, and fat helps increase your bad cholesterol.