People say food is medicine for a reason.

When cold and flu season comes around, experts say following a nutrient-dense diet is essential to supporting your immune system in times of need.

“Food is, in many ways, medicine and many medicines that we have actually come from foods or herbs or naturally occurring products that can be ingested,” explained Joan Duggan, an infectious disease specialist at UToledo Health.

Up until around the 1950s, there wasn’t much knowledge about the link between nutrition and infection, said Dr. Duggan, who is also a professor of medicine in the College of Medicine and Life Sciences at the University of Toledo. What’s been learned is that malnutrition makes you more susceptible to infections, and your immune system doesn’t work as well.

Flu-fighting foods

See Full Page