How Citrus Fruits Can Help Give Your Immune System A Boost This Winter

As we move into winter and into another lockdown it’s important for us to give our immune systems a boost.

We all know the value of Vitamin D in helping boost our immune levels but there are many wonderful fruits and vegetables in our fruit bowls and fridges that can also help give us an immune boost.

Citrus fruits for example are high in vitamin C, a nutrient that helps boost the immune system and encourages the production of white blood cells that are necessary to help fight infections.

I have a very hit and miss relationship with citrus fruit, I love them but when I was growing up I found that I was prone to getting sore throats whenever I had anything too citrusy but as I’ve gotten older and experiment more with flavours and ingredients I have found ways to introduce more citrus and in turn more vitamin C into my diet.

I’ll use lemon in my salad dressings or have a warm lemony drink but one of my favourite vitamin C boosters is a citrus smoothie.

Citrus Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 large orange, peeled and halved or quartered (depending on the size of your blender).

¼ lemon (peeled)

1 slice of pineapple

60g of fresh mango

Handful of ice cubes

Method:

Put all the ingredients in your blender and blitz them together!

If you like a runnier consistency to your smoothies you can always add more ice. You can also experiment with different flavours, I like to add a bit of ginger or cinnamon into the mix from time to time.