Avoiding colds and the flu this winter

Here are six ways to avoid getting sick or beating the flu this winter: 

1. Take echinacea  daily. Herbal tinctures, teas or tablets 
2. Eat Vitamin C rich foods. Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant and is great for preventing and treating colds and flu's. Orange juice isn't actually a good source of vitamin C. It contains too much sugar and the amount of juice that you have to drink to get benefits is enormous! Berries are a much better source. Put them on top of your breakfast in the morning or add to smoothies. 
3. Fermented Cod liver oil is very supportive of your immune system. I buy mine from greenpasture.org
4. Avoid sugar. Sugar or carbohydrates aren't an essential nutrient. Sugar brings your immunity down and makes you more susceptible to viruses.
5. Don't stress. Stress is another thing that brings down you immunity. Take time to meditate and relax. 
6. Eat slow cooked comfort foods such as bone/chicken broths and stews. There is a good reason that we crave winter stews in cold weather. They are full of nutrients and offer many healing benefits. Slow cooking at a low heat retains all the nutrients and doesn't destroy the vitamins as high temperatures do. There really isn't anything better than coming home to a slow cooked hot meal and the end of a winters day.

and if you are unlucky and get  sick:

1. Stay in bed: Rest, your body is telling you to
2. Eat lots of chicken soup made from organic chicken and a range of vegetables. Chicken soup is scientifically proven to assist in recovery from colds and flu's. 
3. Up the vitamin C: Ideally a therapeutic dose of Vitamin C when you are sick is 100mg every hour until bowl tolerance. You could take this in the form of Vitamin C powder or you could just eat lots of blueberries (about a punnet every hour). I think the blueberries are better as they contain lots of antioxidants as well.Taking one nutrient in isolation doesn't naturally happen in nature so why do it??
4. Don't even think about exercising!
5. Keep warm. The best thing you can do it literally sweat it out. Have a hot bath, drink a warming tea such as ginger and keep rugged up in bed.