Micronutrients and Immunity

Introduction

There is a lot of information out there about nutrition and diet. Most of it deals with weight loss, muscle gain, and boosting energy levels (see any Men’s Fitness or Cosmopolitan cover ever). While many of those concepts deal with macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, and, proteins), there are a whole slew of micronutrients (think vitamins and minerals) that your body cannot synthesize and needs to absorb from your food. For this exercise we’re going to focus on micronutrients that are crucial for your immune system.

You’re probably familiar with vitamin C; it is often referred to as the end-all be-all for a healthy immune system. While it certainly helps, vitamin C isn’t the only player in bolstering your immune system. There are several other micronutrients – vitamins A, B6, B12, D, E, folate, iron, zinc, copper and selenium – that are essential for antibody production. If you have watched the videos for this module, you know how important those antibodies are. In this exercise we will be focusing on these 10 micronutrients.