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Immune System Color Wheel: A Guide to Foods That Boost Your Immunity

Ready to get your immune system ready for the changing seasons? When the seasons transition, so do our bodies. Let’s explore how we can help ourselves adjust to the colder months with nutrient dense foods that create a “colorful palate” and build a strong immune system.

Today functional medicine and integrative doctors (such as Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Zach Bush) have confirmed colorful foods and biochemicals as the key to a healthy body in homeostasis: one that can fight disease and maintain vitality.

Food is the most important source that builds a strong immune system since it makes up the composition of our microbiome. The new integrative medicine today states that our gut health is the basis for both our immune system and mental health, known as the microbiome.
 

 
 
“The microbiome guides human health and is one of the most important contributors to the functioning of our immune system,” Dr. Zach Bush explains.

As an artist and Kundalini Yoga instructor I created the concept of an Immunity Color Wheel as a guide to building a strong immune system, the natural defense against sickness.
 
 

What Is the Immunity Color Wheel? An Overview

From my collection of original chakra prints I chose to use my Sacral Chakra design as the model for this concept since it is the center of creativity and transformation: the approach we need to take when making diet and lifestyle changes, and why not add some color to it?

This “food wheel” design is also an alternative shape to the well-known Food Pyramid (the controversial diet plan we all learned about in school).

The Food Pyramid Just Got Updated With Harvard’s “Healthy Eating Plate” – Here Are the Pros and Cons

The concept of a” wheel” or circle has a lot of positive connotations that set a groundwork for a healthy body. In sacred geometry, the circle represents the sun and its life force together with the earth and solar system. It is eternal, cyclical and perfect with no beginning or end.

The Immunity Color Wheel reflects how each of our energy centers becomes balanced when vibrating aligned color frequencies. To keep things simple, the Immunity Color Wheel consists of super immune food sources containing the primary and secondary colors.
 
food color wheel2
 
One other thing to keep in mind is it can be difficult to eat enough of one super food to get all the nutrients we need since so much of our soil today is depleted of nutrients because of pollution and pesticides.

Glyphosate In Your Food: What You Need to Know About This Chemical and Your Health

Basically, we have disrupted the balance of healthy soil which is why some of our foods lack the original potent vitamins and minerals it once possessed. In fact, soil is the earth’s microbiome so it is essential to create a regenerative agriculture in the future.

This is why adding probiotics to your daily wellness routine is a great immune system support as well.
 
 

Build a Strong Immune System With Foods From the Immunity Color Wheel

Let’s explore the Immunity Color Wheel by each individual color, along with the healthy immune-boosting foods for each color.
 

Blue

Top your almond milk, yogurt or smoothie with blueberries! Blueberries have a key component called quercetin.

Quercetin is a flavonoid: a natural chemical found in plants, fruits and vegetables. It’s a super immune booster with antiviral characteristics: it blocks viruses from entering cells, defends the respiratory system from congestion and prevents infection.

The well known elderberry is an immune system booster in syrup form-known as Sambucus (it cannot be eaten). Elderberry syrup has both vitamin C and quercetin to fight off the first signs of a cold or a flu.

More blue immunity-boosting food sources:

  • Concord Grapes
  • Blue Plums
  • Blue green algae

 

Yellow

Food gets its nutrients from both soil and the sun. This color is dedicated to the yellow vibrations coming from the source of all life, the sun.

We can choose to get our Vitamin D directly from the sun by exposing most of our skin to full sun for about 20 minutes a day.

Natural Vitamin D drops are helpful when the sun vanishes during the cold months, Another yellow companion to the immune system is the well-known super spice, turmeric: immune booster and anti-inflammatory full of antioxidants.

Especially yummy in golden milk: a mix of turmeric and black pepper – like this turmeric latte recipe – enjoyed with almond milk or dairy milk. Drink this before bed with honey and you’ll sleep like a baby while also giving your body the benefits of this super spice.

From Anti-Inflammation to Mental Health, Here Are 9 Benefits of Turmeric

More yellow immunity-boosting food sources:

  • Ginger
  • Winter squash
  • Bananas
  • Lemons
  • Yellow onions

 

Red

Nourish and ground yourself with immune booster root foods: red beets are full of immunity boosters like copper, zinc, vitamin A and C. They also help produce white blood cells and fortify the heart, keeping your cells strong.

Red beets can be grated on salads or steamed, baked or shredded into your favorite smoothie. Beets also clean the liver which triggers immune system power.
 

Food is the most important source that builds a strong immune system since it makes up the composition of our microbiome.

 
Another super immune red food are pomegranates, high in Vitamin C and also anti inflammatory, making it the perfect food to eat when you experience the first signs of a sore throat. Enjoy fresh squeezed pomegranate juice or enjoy the seeds on a salad or in yogurt.

More red food sources to build a strong immune system:

  • Cranberries (juice or dried)
  • Raspberries
  • Cinnamon
  • Red chard
  • Red cabbage

 

Orange

Orange for the color and the fruit: Most of us are already aware of the benefits of drinking fresh squeezed orange juice in the morning or taking a Vitamin C supplement during the cold season.

Usually there is about 125mg of Vitamin C in fresh squeezed orange juice and it’s best to get 500mg a day so either add a supplement or complete your diet with the other suggested sources of vitamin C sources.

More orange immunity-boosting food sources:

  • Persimmons
  • Yams
  • Pumpkin
  • Carrots
  • Orange blossom honey

 

Green

Green is the vibrational frequency of the heart center: the center of our pranic force. Therefore green leafed vegetables have a high pranic energy and give us the maximum benefit of any other food out there.

Consider our human connection to mother earth – the earth is made up mostly of green plants so therefore these are the foods we should be eating the most of.

Dark leafed vegetables like spinach, chard and/or chicory can be deliciously enjoyed cooked and sauteed or raw in green smoothies. In raw form we can also get our good prebiotics set up in our microbiome.

Add some viral-fighting mint or thyme to add extra strength! Thyme is especially good for the respiratory system and mint is excellent for digestion.

More green food sources to foster a strong immune system:

  • Wheatgrass
  • Chlorella
  • Matcha tea
  • All green leafed veggies!
  • Spirulina

 

Purple

One of the best known purple immune system fighters is Echinacea, also known as the Purple Coneflower: a natural herbal flower used by Native Americans to treat ailments like malaria and syphilis, but today it is commonly used to fight off colds and flus.

The best purple food for our health and microbiome is purple cabbage sauerkraut.

Fermented foods like sauerkraut create beneficial bacteria that fight off toxins. Purple cabbage itself is much richer in nutrients than green cabbage and contains immune booster like Vitamin C and flavonoids.

More purple immunity-boosting food sources:

  • Acai berries
  • Purple carrots
  • Redbor kale
  • Forbiddden rice
  • Blackberries

 

White

White is the color that expands our aura, the invisible shield that surrounds our body and protects it from all negativity, including disease.

There are several exercises, especially in Kundalini Yoga, that can reinforce your aura which will repel any germ or virus, protecting your immunity further.

More white immunity-boosting food sources:

  • Greek Yogurt
  • Cauliflower
  • Parsnips
  • Garlic
  • White onions

 
 

Boost Your Immunity with the Immune System Color Wheel

The Immunity Color Wheel presented here provides a fun and easy way to build a strong immune system and create optimal health during the colder seasons. It’s easy to start creating a rainbow in your pantry by cooking colorful recipes that entice your appetite.

The circle is truly a symbol of balance, continuity and flow like the lifecycle of our bodies. Moreover, we have the circle concept with the energy wheels (chakras) in our bodies, which composes our chakra system.

The Chakras Explained: Learn the Basics About All 7 Chakras Here

Chakras are actually the ancient names for what modern science calls nerve plexuses.

Each nerve plexus is balanced when it generates a certain frequency and vibration which correlates to a certain color. For example: our heart chakra represents the color green meaning that a balanced heart gives off “green” vibrational frequencies.

Immunity Color Wheel inspired by the 2nd chakra, Swadisthan – the chakra of creativity.

chakra color wheel

Use some of the suggested foods in this article and slowly diverge into more variety.

Remind yourself to give your body a rainbow of food: click here to get access to this beautiful print or opt for the digital download and print at home.

Keeping your diet and life full of color will not only generate immunity and vitality, but will also enrich your life with a variety in cooking and joy!

All included information is not intended to treat or diagnose. The views expressed are those of the author and should be attributed solely to the author. For medical questions, please consult your healthcare provider.

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Maria Moscato

Maria has been an expat Californian living in Bologna, Italy for 18 years. After her two trips to India, she started yoga during her pregnancy 13 years ago and has been a yogi ever since. An artist, writer and innovative cook, she integrates her love for yoga and meditation into her work, including a line of yoga clothing based on the spiritual foundation of selenite, a crystal gypsum used by the Romans.

mialunadesign.com

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