Vegan Foods to Eat to Support Your Immune System

Support your immune system to help it fight coronavirus

Surya WrightNovember 01, 2023

copper iron zinc vitamin d vitamin a selenium vitamin b6 folate immune system

With winter well and truly here and storm Ciarán knocking at our doors, it’s more important than ever to protect your immune system.

We’ve been asked by our vegan friends to put this together for vegans to help them support their immune systems.

Which nutrients are good for your immune system?

These are the nutrients sanctioned by the European Food Safety Authority with health claims to protect your immune system:

Copper | Iron | Selenium | Vitamin A | Vitamin B6 | Vitamin C | Vitamin D | Folate (B9) | Zinc

Click on any nutrient above to see the most potent ingredients and filter by vegan on the left-hand side.

These are our top foods to eat, to get as many of those nutrients as possible:

Spinach | Soya Mince | Green lentils | Quorn | Natural Yeast Extract | Sweet Potato | Orange Juice | Nuts

It is by no means a definitive list, but all these foods have one or more of the nutrients above 30% of your recommended daily amount (RDA), that will protect your immune system. Below is more information about each one and ways to include them in your diet.

Spinach

Spinach is great for folate (B9), vitamin A and iron.

Try it in this Simple four in one pasta sauce - or drop a cube of frozen spinach into stews casseroles, rice dishes - anything.

Soya mince

Soya mince is great for copper, iron, folate and vitamin B6.

Try it in this scrummy vegan chilli, which is also very high in copper and vitamin A

Green Lentils

Green lentils are amazing for you with iron, selenium and copper all over 30% for a portion.

Try them in this vegan keema style curry, which also has soya mince.

Quorn

Quorn is great as it comes in so many forms, plus it’s great for Zinc.

It’s also fab for manganese to protect your cells and is important for healthy bone, connective tissue and energy creation.

Use it in any recipe that calls for chicken or use one of the fillets as a standalone meat substitute. Try mixing half with soya mince in the scrummy chilli recipe or keema curry above to get more immune supporting nutrients in 😊

Natural Yeast Extract

Natural yeast extract is great for Folate (B9) and vitamin B6, if you’re a vegan you can get it with added vitamin B12

Why not try this fab vegan tagine or just add a spoon to any savoury dish your making? This tagine also uses sweets potato below.

Sweet potato

Sweet potato is good for vitamin A and vitamin C

Use in the tagine above or try mixing half and half with potato for a great mash, its great in curries or just baked!

Fresh oranges or orange juice

Fresh oranges or orange juice are the easiest way to get your fill of vitamin C.

But if you can’t face orange juice every day then get yourself a bottle of acerola cherry juice. It’s super high in vitamin C. Just a spoon a day will give you all the vitamin C you need. Get it from your local heath food shop or order online, it’s one of the superfoods we have a shot of everyday!

Nuts

Nuts are great in a vegan diet, the best ones for your immune system are:

Brazil nuts

Brazil nuts are great for selenium and copper.

Cashew nuts

Have a couple of handfuls for your copper supplies.

Pistachios

A couple of handfuls will give you 28% of your RDA for vitamin B6

A note about Vitamin D

Vitamin D is particularly important for your immune system and it’s quite difficult to get enough through your food.

Sunshine is the best way to get your vitamin D, so if you can get outside for a few minutes, check here how long for, then try to do so.

If that’s impossible then these supplements are from natural sources and are suitable for vegans. Please note we don’t make any money from recommending these.

Finally

Just a reminder of the nutrients:

Copper, Iron, Selenium, Vitamin A, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Folate (B9) and Zinc

The above list is just a snapshot of the foods that are high in these immune system protecting nutrients.
Remember you can filter any of the ingredient or recipe lists by vegan to find the best foods for yourself and your family.

To check if your favourite foods are high, simply search for them on CheckYourFood.com and look at the top 6 nutrients, they need to be over 30% of your RDA (recommended daily allowance) for any of the nutrients listed.

If you want to make sure you’re getting 100% of your RDA for these all these nutrients, then the best thing to do is keep a food diary, we do 😊. You can keep one for free with our Free for Life account just click below.

I want to keep a food diary!

I hope this blog has been a helpful starting point to understanding the power of ordinary food and how you can protect yourself from illness. Most chronic diseases are caused by poor nutrition (WHO). Make sure you’re not one of those people!

Surya Wright

Co-founder, production manager

I'm our communications and marketing person, dealing with social media and copywriting. I also work with Matt and Ric overseeing the design and strategic management of the site. I'm also the author of the Eva the Hungry Amoeba children's book series (only one so far). You can find it on Amazon. My favourite foods, shepherds pie and smoked haddock!

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