An apple a day keeps the doctor away, is something we’re all very familiar with. And we often encourage our children to eat their food, especially fruit and vegetables, telling them that it’s good for them and will do them good.   Can we apply this adage to the current situation we find ourselves in?

Under Covid-19 conditions, with a cure still a long time off, we are encouraged to take preventive measures. Socially distancing ourselves from each other and wearing of face coverings are part of our daily life. These all help break the transmission of the virus from one person to another.

Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food

But with children back at school now, what about boosting all our immunity and strengthening our body’s ability to fight this terrible virus? Will this help with staving off the virus in the first place or being able to recover more quickly from it? Didn’t Hipprocrates, the father of medicine, say “Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food”

Diet and the immune system

According to Sarah Stanner, Science Director at the British Nutrition Foundation, there is “no individual nutrient, food or supplement that will boost immunity, or stop us getting highly infectious viruses like Covid-19”.

What we need is a healthy balanced diet with wide range of fruit and vegetables. For years health education programmes have drummed it into us the importance of eating ‘our five a day’. This is now upped to seven times a day, to make sure we get the nutrients our immune system needs.

But we all know why for various reasons this is easier said than done.    Even assuming that fruit and vegetables are available and accessible, children can be notoriously picky about what they eat. So where does this leave concerned parents?

…our body can absorb more nutrients through whole foods than through supplements

Could the answer lie in taking supplements? 

Not really. Dietician Sophie Medlin says they are no substitute as our body can absorb more nutrients through whole foods than through supplements. In any case the phytochemicals, the vitamins, minerals and chemical compounds found in food, cannot be replicated by supplements. 

Fortunately for parents they can talk to other parents, to their local GP, even search the internet for help with healthy eating. And come up with ingenious ideas. One friend would blend all the vegetables together so her children were unable to recognise the vegetables they disliked.     

However even if they manage to get their children to eat more or less healthy there’s still something to be said for the preventive approach.

We all recognise that Vitamin C is very important for the immune system. Baobab fruit has naturally very high levels of this vitamin.

Take a leaf out of baobab’s book…   

We all recognise that Vitamin C is very important for the immune system. Baobab fruit has naturally very high levels of this vitamin. Sanya takes her children’s health very seriously and has been giving them “baobab tea” every morning since they were little. She swears that when other children do down with a cold, hers never get more than a little sniffle. So she’s definitely interested in other ways that her offspring can get the benefit of Baobab.

One such way has come in the form of our Baobab Jams and Spread. Four delicious immunity boosting toppings – Fruity Banana and Baobab, Zesty Orange and Baobab, Rich Baobab Chocolate Spread, Spicy Sweet Baobab Jam with Ginger. Spread on toast for breakfast, they make super start to any child’s day. Whether this will help stave off the virus on its own is probably a stretch, but as part of an arsenal of fresh fruit, vegetables and sensible practices, this certainly won’t harm.

Main photo found on the brilliant Unsplash by Element5 Digital