Fish with a side of Virus-Busting food!
I love this, as I consider the kitchen to be my lab and food to be the chemistry.
Let me share some of the latest research with you about six common immune-supporting compounds found in common foods with powerful anti-viral properties.
Before I get into the specifics about nature’s pharmacy, I want to give you a basic explanation about what viruses are and how they work.
How do they operate? Simply put, they attach to our cells, infiltrate, replicate their parts using the RNA of our cells, reform themselves, reassemble themselves, and then spread out into our body…and beyond.
Viruses have attachment structures made out of proteins and carbohydrates (in the coronavirus family these are called spike proteins). These spike proteins attach – or “dock” – to a part of our cell’s membrane surface like a key in a lock and attach specifically to a receptor “lock” on the cell membrane called the ACE-2 receptor. This is attachment.
Once attached, the virus sends RNA into the host cell. The virus then takes over the host cell’s RNA manufacturing ability. This is infiltration.
Once the virus takes over the cell’s RNA, it uses it to tell the cell to make more of the viral parts of the virus, not of the cell itself. This is translation.
This results in a pile, so to speak, of parts of the virus (which are proteins made off the RNA of the host cell).
Then the enzymes of the virus take these “parts” and activate them, reassembling them into the actual virus. This is activation and reassembly.
Once reformed, these newly manufactured viruses break out of the host cell, and they spread into the next adjoining cell and to the next, circulating into the host body. This breaking of host cells and spreading is how the virus circulates into the host, finding the parts of the body it likes best.
As this process continues, your immune system goes to battle, working hard to knock out the viral load. But as in any battle, there is collateral damage. Your own tissue likely will take some of the punches, getting injured itself as your body fights a war against the virus.
The good news is that each one of these steps – attachment, infiltration, translation, activation and reassembly – presents an opportunity to defeat the virus. And the virus is vulnerable at each step to six special immune-supporting bioactive compounds called bioflavonoids that I’m going to tell you about.
Bioflavonoids are a specific group of polyphenols. Certain foods, especially fruits, herbs and vegetables, contain a lot of them, and have been shown to boost our gene expression positively, leading to beneficial health outcomes…which includes anti-viral effects!
This information comes straight from peer-reviewed scientific studies. In fact, these foods and the powerful compounds they contain demonstrate how “food is medicine,” as they have been studied as thoroughly as any pharmaceutical as healing agents. I’ve got a chart at the end of this article that shows how and at which stage each of these compounds works against a virus.
I encourage you to consume high amounts of all these foods. Get creative and include at least some of them in every single meal. You can add to snacks, throw into your smoothies, and make them a part of every recipe. I tell my own clients to eat 50 different kids of plant life every 30 days. This is what I myself do, and I know it helps keep my microbiome happy and my body strong.
Note: I’ve noticed something, which strikes me as very ironic: it’s the canned and processed foods that are being horded and cleared off the grocery shelves. But those foods have little to no vitality or living enzymes to actually balance your immune system. I think that’s tragic! REAL FOOD has always been a cornerstone to become and stay healthy. If nothing else, this novel coronavirus is showing us that we are not living in harmony with nature – which IS US – if we are only eating food that’s processed and packaged. Plants give us symbiotic solutions that we need to be strong and healthy, and we need to consume lots of them.
Although understanding the immune system and viruses can get infinitely complex, improving your health and staying healthy is not. It starts with FOOD.
Have you given your body immune enough to support its own capabilities to fight viruses? You may want to level up your intake of these beyond what you can consume via food. For that reason, I stock high grade supplements – to be used as powerful tools – to give you the option you may want…especially now. (Free shipping over $200.)
Start with food, and level up when needed.
Your turn – get into your own “kitchen lab.” Create your own health. Eat real food!
COMPOUND | TARGET SITE | HOW IT DISRUPTS VIRUS | VIRUS CYCLE |
Quercetin | Molecular cell membrane | Docking receptor site interference | Attachment, Infiltration |
Blocks viral enzyme and replication function | Translation | ||
Luteolin | Molecular cell membrane | Docking receptor site interference | Attachment |
Decreases transmission of virus | Activation, reassembly | ||
Herspertin | Molecular cell membrane | Docking receptor site interference | Attachment |
Interferes with virus replication | Translation, Infiltration | ||
Hesperidin | Molecular cell membrane | Docking receptor site interference | Attachment |
Interferes with virus replication | Translation | ||
Naringenin | Molecular cell membrane | Docking receptor site interference | Attachment |
Interferes with virus replication | Translation | ||
EGCG | Molecular cell membrane | Docking receptor site interference | Attachment |
Interferes with virus replication | Translation | ||
Activates immunity-related gene
function to combat viral load |
Infiltration |
Awesome, Thanks Doc.
God bless you and your loved ones on Resurection Sunday
Thank you Dr. Binley for providing this information since maintream medicine has little to offer except to isolate. Very much appreciated!
Wade, I just loved this latest blog on virus fighting foods. Thanks for your extensive research and for writing so clearly and articulately about your findings. Not only that, but your suggestions are actually yummy and appealing.
What can I say but: Understanding + Clear Action = Greater Peace of Mind.
With gratitude and Love,
XOShana
Hello from Portugal…..
Bob and I are doing well. Moving into our villa on 1 1/2 acres with 50 fruit trees in 10 days. Meanwhile we have been moving around staying in airbnb homes. Very low cases where we are in southern Portugal along the coast. We have been isolating for three weeks.
We can feel the love that you have for your patients/friends coming through your efforts to help us.
THANK YOU for being you
Lots of love and a big virtual hug,
Bob & Lyn
Love this advice. Our family has been consuming garden fresh kale, mint, plantain, lettuces, borage, oranges, lemons, cilantro, parsley, blackberries and wheat grass from backyard. We also have a local organic farmer 2 blocks away that provides us with blue berries, tangelos, apples, peaches and avocados. We are so grateful for our vibrant health and look forward to joining with more health attics like yourselves.
Bright Blessings,
Ed & Lin