Everything you need to know about Immunonutrition

Interest in studying the relationship between nutrition and health has recently grown, as it is now considered to go beyond just body weight. In this context, the influence of food and how it is metabolized has become important in relation to the immune system of both healthy and sick individuals. This article will provide more details and tools you can incorporate into your lifestyle to improve your immune system and nutritional status in order to prevent chronic diseases, cardiovascular conditions, and more through immunonutrition.

What is immunonutrition?

Immunonutrition is the branch of nutrition that studies the specific effect of different nutrients and foods on immune function. This is because about 70% of the immune system is located in the gut, which can have either a positive or negative immune response—especially when that inflammatory response is sustained over time—based on the foods we consume daily. This highlights the fundamental role that your diet plays in the development and prevention of both acute and chronic diseases.

It also focuses on providing or restoring specific nutrients during life stages that require an immunomodulatory effect or an additional intake, depending on age, hormonal status, or exposure to pathogens or threats, including harmful foods or a hostile microbiota (Cristina Tejera-Pérez et al., 2023).

Relationship between nutrition and immune system function

The immune response can be classified in two ways, although they usually act together:

Innate immunity
It is nonspecific but immediate. It consists of barriers:

1. Physical: skin, mucous membranes such as the intestinal lining, mucus, etc.
2. Chemical: fluid pH, lipids, polyamines, etc.
3. Biochemical: digestive enzymes, acute-phase proteins, interferons.
   It includes cells such as polymorphonuclear leukocytes, macrophages, and NK cells.

Adaptive immunity

It is specific and creates memory but is slightly slower. It produces antibodies against harmful agents, whether food or microorganisms, such as IgG, IgM, IgA. It includes cells like T and B lymphocytes.

All types of immunity can be affected by malnutrition or undernutrition, which reduce the body's overall defense capacity, increasing the risk of infections, allergies, and inflammatory diseases. This occurs because neutrophils become less capable of attacking and removing harmful microorganisms, and macrophages become less effective at initiating a specific immune response.

Nutrients and supplements that stimulate immunity

Many foods and micronutrients have positive effects on our immune system function. Some of these include:

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that helps protect our cells from damage caused by free radicals. These are harmful molecules produced during metabolism or in response to sun exposure and pollution.

Vitamin D

This is one of the main micronutrients that activates the immune system’s response to external agents. It also stimulates the activation and proliferation of regulatory T lymphocytes and regulates both innate and adaptive immune responses in various inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Additionally, it helps improve calcium levels (Mohamed Ben-Eltriki et al., 2021).

Zinc

Zinc is involved in activating over 100 enzymes, repairing and forming proteins, and synthesizing DNA. It also has regulatory functions, such as modulating the immune system. It is essential for regulating cell division cycles in women, such as ovulation. A deficiency can alter methylation and lead to issues in preimplantation development, potentially causing irregular menstrual cycles and even fertility problems.

Arginine

This is an essential amino acid only during childhood, but as adults, we obtain it through easily digestible foods. It is also important for preventing viral replication (Hu X et al., 2023).

Glutamine

This amino acid is essential for intestinal cells and maintaining their barrier function. Although our body can produce it, supplementation may be necessary when there is intestinal damage (Xia Chen et al., 2022).

Omega-3 fatty acids

Omega-3 acts as an antioxidant that benefits not only the nervous system or fat and cholesterol metabolism but also the integrity of membranes and the intestinal microbiota (Marta Lo Conte et al., 2023).

Probiotics and prebiotics

Probiotics are live microorganisms taken as supplements that survive digestion in the gastrointestinal tract. To be well tolerated, they should:
Contain at least 100 billion colony-forming units (CFUs).
Include multiple strains that are suitable for your symptoms, condition, or gut microbiota profile.
Be free of harmful ingredients such as grains or their starches, dairy or derivatives, soy, and sugar.

Prebiotics are the part of dietary fiber that your gut cannot fully digest and serve as food for your microbiota or probiotics. Although prebiotic supplements and synbiotic supplements exist, they are not usually recommended without evaluating your individual case.

Often, we want to quickly and effectively address our deficiencies, but with the microbiota, there are no shortcuts. To replenish it with a probiotic, you must first identify which beneficial microorganism you truly need, either through a specialized stool test or by thoroughly understanding your symptoms. After that, you can supplement and support it with fruit and vegetable fibers you tolerate, which serve as prebiotics. Your microbiota feeds on what you eat.

NutriWhite, through the 3R Protocol, aims to give you the tools to identify the foods and environmental factors that activate the right switches in your immune response, helping you transform your life through immunonutrition:

1. Remove harmful foods—those that are hard to digest, feed harmful microbiota, and cause inflammation and intestinal permeability.
2. Reintroduce friendly foods for you and your beneficial microbiota—those you can digest and absorb to use their nutrients as keys for your immune system.
3. Restore your health in a comprehensive way: gastrointestinal, mental, and general.

We invite you to apply the 3R Immunonutrition Protocol and personalize it through an online consultation with our NutriWhite Ambassadors team.

References:

• Tejera-Pérez Cristina, Guillín-Amarelle Cristina, Rodríguez-Novo Nazareth, Lugo-Rodríguez Gloria, Mantiñán-Gil Beatriz, Palmeiro-Carballeira Regina et al . Inmunonutrición, evidencias y experiencias. Nutr. Hosp.  [Internet]. 2023  Feb [citado  2023  Jul  07] ;  40( 1 ): 186-199. Disponible en: http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0212-16112023000100023&lng=es.  Epub 17-Abr-2023.  https://dx.doi.org/10.20960/nh.04226.
• Mohamed Ben-Eltriki et al. J Am Coll Nutr. 2021.
• PRMT5 Facilitates Infectious Bursal Disease Virus Replication through Arginine Methylation of VP1. Hu X, Chen Z, Wu X, Fu Q, Chen Z, Huang Y, Wu H. J Virol. 2023 Mar 30;97(3):e0163722. doi: 10.1128/jvi.01637-22. Epub 2023 Feb 14. PMID: 36786602
• Acute L-glutamine supplementation does not improve gastrointestinal permeability, injury or microbial translocation in response to exhaustive high intensity exertional-heat stress. Ogden HB, Fallowfield JL, Child RB, Davison G, Fleming SC, Delves SK, Millyard A, Westwood CS, Layden JD. Eur J Sport Sci. 2022 Dec;22(12):1865-1876. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2021.2001575. Epub 2021 Dec 2. PMID: 34726114 Clinical Trial.
• Luise D, Chalvon-Demersay T, Correa F, Bosi P, Trevisi P. Review: A systematic review of the effects of functional amino acids on small intestine barrier function and immunity in piglets. Animal. 2023 Mar 11:100771. doi: 10.1016/j.animal.2023.100771. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37003917.
• Lo Conte M, Antonini Cencicchio M, Ulaszewska M, Nobili A, Cosorich I, Ferrarese R, Massimino L, Andolfo A, Ungaro F, Mancini N, Falcone M. A diet enriched in omega-3 PUFA and inulin prevents type 1 diabetes by restoring gut barrier integrity and immune homeostasis in NOD mice. Front Immunol. 2023 Jan 13;13:1089987. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1089987. PMID: 36713378; PMCID: PMC9880528.