Why bingeing on health foods won’t boost your immune system

There are only two ways the human body can deal with the invading pathogens and infections that can cause colds and other illnesses - and neither involves vitamins or 'superfoods' that claim to offer protection

Walk through the aisles of any health food shop and you'll see pots of echinacea or zinc that promise to "support your immune system" or "maintain its healthy function". Read new age health blogging sites and you'll find posts on how drinking hot lemon water or knocking back a shot of wheatgrass juice or the current green goo du jour will "boost your immune system" and make you less likely to get ill. These are tempting prospects at this time of year, but ones that are foiled by an inconvenient truth: they don't work. The idea that any dietary supplement can boost your immunity makes very little scientific sense. And because of the way your immune system works, even if they did what they say they did, you definitely wouldn't want them to.

"People have this idea that the immune system is some kind of internal force field that can be boosted or patched up," says Charles Bangham, a professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Imperial College London. "This couldn't be further from the truth. As the name suggests it's not a single thing but a system incorporating many organs and biological functions."

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