The following is a post from Chef Monica, a fellow CGP who I highly esteem:

Viral Protection and Immune Support…

for the Coronavirus and Flu Season

‘The microbe is nothing. The terrain is everything.’
-Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur is credited with the development of the germ theory. (Which I loosely translate as ‘germs jump into bodies.’) There were many other researchers and scientists at the time, including Claude Bernard who looked at internal regulation and the importance of nutrition among other things. These scientists were looking at the condition of the human body that got sick. It is said that Louis Pasteur said on his deathbed, ‘The terrain is everything. The microbe is nothing’ basically discounting his own germ theory. Now, while I personally would not say ‘the microbe is nothing,’ I have always believed that the state of the environment counts, and many of you have heard me say that ‘germs don’t jump into bodies.’

What does ‘the terrain is everything’ mean? It means that if you are healthy and well-nourished, your body will be able to deal with pathogens. If you are malnourished (eating the standard American diet, for instance, or eating a lot of processed foods or sugar), your immune system will not be robust, and will be unable to mount a strong defense against pathogens. In fact, pathogens are probably ruling your internal roost right now! Is your gut healthy and able to do its job? Do you have a robust community of beneficial and essential microbes in your gut who can keep pathogens in check? Now, more than ever, this is important.  Now, more than ever, what you eat and don’t eat is important. Most of you are eating nourishing, traditional, clean foods, and have been for a while. This is just a reminder about how to keep your immune alliance well-supplied with nutrients, and to talk about those that you really need–to nourish your organs of immunity AND keep pathogens in check.

What can you do? First, stay calm.

Next, be sure to wash your hands, soaping them up, for a good 20-30 seconds.

Then, check your diet. As Hippocrates said thousands of years ago, may your food be your medicine, and medicine be your food!  Please share this info with everyone you care about!

1. Cut sugar out of your diet. Sugar of all kinds suppresses the immune system, and we certainly don’t need our systems suppressed right now!

2. Acidify your gut. Pathogens cannot survive in an acidic medium. Throw out that alkaline water! Drink 1-2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar every day. (If you have some before meals, it will also help you digest your food.) Include cultured dairy in your diet–homemade, from raw milk or cream is best–however, a good quality plain, whole milk, organic yogurt made from grass-fed milk or kefir will also provide lactic acid to your digestive tract. If you can’t handle dairy, eat fermented foods, which are also high in lactic acid. And lots of them!

3. Eat pastured eggs–especially the yolks. Runny yolks are best. You need the cholesterol!

4. Make chicken soup (really chicken meat stock–here’s a coupon for you to get my new book if you don’t have it already), and suck out the marrow from the bones. Add some good sea salt and lots of fresh pressed garlic cloves to every cup, along with some ghee or tallow or coconut oil, or coconut milk if you have it. (Garlic is specific to the respiratory system, and coconut is an immune booster because it is full of lauric acid.)

5. Roast some marrow bones from pastured cows. Or cook some in water for an hour or two with herbs. Eat the marrow, drink the stock.

What about specific vitamins? We all know that the immune system needs vitamin C. But did you know it also needs vitamin A? Here is how to get these important vitamins from food:

Vitamin C: Immunity may be impossible without vitamin C, and I am not talking about ascorbic acid! (Stay away from those 1,000 mg ‘vitamin C’ packs you see at the register in grocery stores!) Ascorbic acid is not vitamin C at all; it is the protective coating around the vitamin C complex, and taking too much of it can have a negative impact on your capillaries and blood vessels. (More about that here). (For more information about the vitamin C complex, see Judith deCava, The Real Truth about Vitamins and Antioxidants.) Fermented cabbage, aka sauerkraut and other fermented foods will supply high levels of the vitamin C complex, the whole of which is needed. Eating fermented foods will also provide beneficial microbes and many other good things which will help keep you well. Organic oranges or citrus fruits as well as their skins will also provide high levels of the C complex.

Vitamin A: The super food with the highest levels of vitamin A is liver! Grass-fed and finished, beef, chicken, lamb, or any other liver, is great. You may eat it in pate, cooked with bacon and onions, or swallowed as liver shots small ( pill-sized pieces of liver that was frozen raw for a minimum of 14 days). Three or four pieces taken with your vitamins daily is a good start, and you don’t have to chew it if you don’t like the flavor. Taking Cod Liver Oil along with high vitamin butter oil (or ghee) is a must at this time.

That is what you can do with food. Eating the above will go a long way to ensuring you are well nourished and the body has what it needs to function under normal conditions. That being said, I have been blessed to have been introduced to the work of Dr. Royal Lee (a colleague of Dr. Weston A. Price) which talks about the nutrients the immune system needs when under attack. Much of Dr. Lee’s work can be found in the Selene River Press Historical Archives, where it is free to all who are interested.

When Dr. Royal Lee talked about what he called the ‘Immune Triad’ back in the 1940s, he named ionizable calcium, essential fatty acids and vitamin C complex as the triad of nutrients the immune alliance needs to counter an immune system attack. Ionizable calcium is the only calcium the body can use.  Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are needed to drive the calcium into the tissues where it is needed. These are what a mentor of mine has called ‘the bullets in the gun’ needed to take aim at a pathogen such as a virus. However, one also needs the ‘gun,’ the thing that uses the ammunition or can launch these resources. That mechanism is the alliance of our organs of immunity: the thymus, liver, spleen and bone marrow. Eating as I have outlined above will help to nourish these organs…”

Check Out Chef Monica’s Food Series for Staying Well thru COVID-19!