About a year ago I started my own health journey to better eating. It hasn’t been easy but it’s all been worth it. I’ve shared about it on here, but I just want to pass a thought along of something that I’ve done that I believe has helped me to avoid sicknesses. Every year I get a bad cold for 2-3 weeks, but I haven’t gotten sick for more than a couple days (and it was very mild, it might have even been allergies) since I started eating better.

Basically I eat a lot of whole foods or foods that aren’t processed. This includes fruits, vegetables, meats, legumes, etc. Now, over the last couple of months I’ve strayed a little where occasionally I’ll have some sweet potato chips or some occasional processed foods.

I don’t know what has changed by not getting sick, but I’d like to think it’s a combination of two things:

1- Eating healthier has boosted my immune system so my body naturally fights off potential sicknesses. This idea sounds a bit crazy, and I have no idea how much truth is here.

2- When I eat out (which I do for work lunch 90% of the time), I rarely share foods. What I mean by this is the bowl of chips at a Mexican restaurant, breadsticks at an Italian restaurant, a shared group appetizer, etc. Basically I have to dig through items on menus to find something whole which means I never share food.

I think combined with this, I don’t eat out of candy jars at work or at guests’ homes. I don’t eat prepared food at church events (that everyone else is in contact with). Things like this I avoid all the time and I tend to think that this is a big reason I haven’t gotten sick.

Now, I’m not claiming that I’m immune to COVID-19 or any other sickness out there, but I’ve thought a lot lately about why I haven’t gotten sick and these are the two reasons I can come up with.

Eating healthy has its pros and cons. I miss eating an occasional chocolate chip cookie or a nice bowl of ice cream, but the positive consequences like not getting sick, having more energy, and being very healthy overall have outweighed the minutes of pleasure derived from eating the junk/crappy foods that I used to eat.