Looking for some easy, homemade drinks to boost your immune system this cold and flu season?

Look no further. I’ve got 3 simple immune-boosting drink recipes for you, all made with basic (but powerful!) ingredients, and all delicious! AND you can make them in just 5 minutes!

3 Quick & Easy Drinks to Boost Your Immune System

1. Antioxidant Smoothie

Blend the following ingredients together in a blender:

• juice from half a lemon
• 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1/2 cup strawberries or raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1 apple
• half a banana
• 2 cups kale or spinach
• 2 cups water/milk/beverage of choice
• 1 scoop cocoa powder (optional)

This smoothie is packed with important vitamins and minerals and contains powerful, immune-boosting ingredients.

First of all, this smoothie provides plenty of vitamin C from the citrus fruits and leafy greens.

Vitamin C is an important antioxidant that plays all sorts of roles in the body, but especially in the immune system.

Its antioxidant properties help reduce damaging oxidation in the cells of your body, and its anti-inflammatory properties help regulate and reduce the body’s inflammatory response to infection.

It also has antiviral properties and has been shown to reduce the duration and severity of the common cold (1).

It is a good idea to maintain high vitamin C levels to help your immune system avoid and fight infections.

This smoothie also provides plenty of important antioxidants called flavonoids, particularly from the berries (but also the lemon, apple, kale, and cocoa).

Flavonoids are powerful antioxidants which again help reduce oxidative damage and inflammation.

Additionally, the fruits and veggies in this smoothie contain fermentable fibre. Fermentable fibres are prebiotics, meaning they are food for the beneficial bacteria living in your gut. This helps maintain a healthy and diverse gut microbiome which plays a major role in maintaining a healthy immune system.

2. Ginger Shot

A ginger shot is bound to get your immune system kicking. A small shot of spicy ginger and zesty lemon can have all sorts of health benefits, including reducing oxidation, reducing inflammation, fighting infection, and helping with digestion, nausea, and cold/flu symptoms.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup ginger root (peeled and chopped)
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (from about 3 lemons)
• 2 tbsp turmeric (dried powder form). If using fresh root, use about 1/4 cup.
• dash of black pepper
• dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
• a couple tablespoons of water (for dilution – add as much as you want)

Directions:

There are a few different ways to make this, depending on what supplies you have on hand.

Method 1: By hand

1. Squeeze the lemon juice
2. Peel and grate the ginger
3. Mix everything together
4. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve before drinking

Method 2: With a blender

1. Squeeze the lemon juice or peel lemons and put in blender
2. Peel and roughly chop ginger root and put in blender
3. Add other ingredients to blender
4. Blend everything together until liquified
5. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve before drinking

Note: Your blender needs to be powerful enough to shred up the ginger small enough

Method 3: With a juicer

1. Put peeled ginger root and peeled lemon into juicer
2. Add other ingredients to the ginger/lemon juice

This concentrated ginger shot is basically a simpler and less-intense version of fire cider (see full fire cider recipe here if you want a more potent immune-boosting tonic).

While the ingredients are simple, they are very powerful.

The star of the show, ginger, has long been used to help with digestion, nausea, pain relief, sinus relief, and fighting infections such as the cold and the flu (2).

Ginger contains a compound called gingerol, which is the active component of ginger that gives it such great medicinal properties like its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

Similar to ginger, turmeric has been long been used for its medicinal properties. Turmeric contains the active polyphenolic compound called curcumin, which has strong anti-inflammatory and antioxidative properties.

While curcumin is not very easily absorbed in the body, its bioavailability is increased when combined with an active component of black pepper called piperine (3).

So add some black pepper to your ginger shot to help increase that curcumin absorption!

There’s also the option to add some cayenne pepper to your ginger shot (if you can take the heat!) because cayenne pepper contains the active compound capsaicin, which has very strong anti-inflammatory effects. So strong even that they are comparable to the anti-inflammatory effects of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory analgesics (NSAIDS) (4).

The other main ingredient, lemon, is packed with many important vitamins (especially vitamin C), minerals, fibre, and, as mentioned before, anti-inflammatory/anti-oxidant flavanoids.

3. Honey Lemon Ginger Tea

And lastly, a classic honey lemon ginger tea, to bring warmth to all sicknesses. This cozy drink has just the right amount of sweetness, zest, and kick to get you feeling healthy and energetic right away.

Ingredients:

1. juice from half a lemon
2. 1 tsp ginger root, peeled and grated or finely chopped
3. 1 tbsp honey
4. 1 cup boiling water
5. dash of cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

1. Add honey, lemon, and ginger to boiling water and stir (to dissolve honey)
2. Let steep for a few minutes
3. Strain out the ginger through a fine-mesh sieve before drinking

Lemon, honey, and ginger (and cinnamon) are all powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agents.

This tea is the milder, cozier version of the ginger shot. It has all the amazing benefits of lemon and ginger, with the added bonus of sweet honey.

Just like lemon and ginger, honey is a wonder for the immune system, with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties.

Which drink is your favourite? Give these immune-boosting drinks a try and let me know in the comments below!