If supporting your body’s immunity is important to you right now, it’s worth making sure that you have a few food heroes in your kitchen.

Ludlam-Raine says that her favourite nutrient-dense foods that provide vitamin C, D and zinc (which all contribute to a strong to immune system) include:

Tomatoes (tinned, pureed or fresh)
Peppers
Salmon
Wholemeal bread
Eggs

Pascal Nourtier is a nutritionist based on Harley Street and he tells us that the benefit of eating tinned foods is that “all bacteria and viruses that could initially be present on fresh products are destroyed”.

Tinned fish and meat contain the same amount of protein as the fresh stuff, he says, because all the minerals are kept in the tin. However, “the only vitamin difficult to keep in a tin is vitamin C,” he says, “so it’s recommended to consume fresh fruit (well washed)”.

Basically, any way you can eat more plants – be that frozen, canned or fresh – plus some good quality protein, is going to help you to either fight off colds or recover quickly afterwards.

No, you can't really ’boost’ your immunity – but these foods will help to stave off pre-Christmas bugs