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Hosted by Paul Evans, Registered Nutritionist (@paulthenutritionist)
Tired of the endless food fads, influencer nonsense, and TikTok nutrition “hacks”? This podcast cuts through it all.
No Forking Nonsense delivers straight-talking, science-backed nutrition advice that actually makes sense — in under 20 minutes. No fluff. No fads. Just real answers from a qualified expert who knows what works in the real world.
Each episode tackles one myth, one headline, or one common mistake — and gives you clear, practical takeaways you can apply straight away.
Whether you're trying to eat better, feel more human, or just stop falling for the same old food BS — this is the show for you.
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Welcome to no forking nonsense. The podcast that slices through the nonsense and serves you straight talking nutrition advice that actually works. I'm Paul, a registered nutritionist and your host. And every episode, I'll be debunking diet myths, breaking down confusing food advice and giving you practical science backed tips to help you eat better, feel better and get your edge back. There'll be no fads, no shite, just real talk that makes sense.
@paulthenutritionist:Let's get stuck in. Hello and welcome to another episode. And today we are talking about winter bugs immunity and the nutrition that actually works to help with all of those things. It's that time of year where people are getting hit by colds, flus, random bugs and then suddenly everyone becomes an immunity expert overnight. Get some chicken soup, have some oranges.
@paulthenutritionist:The problem is most people focus on the wrong things, quick fixes, supplements, miracle teas, but your immune system doesn't work like a switch that you just boost. It's a system that you support consistently. So today I'm going to break down what actually works for immunity in winter, I'm going make sure I back it by evidence, so I've got some receipts with what I'm saying and it should be easy enough for you to follow. So the first place that we're going to start is talking about what your immune system needs. So your immune system simply needs enough calories, protein, hydration and sleep.
@paulthenutritionist:And if any of those dip, your defences are also going to dip. So if you're someone who is overeating, there's busy days, skipping meals, perhaps you put yourself on too much of a calorie deficit, if you're really stressed, all of these components will weaken your immunity significantly. So here is what enough actually looks like in real life. So the first thing, the easiest thing to do, and I'm sure you're not going to be surprised at this, we need to make sure that we are getting enough protein with every single meal. If you aim for about 25 to 35 grams of protein each time, so whether that's Greek yogurt, some fruit, eggs on toast, a chicken wrap, tofu stir fry, salmon and rice, whatever, just ensure that you are always looking when you eat at where you're getting your 20 five-thirty five grams of protein every time you eat.
@paulthenutritionist:Another thing is to avoid big gaps without eating, so going six-seven hours between meals will just create your blood sugar to drop and that will also weaken your immunity, so again, keep those kind of higher protein snacks available and maybe even if you're somebody who gets too busy and you forget to eat, set a reminder on your phone to just eat lunch or whatever it may be. And also eat mostly whole foods, but certainly don't be scared of carbs. Carbs are the energy for your immune cells and we never want to be cutting any food groups out, but carbohydrates are really important, so adding potatoes, rice, oats or fruit to your main meals is going to give your body what it needs. Remember we want to be putting energy in our vehicle, which is our car, to maximise our body's response. Remember our body is made up of cells and our cells are
@paulthenutritionist:made up of what we put
@paulthenutritionist:in our body. So the better the cells, the better our body's going to respond to it. Second thing, vitamin D. So this is an absolute non negotiable. For me, I mean I'm not mad on loads of supplements, mean I see so many people online like, I don't know, fitness influencers or whatever and they're like this is what I take in a day and a lot of it's just filler but they take stuff like one cod liver oil tablet which is absolutely pointless or like one multivitamin tablet which again like is, crazy but we'll talk about that another time.
@paulthenutritionist:I have got my list to a supplement podcast which yeah anyway, 90% of our country, well the whole UK becomes vitamin D sufficient insufficient I should say in winter. That is that low vitamin D is linked to an increase in respiratory infections, it's linked to obviously SAD, Season Affective Disorder. I had a client whose partner was really really struggling during winter and they said could you take a look? I said have you tried because they really were like rock bottom depression over winter and I said why don't you just try having four thousand international units of vitamin D a day and within a week they were literally a different person. So it's really significant.
@paulthenutritionist:I would recommend that you take anything from two thousand to four thousand international units of vitamin D3 a day between October to April. And actually even if we have those summers where the sun's not out, it's always a good supplement to take. And as I say, there is a lot of research linked to increased low vitamin D being in having There is a lot of research linked to increased respiratory infections for those who are deficient in vitamin D. The things you can do if you didn't want to take supplements is eat oily fish one to two times a week, so salmon, sardines and mackerel and again you'll get a sufficient amount of, well not quite, but you'll be certainly increasing your vitamin D there. But it is really hard to get vitamin D via food.
@paulthenutritionist:If you are taking vitamin D it's a fat soluble vitamin so make sure you take it with food, Same with fish oils, we need to ensure that we're having bats ideally when we're taking those things. Some nutrients that your immune system relies upon, so vitamin C is a funny one because most people think that vitamin C boosts your immune system, it doesn't, but it does support immune cells so they respond faster. So in the most simple explanation, when you get a virus your white blood cells produce oxidative stress and vitamin C acts like a shield and a fuel source for those cells so they keep functioning. This is why vitamin C doesn't prevent colds but reduces how bad they get and how long they last. I guess the annoying thing is people are like
@paulthenutritionist:I'm just going to have more
@paulthenutritionist:orange juice or you just have some orange juice and some chicken soup. Orange juice has vitamin C yeah but it also has 20 grams of sugar per glass and barely any fibre. So the best source of vitamin C food wise are kiwi has more vitamin C than orange and it's amazing that people don't know that. Red yellow peppers, berries, broccoli, citrus fruits, potatoes also are really rich in vitamin C, tomatoes as well. And you probably need one to two vitamin C rich foods daily, ideally with a meal.
@paulthenutritionist:Now you can get Baroque tablets, vitamin C and zinc, I'm going to talk about zinc in a second, which kind of do the job of having one of those every morning and they're really cheap because it's such a cheap nutrient to kind of put in tablets if you like and effervescence, remember vitamin C absorbs best with food, not on an empty stomach. So the easiest thing to do is add peppers or broccoli to even a meal, have berries at breakfast, swap your afternoon snack for like a kiwi or maybe even a clementine. But if you're using a supplement you want to have one-two hundred mg a day, not two thousand or two grams like a lot of people assume. More isn't necessarily better, you'll just pee it out, it just becomes an expensive piss. Zinc.
@paulthenutritionist:So zinc is I guess an antiviral mineral that often people forget about and this is the nutrient almost no one gets enough of. Yet it's probably one of the most important nutrients for your immunity. So your immune system uses zinc to signal an attack, so if you have low zinc you get a low response and you'll stay ill longer. Was a study in 2017, I think it was a German or a Swedish study, which reported that zinc lozenges can shorten colds by up to forty percent when taken at the very start of a cold, which I thought was really interesting. But the best way to offset that is during winter have a vitamin C and zinc tablet you can get from like Effenesem, sorry, you can from Aldi, you get from Lidl, get from Tesco, wherever, or ideally you take daily and take three food, so aim for one zinc containing food each day, so pumpkin seeds perhaps sprinkled onto a yoghurt.
@paulthenutritionist:Eggs, I've loads of zinc in, nuts, be careful of the portions of these. Beans, lentils, seafood. A lot of cereals are fortified now but again not enough. Cheddar cheese is okay but again think of the calories. What I would probably do is stick to having a vitamin C and zinc effervescent with some food.
@paulthenutritionist:They kind of dissolve quite nicely and then you can drink them. But avoid taking zinc on an empty stomach because it can cause you to feel sick. But ideally you would have pumpkin seeds in your yoghurt or your porridge and that should do you. Omega-three, so Omega-three people assume it's for heart health but for immunity it's really important as well. When you get a cold your immune system creates inflammation to fight it, so omega-3s will help you produce enough inflammation to kill that virus without producing so much that you feel awful for days.
@paulthenutritionist:There was a study in 2020 that explained that omega-three improves immune cell function and inflammation resolution. So some kind of practical actions if you're someone who eats fish: salmon, mackerel, sardines, trout, herring two to three servings of any of those fish each week. But if you don't eat fish, take an omega-three supplement, making sure it contains EPAs and DHA's. Not plant omega-three because they don't do a lot. Always take it with food, ideally a meal containing fat for better absorption and to stop you getting those fish burps.
@paulthenutritionist:But ideally you would have salmon once, perhaps some other fish at another time throughout the week. Pretty cheap, you can get frozen fish these days, it's really cheap and that kind of does the job. Protein, so obviously I am always banging on about protein because it's one thing that pretty much everyone under eats and most people will think that protein is like a gym thing, not an immune thing, but quite simply your immune cells sorry your immune system is made up of cells and these cells are made up of protein. So if you're not eating enough protein your body literally cannot make or repair immune cells fast enough. So you'll get ill more often and you'll stay ill longer.
@paulthenutritionist:Again there was a study in 2020 by Gomber at et al, which clearly showed that low protein diets weaken immune response, which sounds really obvious. So some really practical things you can do if you don't want to take a whey protein shake and there is nothing wrong with taking whey protein shakes by the way. It is just a food derivative, well milk derivative. Four eggs is 24 grams of protein. Greek yogurt bowl, chicken wrap, salmon fillet, tofu stir fry or you could just have a protein shake, protein bars, whatever.
@paulthenutritionist:Don't rely on one big protein meal that a lot of people do, you need to spread that protein out because immune cells need a steady supply as opposed to like one big dump. But when you're feeling run down, prioritise easy protein feeds like yoghurt and fruit, smoothies with whey, eggs on toast, maybe soups with some other chicken. But make sure it's high quality, not just a soup from the supermarket which has six grams of chicken in it, it's crazy. I would probably make your own with some broth as opposed to getting it from a supermarket, so you're probably not going to do that, it's going take ages. But I would just make sure that we're having at least 20 to 30 grams of protein every time you eat as a non negotiable.
@paulthenutritionist:That goes throughout the whole year, not just now. Probiotics. Here we go into probiotics, the gut immune connection is quite significant and the problem is it's so trendy right now that sometimes I don't want to jump on those trends because people get it twisted but 70% of your immune system will sit in your gut, so your gut lining is like the front line for your immune defence. Probiotics can help keep that lining healthy, they can also support the bacteria that communicate with your immune cells, And probiotics, but you need to make sure you get the right ones, have been shown to reduce how often people get colds and how long they last. So some practical things you can do is just ideally have one probiotic food a day.
@paulthenutritionist:Probiotic yoghurt, watch the sugar, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso soup, those sorts of things. But ideally take them with meals, not on an empty stomach because it improves the survival of the bacteria. And if you're going to supplement, look for those with like about 10 to 20,000,000,000 CFU with multiple strains of bacteria. But feed sources are absolutely fine if you can get it in and kefir yogurts are probably the easiest way to do it. So yeah, hopefully that helps with those bits and pieces.
@paulthenutritionist:Now what not to do this winter and what to do instead? I don't want you to completely rely on supplements alone because they will not override a poor diet. Sleep is so important. Don't mega dose vitamin C because it just hits your gut and probably causes an expensive whee. Don't starve yourself when you run down because illness increases the calorie need because you need to repair and your body craves because you need nutrients.
@paulthenutritionist:Ideally don't train hard through illness, so heavy workouts will weaken your immune system, period. The rule is usually if your symptoms are neck up, you're fine to train neck down, just drop intensity forty eight-seventy two hours and fuel consistently. Hydration is really really really important, get some electrolytes and make sure you're hydrating and getting enough water in because that's really important. There is some kind of lifestyle things that matter more than kind of taking supplements. Sleeping for less than six hours makes you four times more likely to catch cold according to a study from 2015.
@paulthenutritionist:So you want to aim for seven to eight hours, put your phone away thirty minutes before bed, listen to a sleep podcast a few episodes back for tips on that. Hydration is absolutely essential because hydrating mucous membranes trap viruses better, so aim to drink two to three litres a day. Listen to the first or second podcast on this feed, add electrolytes ideally, tap water doesn't have enough minerals in. So it's worth just get some pink sea salt, throw that in your water. And then chronic stress suppresses your immune system and that is why everyone gets, aside from not enough vitamin D, but everyone gets more ill during winter because the stress is up, we're not getting enough Vitamin D.
@paulthenutritionist:Obviously viruses breed in kind of the humid conditions in our homes, so be mindful of your stress and recovery, so ten minute walks, deep breaths before meals, one low stress evening per week, Really really helpful. So things you can do when you feel run down. Things that I guess when you feel that something's coming. I would go for oats, berries and whey, chicken or tofu with some veggies, Greek yoghurt, kiwi, yoghurt, honey, eggs on toast with maybe a vitamin C and zinc drink, salmon, rice and spinach, warm tea, broth, soups for throat comfort if you're really going downhill. Just try and avoid heavy greasy foods, obviously alcohol, which increase inflammation and so digestion.
@paulthenutritionist:So an immunity checklist for you: Vitamin D daily, one to two vitamin C foods or vitamin C and zinc supplement, protein every time you eat for the rest of your life, omegas tablets taken daily with food, two to three litres of water per day, seven to eight hours sleep, maybe a probiotic food daily and avoid long gaps between eating. Just remember there is no magic pill, just need to stay consistent, smart, nutrition. But if you do those things I will be amazed if your illness timing doesn't reduce, if you don't feel a bit better and if you also have a much better immune system. I can guarantee if you improve your nutrition then your immune system will improve as well. Any questions let me know, Paul the Nutritionist and I shall speak to you next week.
@paulthenutritionist:That's it for this episode of No Forking Nonsense where the fluff gets binned and the facts get served. If you found this helpful share it with someone who could do some clarity from an expert. That's me by the way. And make sure you hit follow so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you want more talking, no nonsense nutrition advice, come and find me on Instagram Paul, the nutritionist.
@paulthenutritionist:Until next time, eat smart, feel human again and stop falling for the forking nonsense. See you next time.