SoulFood Shonali: Macrobiotic Diet Plans for a Happy Gut & Strong Immunity Immune System: The Body’s Guardian We all have that one acquaintance in our circle who seems to be troubled with a new illness with each passing season or the slightest change in their surroundings. Do you ever wonder why some people tend to be more susceptible to falling ill while some excel even in unfavourable conditions? The answer is Immunity. Immunity is our body’s ability to resist foreign substances. The immune system refers to the entire mechanism that protects the body against these invaders. Since about 70-80% of these immune cells are seated in the gut, it becomes crucial to understand the interplay between your gut and immunity. The primary medium of communication between your gut and immunity is microbiota, or the good and bad bacteria seated in your gut. A diet plan for immunity aims to strengthen your immunity through strengthening the microbiome in your gut. Problems in immunity arise when the balance between the good and bad bacteria in the gut is disrupted. Any disparity in the gut microbiota can lead to an autoimmune state where the immune system starts attacking healthy cells along with foreign invaders. It can also lead to the accumulation of fatal toxins in the body. Benefits of a Detox Diet A detox diet enables your body to get rid of all toxins naturally, even the ones present at a cellular level. Toxicity can build up due to unhealthy life patterns and bacterial imbalance. Consulting a detox diet plan expert will help you identify these toxins and eventually assist you in eliminating them from your lifestyle. A detox diet is not a short-term regimen or periodic intervention. A detox diet based on macrobiotics aims to integrate the detox regimen into your everyday routine. Your diet begins by ridding your body of accumulated toxins. Once the toxins have been eliminated, the next step is finding alternatives to the previously unhealthy lifestyle patterns. This encompasses not just changes in the food intake but also cooking styles, meal patterns, proportions, exercises, and much more. A detox diet is also often misinterpreted as a means of quick weight loss. Macrobiotics believe otherwise. The focus of your diet remains on deriving nutritional values naturally present in your food. The holistic benefits that macrobiotics introduce to your health and lifestyle transform a simple dietary programme into an efficient and influential diet plan for immunity. This enriching diet is founded on consuming meals with well-balanced proportions of organic vegetables, fruits, whole grains and cereals, fermented foods, and beverages. Following a diet based on unprocessed or unrefined foods prepared with the right cooking methods keeps you in a constant state of detox. Not only does a macrobiotic diet clear your body of toxins accumulated in the past, but it also keeps at bay any possibility of future toxins buildup. What is more, rather than working on just a single, short-term health goal, a macrobiotic diet curated by a detox diet plan expert works to develop your holistic health entirely through natural foods.