Flu Season? Or “Sugar and not enough Sunshine season?”!
Bowl of shiny wrapped candy treats.
The Seasonal Immune Challenge
As the kids return to school and classrooms fill up, our exposure to the seasonal crud increases. We trade summer's sunshine for crowded indoor spaces and recycled air. Then comes October to begin the sugar-laden celebrations, first Halloween candy, then holiday parties, festive treats at work and rolling into pie, cookie and alcohol season. We're surrounded by sugar at the time our immune systems need more support rather than more taxing, which is what sugar does. Sugar hampers the immune system’s ability to protect us. Why do we celebrate with things that make us sick?
We call it flu season, but wouldn't “too much sugar and not enough sunshine season” be more accurate?
When we understand what supports a resilient immune system, we can make different choices and reduce our illness risk and sick days dramatically. This also helps us reduce severity and speed recovery from the yucks. Please don’t reach for the glass of orange juice when you’re feeling sick! Stick with soup & tea, prioritize fresh air and good sleep and even though the days are getting shorter, make getting outside in the daylight a non-negotiable self-care strategy, every day.
The Vitamin D-Sugar Connection
As the sun sinks lower in the sky and days shorten, our natural vitamin D access plummets. We're stuck inside, trading outdoor time for fluorescent lit classrooms. We’re watching too much blue screen light, which is interfering with our sleep during the season when with the darker nights we have the most opportunity to rest and rebuild! The loss of sunlight has multiple costs, seasonal affective disorder is about more than the low sunlight. Vitamin D is far more than a vitamin—it's an essential building block for hormones and healthy hormone balance.
Research shows people with lower vitamin D levels (below 20 ng/mL) have higher hospitalization rates and worse outcomes from respiratory illnesses. Vitamin D helps regulate the immune system, manages calcium, and orchestrates dozens of vital functions. It plays a part in hormone and brain health, bone health and mood.
Here's where too much sugar becomes catastrophic: inflammation in the body burns through vitamin D reserves rapidly. And what causes inflammation? Sugar does. This creates a compound crisis—insufficient sunshine depletes vitamin D, while excess sugar further depletes reserves and amplifies inflammation. Refined sugar, added sugar, and hidden sugar all work against your immune system. It's a double or triple whammy. Add how sugar impacts gut health and mood & you can see where this can be such a challenging season for so many, and where a few clear suggestions can help you and your family make it through with the least harm done.
Fight back by supplementing vitamin D strategically (including K2 and other cofactors to help absorption and utilization) while also braving cold weather for natural sunlight exposure for best results. Increase vitamin D-rich foods: sardines, mushrooms, eggs, and cod liver oil are all great ways to increase your D. Simultaneously, reduce sugar intake to reduce inflammation and preserve the vitamin D you have.
Get them outside together, make it fun!
Terrain Over Germs: Building Real Resilience
Here's where germ theory versus terrain theory becomes relevant (& so interesting!). If all illness came from bugs, why doesn't everyone get sick when exposed to an illness? Why do some kids always get sick while others run around in t-shirts all winter, rarely catching anything? The key difference is terrain. A healthy immune system is far less affected by seasonal changes, illness exposure, or circulating bugs. That kid who never gets sick? He's probably not loading up on sugar either.
The child who catches every bug needs terrain support: addressing mold, using dust mite covers on the pillows or an air filter in the bedroom, correcting mouth breathing, improving sleep and optimizing nutrition. Often it means reducing sugar consumption, which definitely taxes the immune system. It could mean bringing extra supplements on board (See prior newsletters about back to school support and about how to choose good quality supplements)
A well-nourished child with adequate sleep, minimal sugar intake, healthy exercise habits and nutrient-dense foods has stronger terrain and less likelihood of getting knocked down and taken out. Sugar compromises that terrain; real food and vital choices strengthen it.
The Sugar Crisis: What We've Normalized
One hundred years ago, people consumed maybe 4-6 teaspoons of sugar daily. Today? Sugar hides in nearly everything, and you must actively work and read labels carefully to avoid it. This shift wasn't accidental, it’s not just about more abundance—it's from food systems designed for profit, not health.
Processed foods are engineered with sugar because it's highly addictive. Sugar raises chemicals in the brain that lower our sensation of pain, no wonder we reach for it so easily. Manufacturers hide sugar in salad dressings, pasta sauce, flavored yogurts, and cereals. Low-fat foods are often high in sugar. Even my gluten free favorites are often still carb laden and on the “minimal” consumption list. Most children (& adults) exceed recommended sugar limits before lunch. A single sugary drink contains more sugar than a day's allowance. I was horrified to find a bottled juice, even organic! contained more sugar than a regular soda. Halloween candy, birthday cakes, and granola bars chip away at limits, instigate addiction and lower immune resilience.
The American Heart Association recommends these daily sugar limits:
Adults: No more than 36 grams (9 tsp) for men; 25 grams (6 tsp) for women
Children 2-3 years: No more than 19 grams of sugar (4.75 tsp)
Children 4-6 years: No more than 25 grams of sugar (6 tsp)
Children 7-8 years: No more than 30 grams of sugar (7.5 tsp)
Children 9-13 years: No more than 36 grams of sugar (9 tsp)
Children 14-18 years: No more than 39 grams of sugar (9.75 tsp)
That pumpkin pie cream chai latte from a well known coffee chain actually contains 66 grams of sugar.
Today we face a nutrition crisis from empty calories and addictive processed foods laden with sugar, paired with a lack of wholesome, nutrient-dense options. Emphasize simple nutrition: burgers without buns, eggs, loads of fresh, organic and colorful vegetables. Whole foods contain zero added sugar and everything your immune system needs. Be aware of dried fruits as hidden sugar sources with the concentrated quality, but I’d still rather you get the fiber and vitamins from dried fruit than empty calories from candy. Bring back home-cooked meals and expand vegetable variety for your children and teach them, while also helping yourself!
Solutions: Building Health Through Food Choices
Supplements can be helpful, but they can't replace what depleted soils no longer provide.
Focus on nutrient-dense whole foods—the foundation of immune health.
The more naturally colorful and flavorful often means the more anti-oxidants and immune benefit to our foods. Seasonal foods right now such as winter squash, sweet potatoes, carrots- all contain betacarotene, the precursor to Vitamin A which is a great complement to Vitamin D and an excellent immune support. Vitamin A especially has anti-viral immune supporting properties. Please don’t supplement high dose with out a doctor’s supervision and never while pregnant.
Teach Kids to Recognize Sugar's Many Disguises
Help children understand where sugar hides. Fruit juice often contains more sugar than soda. Dried fruit concentrates sugar; fresh fruit provides fiber without the sugar blast. Let kids eat whole apples with cinnamon, not applesauce pouches with added sugar (packaged in plastic, and processed at high heat for longer shelf life which is also not vital or immune supportive). This shift—eating whole fruit instead of processed versions with hidden sugar—eliminates enormous amounts of empty sugar and helps increase fiber, water soluble vitamins and expands their taste palate. It’s okay for some sour to be in the sweet too! We want all the flavors for a healthy balance. In fact, our tongue adapts and will want increasing amounts of sugar to satisfy those taste receptors. Once you recover the balance of your taste buds you can appreciate the nuance of foods, herbs or teas and your body benefits as well. (Future blog post on how flavors impact different organ systems?)
Make vegetables the kitchen heroes and teach your children about seasonal foods and how to prepare them. It doesn’t need to be difficult! The Well Nest Membership has an ever-growing list of recipes for you and I label which ones are easy to include kids in the preparation of.
Roasted delicata squash (easy and quick and you can eat the skins of these squash) and sweet potatoes (great leftovers for breakfast) are naturally sweet, satisfying sweet cravings without requiring refined sugar for sweetness. Make vegetable-based treats and baked goods. Show children that delicious and nutritious food aren't opposites, they can be the same thing. It takes practice and experience to know the difference and to cultivate healthy cravings.
Educate Rather Than Restrict
Severely restricting sugar often backfires, I myself got 6 cavities in the first year when I got to college and was allowed unlimited soda in the school cafeteria. Learned that lesson the hard way! Deprived kids seek sugar anyway, sneaking candy when given the chance. One child of mine snuck six cupcakes at once and learned from his wretched stomachache what lectures couldn't teach him about limits.
Educate children and invite them to notice their own experience. When they eat significant sugar or candy amounts, do they feel jittery? Irritable? Do they crash later? Get a tummy ache? Feel sick? Let them learn about and identify the sugar-to-sensation connection, all the way through. This teaches lifelong intuition and self-awareness. There is a balance where we can still enjoy our favorite things. I maintain this philosophy personally, enjoying daily dark chocolate with lower sugar content. The key is making conscious and informed choices about sugar, not unconscious ones. Balancing it with quality protein and good fats also helps curb the cravings and dampen the blood sugar bounce.
You can enjoy a little, substitute dealcoholized beverages or even sparkling cider. I’m inviting you to plan ahead and be conscious in your imbibing. For your health!
Rethink How You Celebrate
Why celebrate with things that make us sick?
Alcohol at parties, cakes and cupcakes loaded with sugar at birthdays, artificially-colored and flavored candy at holidays, what are we thinking?! This tradition of celebrating with sugar, alcohol (& staying up late) deserves some serious questioning.
Can we celebrate toward health instead of away from it? Imagine birthday parties with beautiful vegetable platters and homemade treats without all the refined sugar. Imagine holidays focused on family and tradition, not foods leaving us depleted and ill from excess sugar or argumentative and depressed from the excess alcohol.
When Illness Comes: Support the Process
Despite our best efforts, sometimes we get sick, and that's okay. When you or your child develops a fever, resist suppressing it with ibuprofen or analgesics. That fever is one of your body's best remedies! Fevers inhibit viral replication and bacterial growth while triggering TNF-alpha and cytokine release. These compounds make us achy and sleepy, getting us to rest while paving the way for cellular turnover and immune surveillance. Your fever is your body's cellular house-cleaning opportunity and the benefits are far reaching, beyond a simple cold or flu.
Support this process: get rest, stay hydrated, drink warm broth and nourishing soup, optimize fever with saunas or warm baths. Consult your health practitioner with any concerns. Support your body with immune-boosting nutrients—not sugar. Surrender to healing, don’t try to rush through the process. Someone well-rested, well-nourished, and not burdened by excess sugar can move through an illness rapidly. A well-conducted illness leaves you feeling better and stronger on the other end. Truly!
Prevention and Preparedness
The key is prevention first, then preparedness when illness descends. Stock your home pharmacy ahead of time with gentle remedies: vitamin C, elderberry syrup, zinc lozenges, and fire cider. Choose sugar-free options. Build your medicine cabinet during health, not crisis.
Real prevention means reducing sugar consumption now, increasing nutrient-dense foods as a daily practice, prioritizing sleep, and getting that vitamin D. When your body's terrain is strong and nourished—free from excess sugar's inflammatory burden—illness has less opportunity to take hold.
You Have More Power Than You Think
We've forgotten how to help our immune systems work better. There's no pill or injection that does this work better than Nature. Health is an inside job, built daily through choices: the foods we eat, sleep we prioritize, outdoor time, stress management—and now you know, impacted by our sugar consumption choices. Reminder alcohol is liquid sugar, what do you think gets those yeasts so jolly to ferment? Enjoy in moderation or get help if moderation is eluding you. Waking up New Year’s Day without a hangover (after decades of experiencing that) has really been the best reward! Ready for a January 1 hike in the sunshine, or grey, I don’t care, let’s go! Best immune support ever and a delight to share the clear intentional time with family and friends. Better than a cupcake.
When people embrace a sugar detox and clean up their diet, they notice less inflammation, reduced irritability, and increased energy and creativity. We feel (and are!) genuinely better. Sugar offers dopamine reward and pain relief, but it’s short lived and far better ways exist to address root causes of pain and build real wellness without sugar's false comfort.
Start with one small change. Replace sugary juice with whole fruit. Roast vegetables for the week. Talk with your child about how foods make them feel, especially paying attention to the effects of too much crappy sugar. Can you notice? Watch what happens with intentional sugar choices instead of passive ones. Cherish the treat and really savor the flavor. You may find you need less to get the same satisfaction.
If you're ready to kick the sugar habit, refine your diet for better health and graceful aging, or prepare your medicine cabinet for cold season, I'm here to help. Your family's health is too important to leave to chance, and now you know better than to underestimate sugar's impact.