10 Foods To Eat For Your Lungs

As the leaves fall and temperatures dip, now is the perfect time to support our lungs and boost our defenses with cold and flu season approaching

For me, fall is the season to focus on self-care, especially as colder weather sets in and respiratory illnesses start to rise. As we shut our windows tight, it creates the perfect environment for viruses to thrive.

I have a full post on immune health coming soon with my exact protocol when I get sick, but one thing I do this time of year is get my vitamin D levels checked.

Knowing my levels helps me adjust my supplementation for the coming months. Ideally, I aim for around 50 ng/ml. Vitamin D supplementation should be personalized and guided by your lab results or doctor.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), autumn is linked to the lungs and large intestine, which makes total sense since most 🦠 pathogens enter our bodies via these two routes. Gut health is also crucial here for our immune health.

Did you know that 70% of our immune system resides in the gut? And that our gut and lungs talk to each other? 😲 Yep, the gut and lungs communicate through the immune system, and some early research suggests that an unhealthy gut microbiome can trigger inflammation in the lungs, contributing to conditions like asthma.¹

Before we dive into the lung-loving foods your body will thank you for, here’s a spoiler alert: 💡no superfood can outshine a home filled with ☠️toxins from everyday culprits like 🕯️candles, air fresheners, or harsh cleaning products. If your space smells like ‘Linen Breeze’ but is secretly a chemical storm, your lungs will be crying for help. So start with cleaning your air FIRST.

Speaking of which, did you know that the regular use of household cleaning products has an impact on lung health comparable with 🚬 smoking a pack of cigarettes every day? 😱 A study² followed more than 6,000 people over a 20 year period and found women regularly using cleaning products at home had lung function decline comparable to smoking 20 cigarettes a day over 10 to 20 years.

So please rethink those conventional, toxic, household cleaners and switch to less toxic options without lung irritants and hormone-disrupting fragrances. I use:

• Branch Basics [code: PlatefulHealth for 15% off kits] - for general household cleaning from kitchen, floor, to bathroom, to window.

• Force of Nature [code: platefulhealth for 40% off bundles] - an EPA-registered disinfectant that does not contain lung-irritating bleach, when I need a disinfectant.

  Without further ado, here are the 10 foods and supplements I particularly love in the fall to support both my lung and gut health and my Golden Immunity Soup recipe we are having on repeat right now in my house.

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10 Fall foods for lung and gut health:

1. Something I like to incorporate more regularly during the colder months is medicinal mushrooms.

Mushrooms, in general, are rich in beta-glucans, which are powerful immune-modulators, and have been used for thousands of years by our ancestors as ‘medicines’ with a wealth of health benefits, from brain health to anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, immune-modulating, and anti-oxidant effects.

You don't have to get fancy - studies have shown that even button mushrooms can support our immune system and be associated with a reduction in breast cancer risk. 

In fact just 1 mushroom a day has been associated with a 45% reduction in the risk of cancer³.

I do love my medicinal mushrooms for the added benefits they bring:

• Lion's mane - brain health

• Reishi - supports adrenals and downregulates stress hormones, supports sleep, and modulates the immune system.

• Cordyceps - improves energy, endurance, and athletic performance

• Tremella - skin health 

One thing to note though is that they are not generally recommended in pregnancy or young children, so as always, if you are using a mushroom supplement, always check with your doctor first.

My favorite medicinal mushrooms are by Real Mushrooms (use code Platefulhealth for 10% off) - they do powders, which you can add to soups or if you hate the taste of mushrooms, they have capsules too.

2. Pears 🍐 – Growing up, my grandmother often made a sweet 'soup' for dessert using Asian pears, tremella, and lily bulbs, lightly sweetened with rock sugar. It wasn’t until I got older that I learned this dessert had roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Pears are believed to nourish the lungs and spleen, and they're commonly used by TCM practitioners to soothe coughs and reduce excess mucus. While I haven’t found any studies in Western medicine to back this up, I firmly believe ancient wisdom can be just as valuable as modern science—especially when it’s side-effect-free and delicious! This is one of my favorite nourishing foods for fall and winter in TCM, click here for the recipe). Bonus point: add in some powdered ginger (this links to my favorite ginger powder) for extra anti-inflammatory and warming benefits.

3. Turmeric 🫚 – If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’m a bit obsessed with this powerhouse spice. Honestly, is there anything turmeric can’t do? In addition to its potent anti-inflammatory properties, studies show it can improve lung function and support the immune system. It comes into season in the fall, but if fresh turmeric isn’t available, dried or powdered versions work too! Just make sure it’s low in heavy metals like lead—ask the company for a certificate of analysis. Two brands I like for cooking are Burlap and Barrel and Diaspora. I also like Pique's electric turmeric which has been triple screened for purity.

4. Beets - fall is a time when I typically start to increase my intake of root vegetables - something about them that is energetically so grounding, and from a physiological point of view, the complex carbs help to nourish us during the colder weather, not to mention the minerals and important antioxidants like carotenoids, found in orange/yellow colored root veggies, get converted into Vitamin A - important for immune health.

   Beets are a source of nitrate - which converts to nitric oxide in our bodies - this helps improve blood flow and oxygen uptake, and athletes often use it to boost athletic performance. This study showed that just 70ml of beet juice supplementation daily for a year improved the walking distance in COPD* patients by 30 meters.⁴ *COPD is a chronic lung condition that causes breathing difficulties.

   Beets are a powerhouse food featured frequently in my detox course too because they can aid liver detoxification.