Nutrition: What are elderberries and why are they good for you?

Your full service morning show with Andrew Carter, CJAD 800. I don't know much about elderberries. Do you? All I remember about elderberries, the quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries. That's all I know.

So apparently, should we be? Olivia Carone is a registered dietician nutritionist. You can visit her online at nutritionbyalivia.com and on Instagram. Good morning, Olivia. Good morning. What are elderberries? They're berries that are typically taken in supplement form, so such as in a syrup.

And they're claimed to help reduce the length of a cold and reduce inflammation, improve circulation. So some people will take them when they have particular symptoms already, like they have a cold coming on. And so maybe they'll take the elderberry syrup. Where do you get elderberry syrup?

I believe you can get them at a pharmacy. I might be wrong, but I never seen it at a pharmacy. Yeah, okay. In that case, it could just be at a health source. Okay. Yeah. But you can't get them at the grocery store. Is there any proof that this works? Yeah, there really aren't many conclusive studies to prove it's a sex. There are a few small ones. And so with that research that we do have, it seems like it could reduce the duration of a cold.

But again, it's a small, they're small studies. And then with the other claims, there's some studies that show that it works, and then there's some studies that show that it doesn't. So it definitely takes those claims with a grain of salt. But it's something that I hear a lot from my clients and some friends and family that they want to try the elderberry syrup. So definitely with a grain of salt. Okay. Now, have you ever seen an elderberry?

I don't think I have. I mean, I've searched it up when clients have told me about their supplements that I haven't seen. They sort of look like small, small, dark grapes. Yeah, I guess so. But you can't, again, if you eat them like that, they're toxic. Oh, that's good to know. Yeah, I wouldn't want to

I wouldn't want to eat toxic elderberries. Anything other than elderberries that can help prevent you from getting sick or help with your health control? Yeah, for sure. Nutrition plays a big role in strengthening your immune system. So having a balanced, varied diet should do the trick. But typically in terms of nutrients, there's vitamin C that I feel like a lot of people have heard about.

It's an antioxidant that could act as a barrier to disease. So that's found in fruits and vegetables generally. So if you're getting your fruits and vegetables, most days with most meals, you should be good on that. And then there's vitamin D, which helps reduce inflammation. And in the winter, you really can't get enough through the sun or from food. So you have to take it from the supplement.

And then there's zinc, which is involved in the immune response as well. So that's found in protein foods, like meat, chicken, beans, lentils, nuts. So again, if you're having a very diet, typically that should do enough nutrition-wise. Of course, there's lots of other factors, like an impact getting a cold, like if you have a kid that goes to take care all the time, or if you're very stressed, for example.