Many succumb to sickness as the colder weather drags on through winter. Depending on your energy reserves before getting sick, it can take some time to bounce back and as we age it can take even longer to feel 100% again! If you, like many, are still feeling depleted after a week sick in bed, increasing your intake of fresh plant foods and nutrients can help fast track your recovery and have you feeling back to normal. Top Up 50+ was specifically formulated to
provide a range of plant-derived vitamins and antioxidants from a blend of 40 superfoods to help boost immunity, increase energy production, and have you feeling like your best vital self - perfect for recovery from illness.

1. Vitamin C

First and foremost, vitamin C is great for fortifying the immune system. This is crucial during the recovery process to ensure we don’t get sick again. Being constantly sick leaves little energy for us to enjoy life, and it is key to avoid those never-ending colds. Top Up 50+ is a good source of plant-derived vitamin C thanks to select vitamin C-rich ingredients, such as rosehips.

2. Antioxidants

Top Up 50+ is 100% plant-based and contains a range of nutrient-dense and antioxidant rich superfoods. Antioxidants are found in many forms, such as anthocyanins from purple acai berries and beta-carotene from red goji berries, and they can help to repair any damage that our body sustained while we were sick and fighting off infections. This damage can be a key reason why we feel so lethargic when we’re sick and trying to recover. Helping the body repair the
damage with the tools it needs can help us get back into action.

As well as the unique antioxidants found in many of our plant food ingredients, they also provide nutrients which act as antioxidants and contribute to repair such as vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E.

3. All of the B vitamins!

While we are sick, our energy is diverted to fighting off the infection by increasing production of white blood cells and inflammatory cytokines which are crucial for our immune response.

Many of the B vitamins, such as B1, B2, B3, and B6, are essential for producing more of these immune cells as well as producing energy for the entire body. Like vitamin C, they are also helpful during cellular repair.

We can’t store these nutrients, and we burn through them quickly when we are sick and recovering from illness. Therefore, during recovery it’s important to top up our supplies daily so that we can produce enough energy and start feeling better sooner.

4. Vitamin D

Have you heard about the UV-exposed mushrooms we use in Top Up 50+? You can read more about them here, but it turns out sun-soaked mushrooms can make vitamin D as well and we use this ingredient to provide you with a plant-based, dietary source of this vitamin to help keep
you topped up.

Like vitamin C, vitamin D is another nutrient that is essential for a robust immune system and can help us to stay healthy once we have recovered.

Our main source of vitamin D comes from sunlight exposure, so it’s particularly important to think about vitamin D during the winter when our bodies tend to be rugged up in layers of warm clothes.