When you’re trying to eat right in order to lose weight, that doesn’t mean that you can’t keep up other nutrition based goals, too. For instance, now that cold and flu season are upon us, you might want to make sure you’re giving your immune system everything it needs to be able to keep diseases away or at least make them as mild as possible when you do catch them.

Until now, you may have depended on grandma’s secret soup recipe to blast your way through the cold season. However, that may not be a great idea if every bowl contains more than half of your recommended daily calories. Instead, consider eating a number of healthy and immune boosting foods that will also suit the majority of healthy weight loss diets.

• Oranges – You’ve likely heard that one of the best foods for preventing and healing from a cold is an orange. This is very true. While most people think that it’s because of an orange’s vitamin C content, that’s not actually the whole story. There are many other foods that provide far more convenient and plentiful sources of vitamin C. Instead, it is a combination of vitamin C, electrolytes, the sweet and acidic flavor – which you can taste even when your nose is plugged up – and the high water content that helps to hydrate you even when you’ve had enough soup and tea for a while. This is a simple and yet powerful combination to help you combat the latest cold.

• Kale – When this food first became popular, it was labeled a fad. That said, kale has withstood the test of time and has remained popular for years. There’s a reason for that. It’s jammed full of antioxidants. Sautee it in garlic and olive oil and it tastes great even if you’re already sick. If you’re just not in the mood for eating it straight-up, toss a handful of it into a berry smoothie. You’ll get even more antioxidants from the berries and will be able to eat your kale in the form of a sweet treat.

• Garlic – Eating raw garlic doesn’t just add flavor to some of your favorite dishes such as a Caesar salad. It also contains unique antioxidant compounds that give your immune system a strong boost. In fact, the benefits are strong enough that evidence suggests they may have cancer fighting properties, too, not just the flu and the common cold.