The essential Winter diet

Geetha is a consultant registered dietician, certified diabetes educator, exercise-sports nutritionist, lecturer, nutrition trainer and expert/speaker for corporate wellness. Her diverse experience over a decade entails lectureship, clinical research, therapeutic nutrition, food safety, corporate nutrition and seminars. She is a regular nutrition columnist for well renowned health magazines and wellness websites, a university first rank holder with several gold medals to her credit at both under graduate and post graduate levels.

 

The warmest choices of the following winter foods help to beat bone biting cold.

 

Spice it up:
Generous ginger use will help to reduce inflammation as it brings down the incidences of wintry cough and upper respiratory tract infections. A clove of garlic a day may stave off cold as it has antiviral and antibacterial properties due to compounds – allion and allicin. Eating them raw also helps fight flu. Cinnamon helps control blood glucose levels and check excess calorie intake while turmeric, coriander, clove, nutmeg improve immune response to wintertide.

 

Fruit frenzy:
Winter times juiciest fruits are citrus, brimming with vitamin C, soluble fiber, potassium and a flavonoid hesperidin that unitedly, enhance immunity, lower the bad cholesterol and raise the good cholesterol. The vitamin C helps fight cold as lowered humidity in winter is a boon to booming bugs. Pomegranates are packed with antioxidants that improve blood flow especially when the chilly weather is known to constrict blood vessels that can be the reason for a heart attack. Apples are voluminous in fiber with 3.5-4g that aids satiety and swindles weight catastrophe while its antioxidant quercetin combats cold and flu.

 

Power up on protein: 
Nuts like almonds, walnuts, cashew, pistachios, peanuts swell several vital nutrients-selenium, vitamin E that boosts brain function.  Seeds like sesame, watermelon and pumpkin, chia seeds in extension augment vitamin B and E, folate, protein, iron, magnesium, calcium, omega 3 and zinc that offers respite to the winter’s flaky skin and frizzy hair. Probiotics like curd, kefir, eggs, oily fish (omega 3 – EPA and DHA) amplify winter’s dipping serotonin with tryptophan ( precursor of serotonin), an essential amino acid that calms the nerves, vitamins B 12 and D that keeps one peppy.

 

Veggie value:
Carrots and sweet potatoes are bountiful in vitamin A that helps rejuvenate the harsh winter’s sore skin. Green leafy vegetables like mustard greens (Sarsong), spinach are opulent in folate, magnesium, vitamin A, C and K. Folic acid is pivotal in women’s health for child bearing, preventing anemia and heart health. Radish has antimicrobial value which curtails cold, cough and respiratory disorders.  Onion boasts of antiviral and antibacterial properties and its thiosulphinates is heart protective too.

 

Grain gain: 
Whole grains offer B-vitamins that help to boost metabolism when winter zaps energy and makes one sluggish. Opting for brown rice over white offers more nutrients – selenium, magnesium, and fiber. Oats is quick and convenient to prepare that yields serotonin ( happy hormone) increment while quinoa augments protein and iron in the diet.

 

Sweet satisfaction: 
Delectable is dark. Choose chocolate, simply darker the better with 70 % or more cocoa, as it contains lesser amounts of sugar and more antioxidants flavonoids and theobromine that envelopes immunity. A tad helping of this super food is in fact known to lessen the craving for sweet and fatty foods by researchers from the University of Copenhagen.

 

Tune temperature: 
Steaming soups, warm stews, piping hot herbal teas and other beverages like green or black tea (unsweetened )offer comfort to cold nights without adding calories. 
For a wonderful winter duck foods devoid of nutrients and plunge into the plethora of others that hone health