Winter wellness – foods that help protect you naturally

You know the season is changing when the leaves start to fall and there is a slight chill in the air early morning. You also realize just how many of us have lowered immunity as more and more people are off work, coughing and have gut complaints. The emphasis in autumn needs to be on nurturing, building and supporting your organs for the cold change ahead.

Cooking methods such as steaming, roasting, stewing and boiling are recommended now over methods such as stir-frying or other quick cooking methods. Also avoid - cold drinks, melons, salads and raw foods, juices, raw onions, dried spices and chilies.

To relieve the symptoms of dryness (dry coughs, dry lips, wrinkles, itchiness, dandruff and constipation) associated with autumn, we are encouraged to eat moistening foods, such as those listed below.

Pungent foods are also on your list now as this is the flavour associated with the lungs. These are ginger and wasabi. Fresh ginger when you are sick helps rid your body of any illness through sweat; and dried ginger when you are well builds immunity-spicy food, however, should be avoided if you are getting sick often as it reduces immunity through inducing sweat and causing dryness.

The cooler months are a time to slow down, a time to be reflective, and our food and cooking methods should reflect this. Use slower cooking methods, eat slower, meditate and spend more time indoors. This is a time to rest and recoup. Soon enough Spring will be upon us and a new cycle will begin.

Helpful foods
- To build immunity - oranges, pears, peaches, soy products, oysters, clams, green beans, royal jelly and shiitake mushrooms

- To nourish your blood - figs, pears, pumpkins, parsnips, potato and beetroot are foods that build up blood levels

- To moisten your lungs- soy products (tempeh, miso, soymilk and tofu), vegetables (mushrooms, spinach and sea vegetables), fruit (apples, pears and persimmons), nuts (almonds, peanuts and pine nuts), grains (barley and millet) and sesame seeds, apples and pine nuts

- Beginning of a cold: spring onion, ginger and mint soup

- You can use a little more good quality oil in winter. Avocado, macadamia, flax, olive or sunflower oil, as well as all nut and seed (tahini) butters.

- For arthritis, diarrhoea and a bloated and heavy abdomen try green tea, mushrooms, fennel, cayenne, garlic, onions and ginger

- Use coconut oil as a skin and scalp moisturizer and use also it in cooking

- Ginger to improve your circulation

- Strengthening foods are wholegrains like millet, barley, tofu, black beans and other beans, kudzu, wheat germ, potato, sea vegetables, black sesame seeds, almond milk, sardines, oysters, crab, clams and seaweeds.

copyright Janella Purcell 2011