Winter Superfoods

Over winter and especially during the holiday season it’s as important to watch what you don’t indulge in as it is to watch what you do indulge in.

Comfort Foods

Winter is certainly the season for comfort foods. Hot sticky puddings with lashings of custard, mountains of roast potatoes, frothy mugs of hot chocolate, hot pasties and pies, sweet mince pies, sausages and mash, hot chestnuts, brandy butter, clotted cream, and all manner of small roasted animals. Presumably there is some inherent instinctive compulsion to lay down some extra fat for the winters’ hibernation months to see you through until spring.

The irony is that, long term, comfort foods will probably make you feel worse - Comfort foods are generally foods that people crave- reward foods - everyone is different so they will have different foods that comfort them. Sugar cravings are most common so comfort foods are often calorie dense and rich in sugars.

Beware of Cravings

Cravings are generally due to some form of imbalance deep within the body. The foods we typically crave and eat to quell the craving generally make the imbalance worse

Sometimes there is a physiological element of comfort - a hot cup of cocoa provides small amounts of the chemical phenylethylamine as well as warming your insides. Some research has suggested there are chemicals in dairy products that have similar effects to cocaine which may explain any camembert, stilton or clotted cream cravings you have. Typically though comfort food cravings are for anything sweet - this will temporarily raise your blood sugar levels that will give you a short lived energy boost.

The main drawback is that just one portion of sugar can compromise your immune system for up to two hours.

Balance of Comfort

Food should be fun and enjoyable - the saying ' a little bit of what you fancy does you good' has a good foundation in psychological truth. However to make yourself feel permanently better you'll need foods that help you avoid peaks and troughs of blood sugar levels and erratic insulin levels and that balance hormone levels, amino acids and essential fatty acids as well as provide you with all the minerals and vitamins your body needs. As a general rule fruit and vegetables will do you more good than bourbon biscuits and crisps.

Alcohol

As the holiday season approaches and office parties abound, the pressures to torture your liver with alcohol are at an all season high. One glass of wine will generally do you more harm than good but it’s all downhill from there onwards. If you have any compassion for one of the most important organs in your body then you should try to remember these three tips.

1) Try to balance your alcohol consumption with equal amounts of water.

2) Try to limit alcoholic consumption to a maximum of 2 units of alcohol per hour.

3) Try to eat something with a bit of protein whilst drinking. EG choose nuts rather than crisps (Just be careful where you put your hands if any of your colleagues have a nut allergy)

In Season

Avocados rich in vitamin E and also b vitamins and vitamin K. All the green things Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Chinese cabbage, spinach., Brussel Sprouts and especially Curly Kale are all good for your bones as well as a variety of a phyto-nutrients that will put a spring in your step if you don’t overcook them. Try them raw, juiced with little pear juice – a little chlorophyll can go a long way towards a bit of winter zing. As always variety is the spice of life so spice up your winter with celery root, Chicory, Fennel, Sweet Potatoes, artichokes, Jerusalem Artichokes, Leeks, Garlic, Pumpkin, Chard and horseradish

Getting Fruity

Grapefruit, mandarin Oranges, cranberries and cherries will as expected provide useful amounts of vitamin C to boost your immune system but watch out for cranberries which can come free with sugar or artificial sweeteners in drinks and even when as dried fruit in packets. It’s great to see some of the more unusual varieties of British pears and apples making a come back. I’ve no proof but I should imagine that fruit chosen for it’s flavour rather than it’s colour, shape and keeping properties should have a better than average chance of being more nutritious too.

Winter Drinks

Pomegranates have hit the big time in the last year for good reason. They are packed with anti-oxidants and anything that’s going to stop your body from going rusty is a good idea. They contain a cocktail of polyphenols, tannins, ellagic acid and anthocyanins which have led some researchers to claim pomegranates are anti cancerous. As with all fruit and vegetables the nutritionist’s rule is the fresher the better. If you are lucky enough to have a local fruit and veg market near you watch out for bargains on pomegranates. Last winter whilst I was heavily pregnant with my son my husband was buying 5 pomegranates for a £1 at Croydon’s Surrey Street Fruit and Veg market. It was great to come home from a hard day’s nutrition consultancy in London and be handed a glass of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice as I walked through the door. No wonder my baby son is so healthy!

Another good winter drink is hot water with the juice and zest of a whole lime and some thin slices of fresh ginger. If this is too sour for you to enjoy try adding some agarve (cactus) syrup.

Fruit and Nutcase

Freshly dried fruit and nuts are in abundance during the winter. Figs and almonds provide calcium, apricots are a good source of iron, brazil nuts have selenium essential for an optimally functioning immune system, walnuts have the essential fat omega 3 and prunes are full of minerals and good for the digestive system.

Try a festive porridge for breakfast with a few chopped dried fruit and nuts and a sprinkle of cinnamon. If you are feeling really adventurous drop in a few Goji berries too. Goji berries are alleged to be the Tibetan secret of good health and happiness. They certainly have a fairly unique nutritional profile but certainly no longer a secret – they are popping up at the end of health food shop tills everywhere.

Yvonne Bishop-Weston founder of Foods For Life – optimum nutrition in London

London Nutritionists