Dieting Smart During Winter Months

Winter is upon us, would you agree? And with winter comes the inevitable cold and flu bugs.  With winter approaching, now is the best to time to start beefing up your immune system to fight those party-spoiling buggers and stay healthy all season long.  What you eat during flu season can make all the difference between getting sick and staying well.  My suggestions include foods that are rich in Vitamin C and E.  

Boning up on Vitamin C is worth mentioning again and again.  Vitamin C is the number one immune booster and it is readily available in citrus fruits and many veggies.  (And since fruits are now free on the new weight watchers points plus program, my WW pals can afford to splurge on some juicy sweet fruits now and then).  Six servings of fruits and veggies are usually sufficient to give you enough Vitamin C to stave off colds and flu. Fruits with the most “C” include oranges, papaya, cantaloupe, kiwi, strawberry, grapefruit and guava.  You can also take a Vitamin C supplement if you need to (I usually do if I start to feel sick, and often it helps stave off my colds).  One that I really like is called Fizzit.

Get more Vitamin E.  Although Vitamin E is often overlooked in the popular press, I think it is time to give it a second look.  Vitamin E is a top immune booster that actually works to stimulate the production of cells that seek out germs and destroy them.  Seeds and grains are abundant sources of Vitamin E.  I have posted before on flax seeds and a yummy recipe leveraging vegetables and sesame seeds, and I love those, but the seed with the most Vitamin E is the sunflower seed.  Yummo. A quarter ounce of sunflower seeds is not only a great (and crunchy!) addition to a salad, with only 1 weight watchers points plus points.

Adding foods that are rich in these two vitamins can help you stay healthy and happy all winter long! 

Enjoy!
Juliet

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