Top Foods for Keeping Winter Coughs and Colds at Bay

We're at that rotten time of year again when the weather can't seem to make its mind up and we hover between warm and freezing days. And whilst it's lovely to cling on to the warmer weather the constant swapping between hot and cold always seems to play havoc with peoples health and even the chief executive of NHS England is warning that Britain could be facing a possible flu epidemic this year.

It's really important therefore that we are taking simple measures to stay well. It can be a costly business to have to turn to cold and flu remedies from the pharmacy but with a few preventative measures you hopefully won't need to, and even if a cough or cold does rear its ugly head then there are some very effective natural remedies available from health food stores too.

Eat a Wide Variety of Foods

One of the easiest ways to stay well is to ensure you are eating a wide variety of foods to give you enough vitamins and other key nutrients, this helps to ensure that your immune system stays fighting fit. Some of the key vitamins and nutrients your want to ensure your body is getting are -

Vitamin C - If you drink a 150ml glass of orange juice per day (can be fresh or from concentrate, nutritionally they are exactly the same), this can be counted as one of your five-a-day and it gives the full daily quota of vitamin C that your body needs. Sian Porter, Registered Dietitian says “Conveniently, pure orange juice is also a source of the B-vitamin folate, needed for white blood cells (that protect the body against infectious disease) to rapidly reproduce.” So this small, easy to drink and delicious glass of orange juice is a real winner.

Iron - If you start to feel tired and worn out then your iron levels might be low and you should be eating more leafy green vegetables like spinach, red meat, liver, beans and pulses, fortified breakfast cereals and sardine. Oh and I bet you didn't know that raisins and pistachios are also a great source of iron, so it doesn't have to be unpleasant to get your recommended quota.

Yum, Enjoying Fresh Pressed Juice

I live in the most wonderful community. Once a month all the families meet to purposefully do something to get the children together who live on-site, there are now 17 of them and they range in age from 8 weeks to 14 years. It isn't easy to try and arrange something they all want to get involved with and to be honest my JJ has pretty much bailed out as the nearest boy in age to him is about 11 years younger!

Sometimes these meetings are real corkers, in the summer we had one where they all slid down a hill on a massive tarpaulin with water, last month they swam and had chips on the beach and this time we headed down to our walled garden. We have a fab couple here who manage this walled garden as an employability project to help people who are long-term unemployed develop new skills and regain confidence. It has been such a success since it started three years ago.

Last year at Harvest time Nick got all the children to help pick the apples so they could go off to be juiced as we have our own Ashburnham Place apple juice to sell. This year he went one better as he had invested in an apple press so we could juice our own.

First off the kids got the last of the apples off our trees and then picked some beetroot and rhubarb to compliment the apple and provide us with a variety of juices.

Then it was time for us all to set to work and get the fruit ready for juicing. First, the fruit all needs an external wash.

Then it needs chopping into smaller rough pieces so it can easily be shredded for juicing. 

Once the apples are shredded up they can then go in the press and the heavy works starts but it is so satisfying watching that juice come running out.

The finished products, we have apple juice, apple and rhubarb and apple and beetroot, which was really delicious and of course looked beautiful too.

Thanks so much to Nick for a wonderful educational time. 

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Miss E's love of Juice Glorious Juice! #FruitJuiceBoost

I can't recall a time when Miss E hasn't been pestering me for a glass of juice. Even at nearly 10 years of age it is her drink of choice. No fizzy pop for her, she just isn't interested but 100% pure unsweetened juice or maybe a homemade smoothie and she is as happy as Larry (whoever he is!).

She affectionately calls OJ her 'brain juice' and insists on having a glass of it at breakfast as one of her recommended 5-a-day. I've always been happy with this as combined with a bowl of porridge or weetabix and milk it is a healthy breakfast that helps her stay full and focused on learning until her break time at school.

Research (1) shows that only 8% of 11-18 year olds achieve their minimum 5-a-day consumption of fruit and vegetables, so a small glass (150ml) of pure juice is a nice easy way to fill one of those five slots and perfectly I've found that 150ml fits in the empty Nutella glass nicely and makes it easy for Miss E to be able to measure out her own drink in the morning.