Top Winter Foods For Keeping Body Warm

Healthy eating can help people keep warm during the cold winter months; it makes sense to consume healthy, warming concentrated foods. Nature has planned it in the same way. Most foods available in the winter are meant to keep your body warm and help control body temperature while keeping illnesses like cold and cough at bay. Here is a quick guide on what foods to eat to keep yourself and your children warm:

1) Dark orange vegetables such as sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and carrots are storehouses of beta-carotene, an anti-oxidant, excellent for immunity.

2) Root vegetables such as onions, beetroot, and turnips also warm the body.

3) Greens Mustard greens, spinach, mint and dill. Dill is a speciality of winter and has a great aroma. It can be used with soups and even in marinades for non-vegetarian foods likes chicken and fish. If you like simple food, try making a vegetable of potatoes & dill.

4) Nuts & their extracts make excellent warming and insulating snacks. Boil a few almonds and pistachios in the milk in the morning for a tasty, healthy alternative to coffee or just munch on a handful of walnuts. Even seeds like til are known to work wonders in winter.

5) Black foods like black sesame seeds, un-cured black olives, and chia seeds make wonderful warming winter condiments.

6) Black pepper or kali mirch. It has antiseptic and antioxidant properties. Sprinkle over soups, curries, and gravies.

7) Cardamom/ Elaichi, especially big one is an expectorant, thus helping to open the respiratory passages. Add to tea or boil in water and sip for a quick relief from cough. Small ones on the other hand are good for summers.

8) Mulethi: A lesser known herb, this is the perfect first-aid for a cough attack. It comes in the form of small sticks.

9) Jaggery: Gur too makes its presence felt in the winter as this is also known to have warming properties. Gur chana, chikki, gajak, revri are some popular sweets available in the market. At home, make laddoos using atta & gur, or add to saag, or jut have it as a dessert post meal. Gur is also known to boost hemoglobin.