PRIME SEASON
Maintaining winter
wellness
You’ve run out of batteries to replace and hinges to oil. Your online exercise class is getting boring and your waistline has not shrunk. And you know it will be months before life Eliz abeth returns to any semblance of “normal.” How Morse Read will you get through these cold, dark weeks of winter without losing your sanity and breaking all those New Year’s resolutions? Try focusing on the surprisingly simple steps that can make you healthier, calmer, and more energized.
Boost your immunity It’s incredibly important that you eat a nutritious diet that promotes gut (digestive) health and helps you fight off infections and inflammation – foods high in Vitamins B1, K, D, C, zinc, probiotics, and beta-glucans. While you may need to take supplements during the winter, it’s much better to get your daily dose of vitamins and minerals by choosing your foods more mindfully, especially as we try to avoid contracting respiratory illnesses like COVID-19. [see sidebar] Vitamin B1 (thiamine) improves immune function, reduces inflammation and the risk of type-2 diabetes, and helps maintain healthy blood oxygen levels. Foods high in B1 include whole grains,
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S ou th C oast P r ime T imes
beans and legumes, red meats, fish (especially salmon), nuts, oranges, kale, asparagus, and eggs. Vitamin K helps your body maintain healthy blood vessels and activates enzymes that protect lung tissue – two
major organs seriously affected by respiratory viruses. It’s better to eat fresh foods rich in Vitamin K than to take supplements – choose leafy green vegetables like lettuce, kale, chard, and spinach, as well as vegetable oils. Vitamin C boosts the immune system and, as a powerful antioxidant, slows down the effects of aging. It also speeds up healing and protects bones and teeth. Get your Vitamin C every day by eating red grapes, tropical fruits, citrus fruits, bell peppers, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, melons, cabbage, and broccoli. If you don’t have enough Vitamin D in your body, you’re much more likely to develop respiratory infections. During the winter months, when getting actual
Stay Hydrated You hear all the time that you need to drink lots of fluids to keep your body in sync. But you need to zero in on the hydrating details beyond guzzling water throughout the day. For instance, low humidity inside your house dries out your nasal passages, making it harder to trap and destroy bacteria and viruses that end up in your sinuses. A humidifier can help keep your mucous membranes moist. Likewise, you can use sinus-rinse products like Flonase or NeilMed to flush out irritants and germs. These days, our hands are raw from using alcohol-based hand sanitizers – but chapped hands can result in tiny cracks that allow infection, so make sure to use all-natural moisturizers, shampoos and body washes like Eucerin, Cetaphil or Gold Bond. Use beeswax-based lip balms – not Vaseline-based, which is a byproduct of petroleum!
M arch /A pr il 2021
