Winter vegetables

Delicious, filling and packed with goodness, vegies are your key to staying happy and healthy when it’s cold out, says DL dietitian Lisa Urquhart

A warming winter casserole or soup is not complete without a good dose of vegies! Fight colds and keep your BGLs in check by loading up on veg in the cooler months. It’s recommended that we aim for five serves each day – with each serve being 75g, about half a cup of cooked vegies or one cup of raw.

BOOST THOSE GREENS

Broccoli, cabbage, silverbeet and spinach all shine in chilly weather and will raise your daily intake of vitamins, helping you to stay healthy. Green vegies are a good source of vitamin C, which helps to keep winter bugs away. They also contain high levels of B vitamins for better energy metabolism and red blood cell function.

BUMP UP THE COLOUR

Try to fill up half of your plate with a selection of lower starch colourful veg. Mix up red radish and beetroot, orange carrots, white cauliflower and

leek, green beans and broccoli to ensure you are getting a wide range of antioxidants, which may help prevent heart disease and certain types of cancers.

CONSIDER THE CARBS

Potato, pumpkin, sweet potato and beetroot do contain higher amounts of carbohydrates, so it’s important to consider portion size when serving up. Aim for around a quarter of your plate to be filled with starchy vegies to keep your BGLs in check. These are great sources of vitamins, minerals and fibre – scrub the skin clean before cooking and eat with the skin on, to increase your fibre intake.

CANNED AND FROZEN WORK WELL, TOO Pre-prepared vegies are a super convenient and cheap option to achieve your five serves a day. Snap-freezing maintains vitamins and minerals, so frozen vegies still pack a nutrition punch. Don’t disregard the canned variety either – canned tomatoes have high levels of lycopene, an antioxidant that evidence shows is protective against heart disease and prostate cancer. Choose your canned vegies wisely; always go for the no-added-salt options.