Autumn is a great time to eat for your health. The harvest is vibrant, plentiful and packed full of immunity boosting properties - offering great ingredients for tasty dishes.
Now is the perfect time to boost your natural immunity and give your body the best chance at defending yourself against some of those annoying change-of-season bugs that will soon be floating around. Not to mention, the dreaded cold and flu season.
So what can you do? Here are our top 5 tips for a healthy autumn menu.
1. Swap summer berries for root vegetables
Swapping berries and salads for root vegetables and autumn fruits is an easy change to make. The problem is that the cold weather and dark evenings often leave us craving comfort foods that we find nurturing.
A great trick is to always ensure you swap like with like. If you have been snacking on strawberries in the summer, why not swap to tangerines in the autumn, lettuce for kale, cucumber for courgette, and so on. This ensures that the comfort foods have less chance of creeping back in.
Ensuring that you're not hungry is also a good way to avoid snacking on the wrong things. Starting the day well by incorporating smoothies into your morning routine, is a fantastic way to feel full for longer.
Try topping up your breakfast with a wheatgrass smoothy. Packed full of nutrients and immunity boosting properties, it's a great way to start the day.
You will need:
- Organic apple juice
- Half a banana
- 2 Britt's Superfoods wheatgrass sachets
Simply blitz together and enjoy
2. Add spice
As the temperature cools, incorporating spices into your meals is a great way to get warming flavour and take advantage of their great healing properties. For example, ginger is brilliant for reducing inflammation and joint pain and has often been used to treat colds.
Turmeric is another great healer. Traditionally used to heal pain and as an antioxidant, this bright orange spice can also be used to help digest fats quickly.
And don't forget garlic! Packed with nutrients but low in calories it contains a little of almost everything you need and makes those winter stews taste delicious.
How about trying a pumpkin and carrot soup. You'll need:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
- 1 cup pumpkin, chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 3 medium carrots, chopped
- 2 and 1/2 cups vegetable stock
- 1/2 cup fromage frais
- 2 sachets Britt's Superfoods Ginger & Turmeric juice
- Fresh herbs and roasted sunflower seeds, for garnish (optional)
Sautee the onion, carrot, garlic and pumpkin in olive oil until softened and then add vegetable stock. Allow to simmer for about half an hour and then blend. Add Britt's Superfoods Ginger and Turmeric juice, stir, garnish and enjoy. Healthy, heartwarming and really tasty!
3. Remember to drink
Even if you drink plenty of water every day throughout the warmer months, you might feel less inclined to keep it up in autumn. But your body needs water just as much when it’s chilly, especially if you’re fighting off a cold!
It’s a good idea to keep a bottle of water with you to remind you to drink. Aim to drink at least six glasses a day – why not add one of our superfood juices to give your hydration an injection of vitamins and nutrients.
4. Make the most of season
Eat the local seasonal produce including apples, pears, beetroot and squash. Apples have been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, asthma and diabetes.
They're loaded with flavonoids such as quercetin, which is important for keeping blood vessels healthy and reducing inflammation throughout the body.
Squashes are excellent sources of vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene, which is said to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Pears are rich in essential antioxidants. Beetroot is a great source of fibre, iron and vitamin C. Pears are rich in essential antioxidants.
Why not try a healthy vegan beetroot falafel, you will need:
- 2 beetroot
- 2 garlic cloves
- 250g cooked chick peas
- Fresh coriander
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin
First roast the beetroot to bring out the flavour and once cool, blend all ingredients together to form small patties . Simply bake in the oven for approx 10 minutes, until firm. Then sit back and enjoy with a glass of organic beetroot juice.
5. Don't comfort binge
As the evenings draw in and the nights are cooler, the temptation is to go back to eating comfort food. Avoid temptation by having warming healthy snacks at hand.
Roasted seeds are great, full of nutrients and if you add some spice, they can taste different all the time.
Try making warm salads by incorporating some cooked grains. Also, use stocks, tomatoes and yogurt in place of cream when making stews and casseroles - and tuck into all those lovely winter veg.
How about beetroot crisps to ward off cravings? Packed full of antioxidants and easy to make, these are a great autumnal snack.
Autumn is a food lovers delight, with seasonal fruit and vegetables ripening what better time to eat for your health? Give your autumn diet an extra boost by adding our organic superfood juice sachets to your breakfast, lunch or dinner.
