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
Winter vegetables
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.FOOD mains
54