Originally published December 18 2005
Heart organization helps consumers keep eating fruits and veggies through winter
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Heart Research UK offers practical advice on how to keep up your five servings of fruits and vegetables a day through the winter months.
You can still maintain your Five-A-Day helpings of fruit and vegetables, an essential part of a healthy heart regime, while creating satisfying and nutritious dishes.
Although Hallow'en has already gone, pumpkins are still on sale and their colourful flesh indicates a rich source of beta-carotene, a member of the antioxidant family.
Like butternuts, squashes and sweet potatoes, pumpkins are also a good source of fibre (which makes them 'filling') and they contain virtually no fat.
They are delicious served steamed in cubes, mashed or roasted in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil, or baked whole with the seeds removed and replaced by some skimmed milk, honey and spices.
Autumn is the start of the soup season and pumpkin, butternut and acorn squash flesh make a perfect base, whether cut into small pieces or pureed.
Fresh tomatoes and all types of beans can be added to further boost their fibre and nutritional content.
Soups are delicious with a dash of low-fat yoghurt and a sprikle of fresh herbs or seeds.
Indeed, although pumpkin seeds are nearly 50 per cent fat, they are high in mono and polyunsaturated fats, which help to promote a beneficial ratio of good (HDL) cholesterol to bad (LDL) cholesterol, associated with a lower risk of heart disease.
They are also a source of linolenic acid, an essential fatty acid that may help prevent hardening of the arteries, and phytoestrogens, which may also promote a favourable LDL-HDL ratio.
Served with whole grain bread, soups will make a satisfying evening meal or lunch and keep for several days if yo make large quantities and freeze some.
Use margerines low in trans fats or vegetable (rapeseed) oil in your crumble toppings, or replace some of the flour and margerine with ground up nuts.
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