5 ways a vegan diet helps you thrive through winter
It’s important to eat well all year round but winter is coming, and it brings with it some unique considerations for our diet. Here are five ways eating a healthy plant-based diet keeps you thriving through the shorter days and colder months of winter.
1. Beat the winter blues with food
For some, the thought of winter evokes warm and fuzzy feelings of cuddling up in front of a blazing log fire, cradling a cozy cup of hot chocolate with vegan marshmallows bobbing in the frothy non-dairy milk. But for others winter can feel at the least, a little bit depressing or at the most – especially for those with seasonal affective disorder – bleak and unbearable.
The food we eat plays an important role in maintaining our mental health and mood so it’s especially important to eat right during your least preferred time of the year. Thankfully, plant-based diets are here to help. Fruit and vegetables, pulses and nuts all tend to be high in fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that can reduce inflammation, which has been linked to depression. Berries in particular have been shown to have a protective effect on the brain due to their high flavonoid content, and nuts are one of the best natural sources of melatonin – a hormone that regulates sleep – and a good night’s sleep is sometimes the best medicine. Add berries and nuts to your morning porridge or snack on them in the afternoon to give yourself a boost.
2. Maintaining an impeccable immune system
Due to many factors, including spending more time holed up indoors with windows closed and less fresh air, it’s important to support your immune system during the winter to help it fight off the never-ending cycle of colds and flus making the rounds.
A healthy vegan diet is jam-packed with all the vitamins and minerals you need to hopefully avoid the circulating bugs, or lessen the symptoms and help you recover speedily should you succumb. Five foods which support your immune system are ginger, turmeric, garlic, berries, and seeds. Ginger and turmeric both contain very strong antioxidants and antimicrobial properties which help fight infection. Garlic stimulates and activates your white blood cells which help fight off illness, shortening the duration and severity. Berries are among the healthiest foods you can eat – bursting with antioxidants and vitamin C – and seeds are a great source of zinc, which is essential for an effective immune system. Add ginger, garlic and turmeric to curries, soups and stews and sprinkle seeds on salads and soups.
3. Enjoy seasonal winter foods
Winter isn’t all doom and gloom – it actually has some wonderful and warming foods to offer. Making the most of these seasonal specialties can be a great way to take care of yourself during this time of year.
Root vegetables, including carrots, parsnips, turnips and beetroot are rockin’ at this time of year. These complex carbohydrates contain both fibre and starch and are a great source of slow-release energy to keep our engines running, even in the coldest weather. Kale and Brussels sprouts (love them or hate them!) are quintessential winter foods. These cruciferous leafy greens are a good source of vitamins A, C and K, as well as B vitamins, which are important for our energy levels. If you’re after something sweeter, look no further than apples and pears. Pears are a great source of fibre and a good source of vitamin C. Their main strength, however, lies in their phenolic compounds which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Just make sure you eat the skin as it contains three to four times as much of these magical compounds as the fruit’s flesh. Throw a selection of root veg into a tray bake with chick peas and grate or chop fresh apple or pear into your overnight oats with chia seeds, cinnamon and a plant-based milk.
4. Getting (most of) your calories from the right sources
During winter, it’s common to crave high-carbohydrate comfort food. This can be for a variety of reasons including making us temporarily feel better with a short burst of dopamine or to cope with our body’s increased energy needs in cold weather. It can therefore be all-too-easy to reach for one more mince pie. And while we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of some winter treats, we need to make sure we are getting most of our calories from healthier sources such as the seasonal foods mentioned above.
So that we feel satiated and therefore less likely to overindulge, we should focus on warming and nourishing winter meals, such as hearty soups and stews, and curries and casseroles. To feel full we need to get enough protein from sources such as tofu, seitan and lentils, and fibre from wholegrains such as oats, brown rice and wholewheat products, and healthy fats from nuts and seeds. Focus on pulses making lentil shepherd’s pie, spaghetti Bolognaise with brown lentils, Italian bean stew, three-bean chilli, tofu stir-fry, butterbean casserole with dumplings or mushroom, leek and tofu pie. Comfort food at its best!
5. Staying topped up with vitamins and minerals
A well-planned vegan diet will provide you with most of the vitamins and minerals you need to flourish through the winter but there are two or three to be aware of. The most obvious is the sunshine vitamin – vitamin D. Vitamin D is necessary for the regulation of calcium levels in the blood and needed for healthy bones as it helps your body absorb calcium. Our body makes vitamin D in response to exposure to the sun, so in the darker months of the year a supplement may be necessary. (Find out more here.)
Vitamin B12 and Omega 3 fatty acids are not winter-specific and we should make sure we get enough all year round but they do come into play during the winter. As well as helping the body produce energy from food, B12 also has a neurological function linked to mental health. Making sure we’re getting enough can lessen the chances of low moods and fatigue. Omega 3 fatty acids – from flaxseed, walnuts or an algae-based supplement, for example – also help us maintain good mental health. They also help maintain healthy skin, which can be important when you’re out in the punishing cold weather.
Whether you wholeheartedly embrace the wonders of winter or would rather hibernate until spring, we hope these five tips help you either enjoy or endure the next few months and emerge on the other side with a healthy body and mind. If you want to stoke up your inspiration, check out a sled-full of winter recipes at Vegan Recipe Club and treat yourself to Viva!’s A Very Vegan Christmas Mini Cookbook.
About the author
Nicholas Hallows
Nicholas has been vegan since the early 2000s and worked for Viva! between 2017 and 2020 as a Senior Administrator and Web Content Assistant. He is a qualified teacher, specialising in Language and Literacy, and an accredited Proofreader and Editor. He is now a freelance writer covering topics including veganism, mindfulness and minimalism.
