British immune system boosting foods for your NY shopping list!

“There’s so much going around at the moment…”

Does this phrase sound all too familiar?

Winter is well-known for its crisp, icy mornings and cosy fireplace evenings. However, it’s also a time when particular, pesky ailments strike us down.

Catching a cold is almost inevitable. Fortunately for us, an abundance of seasonal foods are ready and waiting to give our immune systems the boosts they need. Here are some of our Great British recommendations:

Beef

(This wouldn’t be a butcher blog if we didn’t begin with one of your favourite meats now would it..?!)

Not only does beef taste great – 100% pasture fed Hereford beef in particular (!), but it’s also highly nutritious and is a fantastic fuel source for our bodies when eaten as part of a balanced, varied diet.

It’s the iron levels within beef we need to first and foremost thank for supporting our immune systems. Moreover, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) shares how beef contains eight essential vitamins and minerals which aid our overall health, in addition to iron and four essential vitamins in particular that help combat tiredness, in addition to beef’s infamous levels of natural protein!

So, we think it’s safe to say British beef deserves to hold a prime position on our shopping lists.

Root vegetables

Carrots, swedes, turnips, parsnips: you name it, the wintery root veggies you’ll find freshly displayed outside our Bromyard farm shop are said to play an important role in keeping our guts healthy, and in turn, help to fight off infections.

In-season vegetables such as carrots are packed with Vitamin A, and turnips are full of Vitamin C, which can be blended into a warming, wholesome, wintery soup to nourish our bodies with head-to-toe goodness.

Apples

An apple a day may indeed help keep the doctor away, thanks to the amazing range of nutrients they contain…

From Vitamin C to its antioxidant peel that work together to give our immune systems some TLC they may be crying out for when our children, for example, continue bringing home a cocktail of germs left, right and centre!

Head over to British Apples and Pears to find out what apple varieties are currently in season and a little bit more about what makes every bite so great.

Natural yoghurt

Some research suggests that eating yoghurt, especially yoghurt containing probiotics, may feed our immune systems some additional bug-busting strength.

In our Bromyard farm shop fridges, you’ll find Tim’s Dairy yoghurt. Their products are award-winning, and made using natural ingredients, fresh, pasteurised British milk and gut-friendly bio-live bacteria – on the shopping list it goes!

Tucking into in-season foods how Mother Nature intended us to which are ripe and readily available will undoubtedly give our immune systems the helping hands they need.

Love British Food has compiled this fantastic list of ‘What’s in season, when?’, and our teams are always here to talk to you about the fresh and local products and produce we receive daily from our neighbouring farmers, growers and producers.