Top 10 Must-Have Foods for Chilly Weather

Red pumpkin, whether red or orange, is excellent for health. In winter, it's perfect for preparing delicious, nutritious meals. Red pumpkin is rich in vitamins, iron, minerals, and organic acids. It's not just tasty but also helps prevent heart diseases, cancer, and aids in weight loss.

Like other winter-friendly foods, red pumpkin can boost the immune system against common winter illnesses, making it beneficial for respiratory health.

Pumpkin seeds contain antioxidants, potassium, manganese, zinc, iron, copper, and various minerals and vitamins. These minerals help combat anemia, enhance immunity, and generate heat to keep the body warm in winter.

Sweet Potatoes are the next suggestion if you're wondering what to eat in cold weather. Sweet potatoes are a familiar food in Vietnam. The orange and pink colors on the sweet potato indicate that it is highly nutritious. As we know, foods with red, yellow, orange, and pink colors are very good for the eyes and bones, and also help increase intelligence, especially in children. With high fiber content, low fat, and many vitamins, using sweet potatoes in winter helps improve the immune system, protecting the body from harmful external factors.

In addition, sweet potatoes effectively treat constipation. However, you should not consume sweet potatoes in the evening as this can cause indigestion and bloating. Eating sweet potatoes in winter helps keep the body warm and resist various fungal infections that often occur in winter. So, be sure to add sweet potatoes to your family's daily menu.

Ginger has long been a common food used to warm the body, whether in hot weather or cold weather. The characteristic of ginger is its spicy, warm nature, stimulating blood circulation, warming the body, and the heat and spiciness of ginger help relieve symptoms of nasal congestion and sore throat.

In the cold days of winter, the body is prone to colds, especially for the elderly and young children. Therefore, to ensure health and keep the body warm, drinking hot ginger tea can be surprisingly effective.

Ginger is a familiar spice in the daily meals of the Vietnamese people; however, ginger can also be used to make tea that is very good for health. The aroma and spiciness of ginger have the effect of warming the body and keeping us warm in winter.

Ginger can also be considered as a herbal remedy for diseases such as arthritis, flu, cough, cold, sore throat, which are common ailments in winter. Note that ginger tea can be consumed at any time of the day, but it should not be overused; a reasonable distribution will bring better results for health. Have you prepared ginger tea for your family this winter?

Vegetables come in various colors, and their functions are different. The darker green the vegetables are, the higher the fiber and essential minerals for the body.

In winter, we often encounter skin problems such as fungal infections, dry skin, so family meals should have more green vegetables to supplement essential nutrients for the body, especially as vegetables also contain a lot of water, which is good for the body.

If you are someone who consumes fewer green vegetables in your meals, here are reasons to reconsider your diet. Green vegetables contain a lot of vitamins A, C, and E. At the same time, they are good for the skin, preventing peeling and cracking in cold climates. Additionally, they help fight aging and reduce dark circles.

Garlic is a familiar spice commonly used in cooking. According to researchers, garlic contains selenium and trace elements with antibacterial alliin, helping boost the immune system, reduce high blood pressure, and many other cardiovascular-related diseases.

Since ancient times, humans have known to use garlic for prevention and treatment. Garlic has antiseptic properties that enhance the immune system, prevent colds, flu, and coughs. The key to the effectiveness of garlic is allicin, extremely beneficial for health. This type of food also helps the body produce interferon (an antiviral substance) to fight cancer. Additionally, consuming garlic is a way to lower cholesterol and significantly improve mood.

There are many ways to use garlic in winter to prevent illness (especially colds), such as raw consumption, garlic tea, garlic combined with honey, etc. This is a food that should be in every kitchen, and it especially helps you stay safe during the winter.

For the Vietnamese, the use of purple cabbage in cooking is still quite limited, and instead, we use white cabbage more often. However, the nutritional content in white cabbage cannot compare to purple cabbage.

Purple cabbage is a type of food rich in vitamin C. Vitamin C is an antioxidant that stimulates the activity of blood cells, protects the body from free radicals, and enhances the immune system. In addition, purple cabbage contains some substances that reduce the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and arthritis.

If you need to diet and lose weight, you should regularly supplement purple cabbage into your daily meals. Purple cabbage has a high fiber content, very few calories, creates a long-lasting feeling of fullness, and avoids overeating.

Citrus fruits - orange, lemon, and grapefruit are diverse and rich in various vitamins, antioxidants, bringing many health benefits.

A common feature of these three types of fruits is their richness in vitamin C, which helps boost immunity and has a beautifying effect on the skin during cold days. In addition, the vitamin C in oranges, lemons, and grapefruits also supports antibacterial cells in the body to eliminate viruses often present in saliva, mucus when the nose runs, and reduces allergy symptoms.

During cold weather, the human body is fragile and difficult to resist fatigue and cold. Symptoms such as coughing, runny nose, frequent sneezing, sore throat, headache, cracked and dry skin, especially for the elderly who also suffer from bone and joint pain, are uncomfortable. Then a simple and easy-to-find fruit like lemon can solve it all. Lemon is a fruit with a very high vitamin content, especially vitamin C, and has more organic acids than oranges and lemons up to 10 times. These organic acids protect the skin from dryness and wrinkles, making the skin smooth without wrinkles. That's why lemon is considered one of the wonders for the skin in winter.

Resembling a miniature version of the common cabbage, these sprouts are consumed for their small shoots, often cut and prepared into salads or stir-fries. Brussels sprouts contain high levels of folic acid and vitamin K, enhancing cognitive function. Particularly, the compound indole-3-carbinol found in this plant species aids in detoxification and anti-aging.

Eating Brussels sprouts helps our bodies combat the cold of winter effectively. The main components of Brussels sprouts include fiber, phytonutrients, with vitamin C constituting 74.8 mg. While not a complete cure for runny noses, vitamin C quickly alleviates the symptoms of the common cold.

The bitter, peculiar taste of Brussels sprouts not only brings a distinctive flavor but also warms the body during chilly weather. You should prepare Brussels sprouts with olive oil to provide your family with a dish featuring a refreshing, sweet taste.

No need to discuss much when chili pepper is on the list of winter foods. Chili pepper is not just a spice to enhance the taste but also serves the purpose of heating and warming the body on chilly rainy days.

Chili pepper is a daily food containing a compound called capsaicin, making it spicy and warming the whole body, quite suitable for cold winter days. Capsaicin can boost metabolism and resist fat accumulation. According to a study conducted by animal researchers in Korea, when combined with a high-fat diet, capsaicin showed an 8% reduction in body weight. In cold weather, people often consume hot and spicy foods to keep the body warm, resist diseases, and it is an essential need for every family in the freezing winter.

Moreover, the hot and spicy feature of chili pepper helps burn excess fat in the body, supporting weight loss. Eating dishes with added chili pepper in these days will help prevent colds, stop flu, and runny nose.

A cup of hot cocoa is enough to warm the body on a chilly winter day. Just mix sugar, marshmallows, and 2 dark chocolate bars with almond milk.

Moreover, using dark chocolate in daily meals also significantly improves health. A type of flavonoids in the composition of cocoa is an antioxidant that reduces the harm from free radicals - the seeds of heart disease and cancer. Also, thanks to cocoa containing flavonoids, blood cells are less affected by free radicals.

A study in the Journal of Immunology Research found that red blood cells become less sensitive to free radicals after the body consumes a cup of high-flavonoid cocoa.