A December message from our nutritionist Lucy Williamson.
As we head into winter it’s important to choose foods which help to keep our immune system strong! What kind of food? Real, minimally processed and from healthy soils meaning it’s packed with nutrients for us.
Organic seabuckthorn berries really tick the box here; let me explain why –
Why Organic?
Crops grown organically have to rely on their own chemical defence mechanisms to fight off bugs. So these ‘phytochemicals’, which we know as ‘antioxidants’ are higher in organically grown plants, compared to crops which may have been sprayed with a fungicide for example. Brightly coloured berries are rich in health-giving antioxidants, none more so than bright orange organic, seabuckthorn berries with over 190 nutrients! Their antioxidants help us to maintain a healthy immune system as well as benefit from all their anti-ageing functions.
What about Gut Health?
Even pre-Covid, we humans have been a little carried away with sterilising our world. Many microbes (tiny, microscopic organisms like bacteria) are actually vital for our health rather than being ‘bad’. Our billions of gut microbes which we each have, are essential for a strong immune system as well as many other benefits to our long-term health. The same goes for healthy, organic soils in which our crops grow; microbes here unlock nutrients for the plants, just as our own gut microbes unlock nutrients in our food. They actually activate antioxidants for us, so eating organic, antioxidant-rich food nurtures our gut health too! The fibre in seabuckthorn also feeds our gut microbes – they get their energy from fermenting this otherwise indigestible fibre for us.
Is Seabuckthorn a good source of healthy vitamins?
Although it varies according to harvest times and conditions, Seabuckthorn berries contain about 10 times as much Vitamin C as an orange! Vitamin C is an antioxidant which is why it’s so important for our immunity. Seabuckthorn berries get their bright orange colour from carotenoids, a type of Vitamin A, which together with Vitamin E, also high in these orange berries of goodness, look after our immune systems too. We also know from research that these nutrients are easier for our body to absorb when in their natural food.
Real food
At the start I mentioned ‘real, minimally processed’ foods. At Devereaux Farm, seabuckthorn berries are frozen immediately on harvesting, locking the nutrients in. Compare this to a preserved fruit purée where nutrients are lost as well as additives put in! You can order seabuckthorn berries directly from the farm – fresh as the day they were picked without long food supply chains draining away nutrients in transit. Enjoy them as you would blueberries or try the dried version in this winter warming red cabbage recipe!
