Depending on what part of the world you live in, winter is around the corner and you know what that means, cold season! It’s time to pull those winter clothes out of storage and prep our bodies with bacteria-fighting nutrients, and it’s time for winter juicing!

To ensure you stay healthy over the next three months, it’s important to eat the right foods. And that means eating around nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Nine servings may sound like a lot, but if you know the right ways to prep your meals, you’ll be drinking your nutrients rather than spending an unnecessary amount of time cooking in the kitchen.

The Benefits of Juicing

Juicing is a great way to load your body with the right ingredients to improve your immune system by compacting the vitamin and mineral content into one drink. To juice properly, use the 80/20 rule: 80 percent vegetable to 20 percent fruit. Fill your blender with 80 percent kale or spinach and then dump in 20 percent fresh strawberries and blueberries.

While the appearance won’t be appealing, drinking fresh greens will not only boost your immunity it will also give you added energy to start of your day.

Some of the best ingredients, like the ones listed below, are incredibly healthy for you but aren’t recommended to eat alone. Most of these spices can be found at your local grocery store in the baking aisle and will be available in powder or crushed form. This means you can get creative with how you consume them, either by juicing or including them in a broth based soup.

Turmeric

Turmeric is an ingredient commonly found in curry recipes (hence its yellowish color). But did you know that turmeric has been used by the early Chinese and Indian people as a natural anti-inflammatory treatment. Turmeric is rich in curcumin, a member of the ginger family, and has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties.

Curcumin helps our body fight off colds by neutralizing free radicals from attacking healthy cells and weakening our immune system.

Ginger

Ginger is another ingredient that is a staple in Asian cuisine and found in a lot of commercial products like tea, cosmetics and even processed foods. This strong flavored root crop is a relative of turmeric and also has strong anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties that boost our immune system.

Aside from being an immune system booster, ginger can sooth nausea thanks to its soothing aroma and spicy flavor.

Lemon

If you only had one fruit to add to your juices, one of the best choices is lemon. This citrus fruit is rich in Vitamin C – one of the important antioxidants you can consume. The great thing about lemon is that it is low in sugar, allowing the average person to consume one everyday without blood sugar levels spiking.

Celery

Any healthy juice recipe should include a few sticks of celery because it is one of the most nutrient dense vegetables you’ll find.

Don’t worry about the strong flavor. It is easily masked with the right combination of ingredients.

Celery is rich in antioxidants like vitamin C, manganese and beta-carotene and also contains phytonutrients which have been proven  to reduce oxidative damage to blood vessel walls.

Other cold-fighting ingredients to consider:

• beet
• carrots
• kale
• spinach

Any leafy green vegetable can be added to your recipe because each contain essential vitamins and minerals to strengthen the immune system. As for fruits, you’ll have to limit the amount of fruits that are high in sugar like pineapple, but can add a few pieces to each recipe to give it some flavor.

Fruits low in sugar but rich in cold fighting vitamin C include lemon, grapefruit and pomegranate.

Immunity boosting recipes to try:

Popeye’s Cold Busting Juice

• A big handful of spinach
• Small handful of parsley
• 4 carrots
• Half an inch of ginger root
• A garlic clove
• 1 medium sized Fuji (if you can’t find any Fuji apple go for the green apple)

Parsley is an underrated vegetable rarely talked about but don’t ignore this table garnish as it is packed with antioxidants like vitamin C, K and A that will boost your immune system and strengthen your bones. And the ginger in this recipe will add a little bit of kick so this is a great pre-breakfast drink in place of coffee.

Spicy Green Juice

• 4 celery sticks
• 1 large cucumber
• 1 lemon
• 1 inch of turmeric root
• 1 inch of ginger
• 1 small apple

Red Cold Fighting Juice

• A small pinch of cayenne pepper
• One inch chunk of ginger
• 1 whole lemon
• 1 small beet (peel if it’s not organic)

Another drink that has some kick into it thanks to the ginger and cayenne pepper that will wake you up on days you just don’t feel like getting up.

Let us know in the comments if you tried any of these recipes.

Happy Juicing!