How to Prevent Colds Naturally

By Letha Hadady

The weather may be dark, cold and damp so that you feel like staying in bed with a book or playing with your cat. Cold and flu season starts in late fall, and, depending upon your immunity, can last until spring rains. During this time, we need nourishing, easily digested foods for prevention of illness and depression. 

You may be waiting on line in a store or pharmacy hoping to pay and escape as quickly as possible. Do people cough or sneeze in your face? Does the subway crush seem more hazardous this winter? A severe cold/flu has been predicted this year. 

Preventing Colds Through a Healthy Diet

Colds are prolonged by congestion (phlegm) and poor digestion resulting from rich eating. In January, we have just finished the holidays where at parties we ate, drank, hugged friends and greeted strangers who may have been infected. However, if you have a baseline of health supported by strong digestion, you are safer to fight off illness and blue moods. 

Support your digestion: It supports you. Each season offers the chance of optimum wellness. In spring and summer we enjoy more fresh foods that cleanse the senses and enliven our expansive activities. 

Foods That Prevent Illnesses

In colder weather, the blood needs to be enhanced for winter. Warmer, sweet, grounding, nourishing foods help to enhance immunity, strength and calm. Lighter, pungent cooking helps to relieve liver congestion and excess phlegm after rich holiday eating.

- Healthy Fats: The liver needs to process excess fats and proteins that were needed to keep the body warm in winter. 

- Whole Grains: Barley, wheat and rye nourish the liver and the gall bladder. 

- Sour Flavors: such as seasoned vinegars and omeboshi plum are a tasty, digestive condiment. 

- Root Vegetables: reflecting autumn’s dominant descending force, strengthen and tone the large intestine. Cold weather root vegetables include: Carrot, parsnip, turnip, onion, leeks, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, pumpkin, burdock, daikon, and red radishes, rutabaga, celeriac, cauliflower, red and white cabbage, and mustard greens. 

- Hardy Leafy Greens and pungent tastes like ginger help enhance liver and blood cleansing and reduce stagnation. 

Preparing Illness-Preventing Foods 

Root vegetables can be pickled, adding salt, garlic and powerful spices that up our antioxidants. Chief among them are clove and cumin. Blanch and chop the pickling vegetables you prefer into small strips. Add the spices, salt and tightly pack the vegetables in layers into sterile jars. Leave a little room at the top of the jar for expansion. Some people add vinegar to speed the pickling, but it is not necessary if you add chopped cabbage which naturally turns sour to make sauerkraut. Keep the pickle in a dark, cool dry place out of the refrigerator. Within a week you can add some pickled (soured) vegetables to dishes or snacks. 

If you happen to be in Japan in June you can enjoy the ume plum harvest. During the rest of the summer the plums will be soaked, salted, fermented in a wooden container, dyed with red shiso leaf and finally dried laid out on bamboo sheets after rainy season. Otherwise, we make our own delightful pickles at home. They can be enjoyed any season and while traveling to an exotic climate and diet because natural fermentation supports healthy gut bacteria. That same healthy bacteria can build immunity against colds and flu. 

Here is a strongly fortifying soup adapted from The Longevity Diet. It readies our taste buds and stomach for strong digestion. Using flavors to enhance appetite and reduce impurities protects vitality. 

Umami Miso Soup

The umami flavor, often described as rich and meaty, builds vitality from inside-out, from the sea to the land. The deeply satisfying comfort food flavor comes from digitata kelp, shiitake, mirin, ginger, miso and naturally fermented soy sauce.

Ingredients

1 strip digitata kelp or kombu

3-4 dried shiitake mushrooms

Oshawa Shoyu

Mirin

Thyme fresh or dried

Ginger

2 garlic cloves

3 carrots

2 parsnips

4 sunchokes

1 small celery root

1 daikon radish to taste

4 -5 shiitake mushrooms

1 butternut or Hubbard squash

Kale

Parsley

Coconut oil

Miso

Scallions

Lemon zest

Gomasio (optional)

Nori seaweed (optional)

Feel free to substitute vegetables that are available; build up the taste with seaweed, mushrooms, root vegetables, winter squash, green leafy vegetables and taste adjusting condiments. The combination offers the energy potential Qi we have from ocean and land. 

Our Maine laminaria digitata kelp is similar to Asian kombu. Dried digitata expands when wet. It is a strong source of potassium and iodine, which means that people with hypertension taking ACE inhibitor drugs or thyroid medicine should avoid it or use it with caution. Pregnant women should limit its use. According to www.theseaweedman.com “It is deep growing, it prefers turbulent water, and it preserves its own nature in a world of pests. This plant dries strong and dark, and it has a natural sweet smell.” It’s stimulating nature is good for winter cooking. 

Miso paste, in use in Japan since 1200AD, has a great health benefit as it is rich in essential minerals and a good source of various B vitamins, vitamins E, K and folic acid. Miso is fermented, full of probiotic, good-for-you food, which provides the gut with beneficial bacteria that help us to stay healthy.

Directions

In a soup pot warm approx. 2 quarts water

Soften a 3- 6 inch piece of dried digitata, then cut into half inch pieces and add it to the pot. Add sliced ginger and peeled garlic cloves. Add 3 – 4 dried shiitake. When hydrated, remove the shiitake and slice into thin strips and add them back to the pot. Add fresh thyme and shoyu to taste. Some prefer using Oshawa Shoyu for its mild flavor. It is made with Japanese spring water from a Japanese mountain village called Kamiizumi "God Spring."

While the stock is simmering, cut up the root vegetables. For phlegmy conditions add more daikon and ginger to warm digestion and circulation. For weakness with diarrhea or shortness of breath, peel and slice a lotus root. Add the hardest roots to the stock to cook longer. Then add pieces of the winter squash for a sweet rich flavor that supports Stomach and Spleen Qi. If you want to add fresh shiitake sauté them in coconut oil and a little mirin, a sweet Japanese wine. Do not overcook the soup. 

When the root vegetables are ready to eat, turn off the heat and steam chopped greens such as kale, chard or spinach in the soup. 

Dissolve miso paste in a little cool stock and add it after the heat is turned off. Never cook miso because it is a live ferment that provides probiotics. As it warms in the soup stock the ferment enhances flavor and digestion.

Choose the miso according to your personal needs and the season.

- Milder white or yellow miso, aged up to a year, are more often used in hot weather and heavy red miso suits cold temperatures.

- White miso, (shiro miso) made from fermented soybeans and rice, is the mildest and is fermented for the shortest time. That makes it versatile enough for use in salad dressings, soups and light marinades.

- Yellow miso, (shinsu miso) made with fermented soybeans and barley is stronger than the white, but not as strong tasting as red miso. Yellow miso has a light brown color and is useful for soups, dressings and glazes.

- Red miso (aka miso) has a strong salty flavor and stimulating effect. It is made with fermented soybeans and barley or another grain. Use a small amount at first to test the taste.

Cover the soup after adding miso allowing it to further ferment for 15 minutes. 

You can garnish the soup with lemon zest or chopped scallions. It goes nicely with brown rice or soba noodles for a hearty winter meal. 

Five Minute Miso Soba

Are you in a hurry? Enjoy miso’s satisfying taste and health benefits. Cook soba noodles to al-dente. Set aside enough soba cooking water to make the sauce. When the cooking water is cool enough, add miso for flavor. Toss the soba noodles (or whole grain pasta) with the miso sauce and sautéed shallots. Serve with freshly ground black pepper and fresh herbs. 

Protect Yourself From the Cold

Stay safe in cold/flu season by wearing a hat, neck scarf and sensible shoes. To protect against germs, wear gloves when using public transportation, wash hands with a mild protective cleanser. Add two drops of anti-bacterial, anti-viral, antifungal tea tree oil when hand washing. Keep your lungs more moist to loosen thick phlegm by using a humidifier. If you have it, add a few drops of food grade hydrogen peroxide to the steam water. Or on the stove simmer in water and inhale pungent herbs that have antibiotic properties such as marjoram, oregano and thyme. Protect your deep line of defense with fermented foods: Our healthy bacteria live in the gut and help us to thrive.