During the winter you need to protect yourself from winter’s flu, colds and bugs. Smoothies and juices, traditionally thought of as summer fare, are the ideal way to boost the immune system and help to ensure a healthy body through the winter months.

They are also a delicious way of taking in nutrients and can be an enjoyable and satisfying way to start the day or beat that midafternoon energy slump.

Basing juices and smoothies on winter fruits and vegetables – roots such as beetroot and carrots; green kale or cabbage; warming orange fruits like mango; and autumn berries from your freezer including blackberries – ensures that these delicious drinks are nutrient-packed and stops them from being too ‘cool’ a drink for colder days.

With every fruit and vegetable containing myriad vitamins, minerals and nutrients, smoothies and juices abound with immuneboosting, strengthening, disease-fighting goodness. A glass of carrot juice or a mango smoothie, for example, is full of the antioxidant betacarotene, the precursor to vitamin A. Also, if you are up for juicing green vegetables – you would be hardpressed to find a drink more bonestrengthening – rich in calcium and magnesium.

Juices and smoothies (especially using bright coloured berries and deep orange fruit and veg) are bouncing with immune-boosting antioxidants, which help keep colds and flu at bay and protect the skin from pollution and signs of ageing. These help to ward off many degenerative diseases and are invaluable after exercise to help the body repair itself.

Fruit and vegetables are also rich in phytochemicals, the natural substances it is believed help ward off cancer.

Juices and smoothies are also all about enzymes, which are vital for our good health. These are found in raw fruit and veg, and are depleted when food is cooked. Essential for giving energy too, they ensure that all the necessary bodily chemical reactions for good health – digestion, cell repair and brain function – do actually take place.

Green juices (spinach, celery, cucumber) or green smoothies abound with chlorophyll, the substance that makes plants green. Chlorophyll is great for humans too, as it increases the flow of oxygen to all parts of the body, enhances energy, aids digestion and works as an antioxidant.

“Green juices are particularly important because they are high in protein and are alkalising for the body,” says Jill Swyers, a living foods health educator.

Of course, whole fruits and vegetables are full of healthful properties but, as Jill explains, “When you drink vegetable juices, the body absorbs a high level of nutrients and enzymes in one go.” (There are only so many carrots or apples one can eat in a day, but you can consume up to 10 carrots in a glass of carrot juice.)

“Another benefit of juicing,” she continues, “is that the nutrients are more readily available to be assimilated by the body, which means they are absorbed into the bloodstream faster than from the whole fruit or vegetable.”

This is because juicing beaks down the cell wall of the fruit or vegetable – in effect, it predigests the food for you!

Making economic sense

Creating smoothies and juices may seem like a bit of an expense, yet compared to buying large cartons or mini bottles of either, it is far more economical.

To inspire you to keep this healthy habit going, here are some useful cost-saving tips and a selection of delicious recipes to try.

Bulk buy

Ask your greengrocer if you can buy a whole box of carrots or cucumbers at a discounted price. Local organic box deliveries are another cost-effective way of buying supplies super-fresh and organic. The Organic Delivery Company (www.organicdelivery. co.uk ) does special juicing boxes (such as its Juicing Mixed Box which contains a week’s supply of pears, apples, carrots and broccoli).

Honour the seasons

Buying raspberries in the middle of winter will make it an expensive smoothie. Also, out-of-season fruit and veg are not as flavoursome or nutritious as in-season varieties.

Stock up on seasonal gluts

Buy when cheap (summer berries during the warm months and watercress during the autumn, for example), divide into portion sizes and freeze. Frozen supplies work best in smoothies: simply put frozen fruits, herbs or greens into the blender with some juice. This method makes the drinks frothier, so children really love them!

Buy ready frozen

Look in the freezer cabinets of your local supermarket or health food shop. You will often find big bags of frozen (sometimes organic) berries, broccoli and tropical fruits, at prices far lower than if you bought fresh.

Join a food co-operative These allow you to buy (often organic foods) at wholesale prices. The True Food Co-op (www. truefood.coop) holds markets in many towns. Alternatively, get a bunch of juicing friends together and start your own group. Marissa-Catherine Carrarini is a freelance writer specialising in health, nutrition and eco-living. She is also a naturopathic nutritionist. Jill Swyers is a ‘living foods’ health educator; for more information, visit www.jillswyers.com

Fibre tip

Juicing takes away valuable fibre from fruit and veg, so it is important that it does not replace eating whole fresh fruits and vegetables, but is thought of as an addition to healthy eating. With smoothies, the fibre of most of the ingredients goes into the glass. So, if you have more than one fresh drink in the day, make sure at least one of them is a smoothie.

Plus points

• To ring the changes, there are plenty of other ingredients you can add to your drinks to maximise their nutritional value and flavour:
• Ginger is great with carrot, apple, pear or beetroot juices; this potent root is a wonderful cold cure and stomach-easer.
• Aloe vera juice is fantastically soothing and cleansing for unsettled stomachs in general, and a daily dose of aloe helps towards a beautiful complexion and bountiful energy.
• Spirulina or Sun chorella added to a juice or smoothie provides extra green, chlorophyll potency. They may not taste that great – but they are easily masked by the flavour of the drink and are extremely rich in betacarotenes, amino acids (the building blocks of protein), chlorophyll and calcium. (To order spirulina or Sun chorella, visit www.snowsfields.co.uk )
• Herbs are incredibly nutritious as well as therapeutic, and adding a bunch of parsley to your drink will give it a subtle, light, aromatic taste and an extra boost of immune-enhancing vitamin C.
• For a creamy, nutty taste and to make smoothies more substantial, add hemp powder or even almond nut butter to tropical-tasting or milk-based smoothies. This will give them a protein boost. As they are rich in skinsoftening, heart-protecting essential fatty acids, adding healthy oils increases the absorption of vitamin E and betacarotene.