There’s something quite romantic about winter days. The chilling air blowing gusty, ice-laden winds upon your skin. Wrapping up in scarves, jumpers and hoodies as we dash from heater to heater and from home to car. At night, we comfort ourselves with stews, soups and roast dinners, warming our hands with hot coffee cups and warm pastries. A British winter is both picturesque and testing at the same time. While the lack of light tries our willpower to make it out of bed in time for our 7am spin class, winter brings with it a whole host of tribulations for our immune system to cope with.
Bleak winter
Colds, flu and sickness bugs begin to rear their ugly viral bodies as soon as October hits. It’s almost as if the cooler temperatures signal an influx of pathogens to become active, spreading into the air, transporting themselves via the blustery winds directly into our bodies with the full-force of the changing weather patterns. The bleakness of winter can catch us all off-guard, with many of us falling prey to the harsh trappings of cooler, darker days.
Our bodies are fighting for us, defending us and supporting us constantly. Just to give you an idea of the scale to which our cells miraculously protect us, it is estimated that we battle over one thousand harmful bacteria and viruses each day. This constant war waging between our environment and our body requires a large quantity of energy and resources to fuel it. It comes as no surprise that as winter begins to draw in, the darker days start to deplete our energy reserves and we begin to eat slightly differently, with less of an emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables.