Fighting Colds with Vitamin C & CA Strawberries + A Giveaway!

Thank you to my friends at California Strawberries for sponsoring this post and hosting a giveaway (click here to enter) for a fitness gift pack valued at $150!

It’s officially winter. Much of the country is deep into hot cocoa, snowmen, earmuffs, foot warmers, slushy marathon training, skiing, lazy Saturday nights watching movies, and unfortunately, colds and flu.

How can you keep from getting sick this winter? Since Linus Pauling came out with his landmark paper, Vitamin C and the Common Cold, people have been lauding the immune-boosting power of vitamin C. In 2013, we learned even more about who benefits the most.

Vitamin C is a well-known antioxidant and vitamin used to maintain bones, muscles and blood vessels, build collagen, and absorb dietary iron. It’s water-soluble, which means your body uses what it can and excretes the rest. You don’t make or store any vitamin C, so you need to get it consistently from your diet.

If you’re an extreme athlete, vitamin C-rich foods are an incredible immune-booster. In clinical trials, vitamin C halved the risk of the common cold in athletes like marathon runners and skiers. Long bouts of strenuous exercise temporarily depress the immune system for about 3-24 hours after exercise, depending on intensity and duration. Athletes doing moderate to high intensity exercise on an empty stomach for more than 1.5 hours have the most pronounced immune dysfunction. This decrease in immune function may make athletes more susceptible to common illnesses like colds.

In adults, regularly taking 1-2 grams of vitamin C per day (strawberries have about 60mg of vitamin C per serving) shortens the duration of a cold by 8% (about 1 day), and in kids, it cuts it by 14%. When you have a cold, cutting it short by even one day is a huge relief, but that relief is magnified when it comes to a sick child.

California Strawberries Are a Great Source of Dietary Vitamin C!

• One serving – about eight medium strawberries or one cup – has just 45 calories and more vitamin C than an orange
• They’re grown and available year-round, so you can enjoy them fresh every day
• You can add strawberries to almost anything:
  • Try 3 Ingredient Strawberry Banana Popsicles for sore throats
  • Blend them in smoothies or stir into yogurt, oatmeal, and pancake batter
  • Sprinkle strawberries on a salad and stack in a grilled chicken sandwich
  • Toast frozen waffles and top with nut butter and sliced strawberries for breakfast on the go

A Recipe for Chocolate Fondue with California Strawberries

Since it’s winter, and extreme athletes are often skiing or running in the snow, and kids are coming back in the house freezing from building snowmen, I thought you’d enjoy a warm, cozy recipe. Fondue is easy to make and requires family and friends to gather together in order to eat it. It’s a throwback dessert with a built-in family meal mechanism.

Adapted from Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts

6-8 servings

Ingredients:

• 16 ounces milk chocolate
• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
• 3/4 cup half and half

Directions:

• Coarsely chop the chocolate and place it in a small saucepan. Cover with the cream.
• Warm over low heat, stirring frequently until smooth and melted.
• The mixture should be thick, but if it’s too thick, add a little more warm cream. Transfer to a fondue pot.*
• Serve with California strawberries, clementine sections, pretzels, graham crackers, bananas, dried apricots, and marshmallows.

*If you don’t have a fondue pot, use a serving bowl and microwave or warm the chocolate on the stove every 20 minutes or so when it cools.

THE GIVEAWAY!

To help you stay healthy in the new year, California Strawberries is giving away a $150 fitness gift pack. Click here for a chance to win! (When the link opens, scroll to the bottom of the page)