To speed recovery and help fight off colds, get your winter veggies. Here's how.

By Yishane Lee

PUBLISHED 11/27/2007

After a summer of fresh tomatoes, string beans, and eggplant, trying to make a tasty, nutritious meal out of winter vegetables can be as daunting as gearing up for a run in a blizzard. Luckily, Mother Nature provides a colorful spot on this gray landscape: the reds, oranges, yellows, and greens of winter squash.

These hard gourd vegetables may look like table decorations, but any of the many varieties--such as pumpkin, butternut, acorn, and the lesser-known spaghetti, turban, and banana--provide impressive amounts of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. They're simple to prepare, and their status as "nutritional superstores" makes them an ideal postrun food, says Suzanne Girard Eberle, R.D., a sports dietitian in Portland, Oregon, and the author of Endurance Sports Nutrition. A bowl of acorn soup or a dish of butternut mash after a chilly five-miler will help you warm up, rehydrate, and guard against infection. Winter squash is also low in calories (100 per cup) and satisfying to eat. "After a run in 30°F conditions," says Eberle, the 1985 5000-meter USA Track & Field champion, "it's nice to come home to a warm and healthy dish."


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