A few weeks back, I posted about replacing your vitamin C bottles with berries. If you’re looking for an added layer of protection against illness in the dead of winter, grab some squash, too. From whfoods.com:

Winter squash is one of the richest sources of plant based anti-inflammatory nutrients such as omega 3s and beta-carotene, which are important for a strong immune system to help protect against colds and flu.

You’ve been following the blog for a while, so you likely remember that I sliced grains from my habitual eating. I’ve mostly replaced them with additional sweet potatoes and yams; I’ve been eating two monster spuds daily. I don’t really tire of foods, but it’s nice to have an alternative if I need one.

The other day, my tremendously thoughtful ex-wife, Lisa, prepared an acorn squash for me. The sweetness was exquisite, the texture divine.  Most folks don’t know that you can eat the whole thing, skin and all. If baked correctly, the outer layer gets crisp and crunchy providing a splendid contrast to the starchy flesh of the veggie. In about six bites, I took down the entire beast. From everydayhealth.com:

When preparing squash, most people would opt to simply eat the flesh of this superfood. Newgent says that means missing out on vital antioxidants: Acorn squash skin provides an array of phytonutrient benefits plus fiber.

Acorn isn’t the only variety of squash in my house. I’ve got some butternut joints hanging around in my kitchen as well. A drizzle of olive oil, some coarse sea salt and into the oven they go for roughly 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Simple and ridiculously healthy. Buy the organic variety of this veggie whenever possible. It’s better for your system and our soil:

Winter squash is a vegetable that might be especially important for us to purchase organic. Recent agricultural trials have shown that winter squash can be an effective intercrop for use in remediation of contaminated soils. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including pyrene, fluoranthene, chrysene, benzo(a)anthracene and benzo(a)pyrene are unwanted contaminants. PAHs are among the contaminants that can be effectively pulled up out of the soil by winter squash plants. When winter squash is planted as a food crop (as opposed to a non-food crop that is being planted between food crop seasons to help improve soil quality), the farmer’s goal is definitely not to transfer soil contaminants like PAHs up into the food. But some of that transfer seems likely to happen, given the effectiveness of winter squash in mobilizing contaminants like PAHs from the soil. For this reason, you may want to make a special point of purchasing certified organic winter squash. Soils used for the growing of in certified organic foods are far less likely to contain undesirable levels of contaminants like PAHs.

Speaking of seed planting and growing, when I was a young lad living in Reseda, CA, I used to tell my folks, “I want to write about winter squash when I grow up.”

Yup, just like I drew it up.

Kap