This article originally appeared on Yoganonymous.com.

In the wintertime, the bitter air can feel sharp against your lungs.

The air is dry, your breathing becomes heavy, and often times we develop a small chronic cough that carries itself with us through the entirety of winter. So, what do you do when you develop prolonged flu-like symptoms?

5 Ways to Keep Your Lungs Healthy This Winter

1. Hit the steam room

If you are coughing and wheezing, it’s time to bring some fresh life into your lungs! Hit the steam room to bring in added moisture, and do some deep yogic breathing to refresh the air in the lungs from top to bottom. The added moisture being brought into your body will help nurture your lung health, and will help bring your lungs back into a state of equilibrium.

2. Eat leafy greens

The function of leaves in trees has the same function as lungs in our body. So, when we consume green juice and it is packed with antioxidants, it actually gives our lungs and cardiovascular system a healthy boost. The greens bring oxygen straight to our lungs, and helps store a baseline of antioxidants in our system, helping to alkalize our body (which keeps it in an optimally healthy state). 

3. Reach for maple water

Going back to the tree analogy, if sap is the blood of the tree, then maple water will help increase blood health. Maple water helps send oxygen straight to the blood stream, and allows the body to work less for the same results as drinking conventional water.

4. Reach for perennial foods

Perennial foods come from plants that have been alive for years. These plants live throughout all seasons of the year, and help bring in certain nutrients that help us sustain ourselves during the winter months.

Great examples of perennial foods are: Pine needle tea, ginseng root, chaga mushroom, ginko leaf, and ho shu wu.

5. Reach for healthy fats

When it’s cold outside, you need an extra protective layer of oil on your lungs to keep them protected from the harsh winter conditions. Reach for nut butters, avocados, cold-pressed olive oil, and almond oil.

Not only do these raw rats buffer and coat our lungs, but they also rejuvenate our skin, and internal organs from the inside out.

*This article is based on the ancient sciences behind raw nutrition.