For centuries, our ancestors as well as ancient Chinese herbal doctors have followed a diet of the seasons. Our body will adjust to our climate and does naturally desire what it needs nutritionally based on the time of the year it is. If you don’t tend to crave fruits or vegetables in season, something is not in balance. This will catch up with you eventually in the form of digestive disorders and degenerative diseases. Eat what is harvested locally in the present season, align yourself with nature and keep your body healthy.
In today's world, it is so easy to have what ever you want, when ever you want it. Beneficial? Not necessarily. Ultimately, you are likely to pay a higher price for far inferior nutritional content when it is out of season. The longer the produce sits since harvesting and in transportation, the more nutritionally depleted it becomes. Other countries have different regulations when it comes to the use of pesticides, so this is also something to consider. With the availability of foods year round, many of us get stuck in a rut, eating the same foods over and over again. Eating seasonally brings us back to our roots, back to a simpler time when we ate what we had, and what we had came from a local farm. Eating local crops in season has a many benefits for your health, as well as perks for your local community, the economy and the environment.
Here are some guidelines to help you achieve optimal nutrition in every season:
Green leafy vegetables such as Swiss chard, spinach, romaine and parsley are typical in early spring. Asparagus is also in season. These leafy greens help to flush the body (especially the liver) of the winter “sludge” that has accumulated. Greens also help to alkalize the body. A diet high in alkaline foods helps a body to avoid cancer, autoimmune disease and osteoporosis to name a few.
Light, cooling foods benefit the body during the hot summer months. Raw fruits and vegetables provide the body with living enzymes, oxygen, potent vitamins and fiber. Cucumbers, tomato, berries, cherries, summer squash, basil, mint and so many more are in abundance and should be taken full advantage of. These highly nutritious, low calorie foods will heal and cool the body.
Autumn brings a bountiful harvest of heavier warming foods. Carrots, apples, sweet potato, onions, cabbage, winter squash are soothing to the soul when there is a chill in the air. Peppercorn, ginger and mustard seed are warming spices that the body appreciates this time of the year.
The body tends to crave warm foods in the winter months. Foods that take longer to grow are generally more warming foods. Potato, carrots, parsnips, beets and winter cabbage Nuts are warming as well.
Even meat has a season. Chicken is best harvested in early summer. It means that the birds can be raised on pasture and allowed plenty of sunshine and natural protien. This all makes the meat higher in Omega 3s. Pork is healthiest raised all summer on pasture and out doors as
One of the greatest benefits to consuming pasture-raised pork is its vitamin D content. Much like humans, hogs synthesize vitamin D through their skin which means that their fat can be a very rich source of natural vitamin D. If the hogs aren't given adequate access to sunlight, as is the case with most conventionally raised animals, they cannot synthesize vitamin D. Hogs raised in the winter simply can not get enough sunlight.
Beef cows that have been on pasture all summer are lower in fat and higher in Omega 3s. First of all, grassfed products tend to be much lower in total fat than grainfed products. For example, a sirloin steak from a grassfed steer has about one half to one third the amount of fat as a similar cut from a grainfed steer.
Fat has 9 calories per gram, compared with only 4 calories for protein and carbohydrates. The greater the fat content, the greater the number of calories. A 6-ounce steak from a grass-finished steer has almost 100 fewer calories than a 6-ounce steak from a grainfed steer. Although grassfed meat is low in "bad" fat (including saturated fat), it gives you from two to six times more of a type of "good" fat called "omega-3 fatty acids." This means that purchseing your beef in the fall, when the cows have just come off of pasture is the best nutritional choice.
Cheese made from the milk of grassfed cows is more than four times richer in conjugated linoleic acid—a cancer-fighting, fat-reducing fat—than cheese from standard, grain-fed cows.
This means cheese made from spring and summer milk is far richer in nutrients than cheese made during the winter months when cows do not have fresh green grass.
Butter made in the spring and summer is superior to winter butter as living grass is richer in vitamins E, A, and beta-carotene than stored hay or standard dairy diets, butter from dairy cows grazing on fresh pasture is also richer in these important nutrients. The naturally golden color of grassfed butter is a clear indication of its superior nutritional value.
To find out what’s harvested seasonally in your area, go to localharvest.org. This will also lead you to growers in your area that adhere to strict guidelines when growing your food.
Whatever you do, don’t fall into the rut of the same foods year round. Reap the nutritional benefits by enjoying a variety of locally grown foods. Be creative, try new things.
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