Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Fall has arrived here in Michigan! For the past two days it has been rainy, windy, and cold! I was scrambling this morning to find pants, sweatshirts, and yes...coats!...for my children as they were preparing for their day at school. All this scrambling and listening to complaints about how cold everyone was got me thinking about other things that need to happen as the seasons change.

Have you ever noticed that you crave salads in the summer but never seem to want to touch them in the winter? As soon as cool weather arrives, are you suddenly reaching for hot teas and preparing soups and warm, heavy casseroles? I do! Yesterday, I ate soup twice! Just as the seasons change, and we adjust our wardrobes from flip flops to closed toe shoes, tank tops to fleece jackets, and shorts to long pants, we also need to adjust what we feed our bodies!

Eating seasonally can be a very rewarding and economical choice. As the temperature outside changes, our bodies begin to prepare for winter as well. We need to maintain body temperature, feel grounded and warm inside. This can be accomplished simply by choosing the right foods! A salad full of cool, crisp salad green and raw vegetables is the perfect remedy to cool an overheated body in the summer. However, if you eat that in the winter on a regular basis, you will likely find yourself feeling cold all the time! A soup full of root vegetables that grow grounded in the earth, mixed with a warm comforting broth or a warm whole grain pasta dish with sauteed autumn vegetables would be a much better choice to help you maintain a feeling of warmth during these cold months of winter.

On the economical side, eating fruits and vegetables that are in season, and local, is much less expensive and practical than purchasing food items that grow in warm climates and ship halfway across the world ($$$$$) for us to indulge in during a time our body may not want, need or crave them. If nature intended us to eat mangos in Michigan in December, it would provide us with a mango tree that could sustain a harsh winter and still bear fruit! Sure eating some fruits, berries and out of season, warm weather vegetables is OK on occasion. Feeding our bodies food that can create warmth, energy, and a feeling of stability and groundedness is a much better choice physically, emotionally and financially for those of us who have to contend with months and months of cold weather!!

So give eating seasonally a try! Instead of eating a bowl of refined grain cereal with cold milk tomorrow, try having a bowl of warm, grounding, energy sustaining whole grain steel cut oats mixed with protein power packed walnuts, drizzled with a little agave nectar to start your day off warm and keep your mind and energy going strong throughout the day!

2 comments:

Kirsetin Morello said...

I love steel cut oats, but I must admit I like mine with brown sugar. :)

Sheila said...

I must admit I've never been one for hot cereal in the morning--but I'm totally with you for the in-season fruits and vegetables!

I just love tomatoes this time of year. I make salsa, I freeze them, we have tons of pasta, I find ways to throw them into everything. It just tastes so much better!

And buying them fresh from the grocery store doesn't cut it. You have to get them from a farmer who has picked them that morning!

It's so much more nutritious, isn't it?

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