A Winter Way Of Eating

The New England winter climate is mostly cold and dry. Just as the trees and plants around us have dried, we may experience the dryness of our own skin and lips as well as a drop in our body temperature.

As things change externally, our inner body changes in a similar manner and we must care for our bodies accordingly.

Foods For Winter

*  Since winter is cold and dry we need to avoid similar food to maintain warmth and moisture within.
*  Warm, home-cooked foods are ideal, cooked with easy-to-digest oils such as ghee (clarified butter) or olive oil, but not deep-fried.
*  Use cooking methods such as steaming, roasting, stir-frying or poaching in order to heat the food all the way through.
*  Avoid raw foods, which are cold in nature such as salads, cold fruits, ice (especially in drinks), ice cream and raw vegetables as these tend to cool the body.
*  Incorporate foods that create moisture and warmth. Minimize the consumption of crackers, rice cakes and breads, as they are very dry.

Flavor

*  The flavors that nourish and balance the body in the cold, dry, winter season are the sweet, sour and salty tastes. It's best to eat less of the astringent, bitter, and pungent flavors in winter, although all six tastes should be included in your diet.
*  From the less ‘favored’ flavors use ginger (unless you run both an extremely hot body temperature and a hot temper) and radish for pungent to keep warm, enjoy leafy greens and dandelion root for bitter, and cranberry or apple for the astringent flavor to aid detoxification during these months.
*  Root vegetables and grains will provide the sweet flavor. Refined sugars will create more harm than good.
*  For salty flavor reach for small amounts of high quality sea salt and an abundance of sea vegetables.

Food Suggestions


*  Warm hearty soups, healthy lean meat and root vegetable stews, whole grains, and roasted nuts.
*  Cereals, grains, and legumes: brown rice, oatmeal, millet, soybeans, and mung beans.
*  Meat, poultry and fish.
*  Nuts (avoid in excess if you have a lean or lanky body combined with a quick and restless mind.)
*  Root vegetables such as yams, sweet potatoes, yucca, potatoes, beets, turnips, ginger, ginseng, taro, burdock, carrots, parsnips, as well as, fennel, onions, chives, scallions, garlic and leeks.
*  Herbs, spices, condiments and oils: peppermint, basil, ginger, turmeric, parsley, gogi berries, licorice, cinnamon, cloves, chamomile, pepper, honey, and sesame oil.
*  Fruits and nuts: (at room temperature) apples, clementines, cranberries, red grapes, grapefruit, persimmons, dates, figs as well as lemons and limes.
*  If eating dairy (choose organic products!) avoid having them cold. Using ghee (clarified butter) is a great butter substitute.
*  Hydrate! Hot water and room temperature only. If drinking with a meal, sip hot water slowly.
*  The salty taste is attributed to the kidney and bladder, so by adding some salty foods in your diet during winter you can improve the function of these two organs. In Chinese medicine these are the meridians/organs governed by the water element that can be most affected by the dryness of the season. Incorporate some of the following foods to support the kidney and bladder function in winter: burdock root, eggs, fish, miso soup, nuts, tofu, and sea vegetables (such as arame, hijiki, kelp, kombu and wakame.)
*  This is not the season to be eating a fat-free salad and cracker diet. Play with steaming or roasting vegetables for salads and if eating things like toast for breakfast, spread a thin layer of ghee or butter on top.
*  To promote consistency, regularity and a sense of calm it is important in winter to keep a regular routine with your meals.

Pass The Salt: A Source To Winter Health & Iodine

Iodized Table Salt

With cooling weather, falling leaves animals preparing for hibernation, plants retreating underground and darkness arriving earlier, nature has begun its preparation for winter.

Meanwhile inside, in the comfort of my own kitchen, the salt shaker has made a reappearance on the dinner table...

Salt carries a contractive/grounding energy that coincides with the ‘downward and inward’ natural direction of the season. As the body redirects its energy for the winter, small amounts of high quality salt can be supportive for winter health.

Not all salts are created equally.

The salt we are most commonly consume is iodized table salt. This salt is a commercially refined table salt that has been heated to such high temperatures that the chemical structure of the salt has mutated from its natural state. It is chemically cleaned, bleached, and treated with anti-caking agents. (That’s why it pours so easily.) Common anti-caking agents used in the mass production of salt are sodium alumino-silicate and alumino-calcium silicate. Both are sources of aluminum, a heavy metal that has been suspected to contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Himalayan Pink Salt

Celtic Sea Salt

During the refining of table salt, mined natural sea salt or rock salt is stripped of more than 60 trace minerals and essential macro-nutrients. Refined salt is similar to refined sugar in the sense that they have both been stripped of their nutrients and are concentrated to a degree that throws the body off balance.

To avoid refined salt, minimize the consumption of processed foods (especially soups and microwave dinners), many of which are extremely high in refined salt which is added as a preservative. Furthermore, forget about the salt shakers at most restaurants and switch the salt you cook with at home.
 
The best salts to purchase are sea salt. There are many on the market, from plain old sea salt to fleur de sel, gray french sea salt, and Hawaiian sea salt. Many are coarse, but you can grind them to make them fine.

Using a coarse salt, you will most likely need to use less of it to reach your desired flavor. It is best to add salt at the end of the cooking process to maintain its mineral contents as well as to minimize the amount needed.

I most commonly use Himalayan pink salt, considered the highest grade of natural salt; it contains 84 elements and helps your body maintain a healthy electrolyte balance. You can even add a pinch to filtered water, along with the juice of a lemon, for a natural sports energy drink post-workout.

Natural sea salts promote health  and can aid your body in maintaining normal blood pressure. [Click here for more information on different salts.]

The importance of Iodine:
Refined salt is usually fortified with iodine, which is responsible for many of the body’s health functions including thyroid support (iodine is needed for under active or hypothyroid), fighting infection, and helping the body fend off cancer and mood instability. Severe lack of iodine causes goiter (swelling of the thyroid in the neck), a result of the thyroid gland swelling.

Iodine deficiency can show up in the body as fatigue, foggy thinking, cold hands and feet, dry skin, thin hair, and constipation. If you suspect you might be deficient, ask you doctor to run the 24 hour urinary iodine load test or click here for Dr. Douillard’s mail in test

Natural Sources of Iodine:
We do not get enough iodine from high quality sea salt since much of it is lost during packaging and transportation of the product. However there is no need to seek out iodine artificially as an additive. Be sure to incorporate natural sources of iodine from the following foods:

1. Sea Veggies: the number one source of iodine in food, kelp is the superstar (also available in capsules for a more vigorous treatment).
 
2. Fish: Pacific cod, Atlantic sea bass, black perch and Atlantic haddock are fish high in iodine.
 
3. Animal Foods: Animal foods such as turkey, chicken, high quality dairy and eggs are a decent source.
 
4. Other: Baked potatoes with skin and legumes can contain some iodine.

Sea Vegetables

No food group serves as a better iodine source than sea vegetables. The estimated amount of iodine needed by an adult each day is 150 mcg (micrograms). Depending upon the specific type of sea vegetable, this guideline can be met by 1 teaspoon. A gram of iodized table salt typically contains about 65 micrograms of iodine, whereas kelp contains 100-200 mcg, dulse contains 150- 300 mcg, and wakame contains 79 mcg.  

Kelp is particularly interesting with respect to iodine because some studies suggest that up to 35% of the iodine contained in some varieties of kelp is actually stored in the same forms in which iodine is found in our thyroid hormones.


Simple ways to add iodine to your diet, purchase kelp or dulse shakers and sprinkle on a warm dinner meal or over a salad. Click here to see what seasonings you can purchase at most health food stores.

Further more, click here to discover all different sea vegetables available at health food stores with explanations of how to best use them along with a variety of recipes individualized for each product.


In addition to iodine, sea vegetables (or seaweeds) provide a wide and abundant variety of minerals and vitamins, including calcium and iron, and can help balance hormone and thyroid levels in the body.



Studies have documented sea vegetables to reduce blood cholesterol, remove metallic and radioactive elements from the body, counteract obesity, strengthen bones and teeth, aid nerve transmission, improve digestion, and soften hard masses and tumors.
Eating too many processed foods or foods grown in mineral-depleted soil can result in a lack of minerals in the body, leading to cravings for salty or sugary foods. Adding sea vegetables to your diet can help balance your energy levels and alleviate cravings.

HOW You Cook Affects How You Feel

Mom knows best. As the seasons change, so do the vegetables that Mother Nature provides. With the cooling temperatures of Fall, the vegetables we harvest are ones of a more grounding and warming nature.

When we eat right, the type of food we eat medicinally creates health and balance in our body.  Similarly, varying our cooking methods will do the same.

The way we prepare our food plays a role in the effect it has on our body. In the Fall and Winter it is best to cook our meals on a lower heat for a longer period of time. This releases the more warming quality of our food and provides a settling effect that in turn helps internalize our focus.

Baked foods, sautéed foods, heartier foods, and root vegetables all contribute towards the thickening of the blood. When living in a cold climate, it is necessary for the blood to thicken as the weather grows colder.

Different methods and temperatures of cooking will also help balance out our personality. Since slower cooking methods are more grounding, it makes sense that rapidly cooked foods will have a more activating yet relaxing effect, suitable for the more stagnant and tense individual.
A more harmoniously sweet flavor, cooked undisturbed on a low heat for a longer period of time will have a more calming effect for the angry or impatient person.

The more pressure, salt, oil, time and heat that is used, the more concentrated the food will be. Concentrated foods provide the warmth needed for weaker constitutions that have lost interest in food or life.

When cooking, mindfully engaging with our food by pureeing, mashing, tossing, stirring, or kneading will help energize the food.  

Cooking is the highest of art forms; when it is complete, you ingest your artwork and it becomes you and all those you feed.

It is helpful to be aware of your intentions. The state of the cook affects the state of the food. One can often taste the richness of a meal made and presented with attentiveness and love. Similarly so, a meal prepared in anger imparts anger. Respect what you are doing no matter how simple the preparation.

The foods you eat today prepare you for tomorrow. If feeling melancholy, bake something sweet like winter squash or yams with sweet spices such as cinnamon. Similarly, add some lemon zest to your dressings to add zest to your day. Become creative. At social functions, eating lighter, sweeter foods will help you be more sociable. When studying, simple concentrated foods will help your focus.

Be intuitive. Let the colors, flavors, shapes and smells be your guide.

Choose Living Food

Kirlian photography
captures the energy
field of an apple

As individuals we have the choice of participating in our own health care. We can constantly discover new and healthy ways to nourish ourselves, connecting to our inner source of healing.

We are more than just a physical body. Our body has an energy field of life force pulsing within and around it. Food gives us life so we need to eat foods that contain life as well. When we eat, we nourish ourselves to maintain our ‘life source,’ known in the East as Chi or Prana. When choosing food it is helpful to ask yourself the question “How close is this food to its original source of life?” In other words, how many processes has it passed through since it was harvested from a field? The more processed the food is, the less Prana, life force, it contains.

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• A vegetable picked today is more nutritious than a vegetable picked months ago, as it is still filled with the life soaked up from the earth and the sun. A freshly cooked vegetable has more life energy then a canned vegetable, as it has avoided factory processing.

• However, a canned vegetable has far more life energy than a box of mac & cheese. Processed foods contain little or no energy. In fact they can cause more harm than good. 

• Whole grains are closer to their natural state then processed grains. For example brown rice is what white rice was prior to processing; therefore it is closer to the original state of growing in the fields.
• Whole grain products do not equal whole grains. A bowl of oatmeal or high quality granola is less processed and therefore contains more life than a box of “whole grain cereal.” Whole grain cereals may be made from whole grains but they are no longer whole grains. As a processed product, they act more like sugar in the body rather than like grain.
• Organic has more life energy than conventional, providing a higher content of vitamins and minerals due to factors such as the soil that is used.

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Locally Grown Food

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For those of us living locally in New England we are fortunate enough to enjoy the seasonal pleasures of local produce at the farmers markets. The selection at a farmers market is usually picked the same day, versus the produce found at a conventional grocery store that is often weeks or months old.  If you have to ship a piece of fruit halfway around the world, it will contain far less vital energy than the fresh fruit you get from the farmer who drove in from the fields that same morning. Keep in mind that the closer to home the food was harvested, the fresher it is. When shopping at a conventional supermarket, look around the produce section; try to find foods that came from your state, or at least your country, not the other side of the globe.

An economical option is to buy lots of fresh food at the peak of its season and freeze, jar, or dry it for later use. Why not freeze your own fresh fruit or broccoli?

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What's Preferable; Local or Organic?

Organic foods imported from other countries will usually be more expensive than those from local farmers. Organic foods that are shipped long distances are also often picked when they are unripe. Since organic standards ban the use of fungicides, this allows the food to be transported long distances without spoiling. When fruits and vegetables are picked before they ripen, they contain fewer vitamins and minerals.

When shopping at a farmers market, you have the opportunity to find out from the farmers which treatments they have used on their crops. Many small farms grow their crops following organic standards, but do not get organically certified because of the cost.

When we eat locally grown foods we help the environment by minimizing the miles of greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide that it takes to get the foods transported. We are doing our part for both our local agriculture and the environment. Plus, it tastes better.  Produce loses flavor on those long journeys.

Breaking The 100 Year Diet Cycle

In modern-day culture, being healthy is commonly associated with dieting.  This is somewhat ironic since most diets leave us starved emotionally or physically. How did we come to believe that struggle and deprivation equal vitality and health?

Delving into the history of dieting, we can discover why diets have not worked well for us and how we continue to get caught up in their cycle.

At the beginning of the 20th century, with the cultural increase in weight gain, our solution was a low-calorie/ low-fat diet. The assumption was that cutting out all fats would resolve our weight issues. Thankfully, the body’s natural intelligence prevented us from starving ourselves to death and we began to experience strong cravings for fat and sugar. Deprived of fuel for energy we craved sugar. The craving for fat was the body's natural attempt to stabilize the erratic blood sugar levels that were being created by a fat-free diet. Furthermore, fat cravings intensified due to the lacking feeling of comfort and fullness that only fat would satisfy.

A severely limited calorie intake led to bingeing on fats and sugars. Contrary to what we believe, cravings and binges are not an indication of being flawed or weak. Binges are extreme responses to measures of restriction at levels that are unsustainable by a healthy human body.

Finding ourselves back in the cycle of fats and sugars, we turned to the high protein diet. This “worked” for a while, but since the body needs carbohydrates to stay balanced, we once again found ourselves bingeing on the carbs.

As a solution, the high carb diet was created. What seemed a well balanced idea, ended up sky-rocketing our cholesterol levels. The result:  the low cholesterol diet was born, bringing back the low-fat diet. And so the cycle continues. Years later these diets have returned altered with modern food supply. Although historically unsuccessful, each of them continues to be heralded as the new greatest diet.  

The restrictive aspect of dieting calls our body to respond in a rebound fashion, craving whatever the diet was lacking. Each diet came to pass as a response to the nutritional imbalance created by the previous diet.

Studies are showing that 98% of the weight lost while dieting is gained back in three to five years. Most commonly within the first year. 

A diet marketed to an entire population has us believe that we are all the same “machine.” The truth is that each person is unique, with different needs based on gender, age, ancestry and lifestyle. Furthermore, diets don’t work because they are extreme solutions. If a pendulum swings to one extreme, it has to swing equally to the opposite side. 

Breaking The Diet Cycle:

    1)     Take things slow: Step out of the extremes and don’t expect to change your eating habits all at once. Quick fixes do not help you achieve life-long health and happiness. By gradually introducing new and healthful foods and activities into your lifestyle, you will start to feel better. This will sustain healthy habits and naturally crowd out the less healthy ones.
    2)    Return to the basics: For thousands of years we lived well on all natural whole foods. As our health is globally deteriorating, we create foods that are less and less natural to try to resolve our health issues. You can’t solve a problem with the same mindset that created it.
    3)    Moderation and rotation: Imagine trying to express yourself fully in a language in which you know only a limited number of words. Similarly, if you eat the same foods every day, your body will only recognize certain nutrients and will not get all it needs for your cells to interact correctly.
    4)    Go all natural: In our attempts to live a healthy life, we have forgotten one important nutrient: life. Dieting has taught us to rely on synthetic versions of “food” mixed with chemicals to minimize our caloric intake. Consuming items such as artificial sweeteners simply leaves your pallet craving for more sweetness as well as for the nutrients you never received. Artificial sweeteners, hazardous to your health, can also increase your appetite and your sugar binges.
    5)    Food will fill you, but it will not fulfill you: Raise your vibration! Engage in activities that feed your sense of purpose in life. The more you work towards a goal of living each day with a sense of purpose, the less tempting instant gratification becomes.
    6)    Just say yes: No deprivation does not mean that you can eat whatever you want at any given time. It means that the more you nourish your soul, the more you will develop a stronger connection as to why you are choosing not to eat whatever is preventing you from being good to yourself. Passing on unhealthy temptation is no longer about saying no, but about saying yes to your true self. Always say yes - saying no to temptation is saying yes to yourself. Eat natural foods and nourish your soul on a daily basis.

Adzuki Beans for Winter & Adrenal Health

The Adzuki bean is a small red colored bean with a sweet and nutty flavor. Adzuki beans are known as the “king of beans” in Japan, where they are used in dishes from soup to dessert  (commonly in the form of red bean paste.) These beans are one of the easiest to digest, providing a good source of protein and a grounding effect.

Adzuki beans tonify the kidneys and adrenals and can help ground and soothe us during the busy holiday season. They are digested slowly and cause only a gradual rise in blood sugar levels, making them a superior carbohydrate for those with diabetes and blood sugar imbalances. Adzuki beans are low in fat and high in calcium, potassium, iron, zinc, many B vitamins, and they contain isoflavones, which help prevent cancer and heart disease.

Adzuki beans cook quickly, and can be used in casseroles or stews, mixed with grains, added to soups, tossed in salads, or enjoyed alone. They can be substituted for any other bean in a recipe.

Squash and Adzuki Beans
1 cup adzuki beans -- dried
3 1/2 cup water
1 piece dried kombu*
1 cup butternut squash -- diced
1/2 tsp ginger root -- grated
1 tbs Fresh parsley -- chopped

Place beans, water, and kombu in a medium-size saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 45 minutes. Stir in squash and ginger root, then cover and simmer 30 minutes longer. Mix gently with a wooden spoon, and break up the kombu which has softened. Serve garnished with parsley.

Variations: add onion, garlic, carrots or other root vegetables instead or in addition to the winter squash.

* Kombu is a dried seaweed that is known as a flavor enhancer of anything you add it to while cooking. Without adding a “seaweedy” taste to your stews or soups, kombu helps beans cook faster and aids in their digestion.

Note: It is best to soak beans overnight before cooking but you can get away with cooking dried adzuki beans that have not been soaked. If soaking, discard the soaking water before cooking. 

Strengthen Your Adrenals

• Get your beauty sleep! Rest is vital in strengthening the adrenals. That means going to bed by 10pm. Make this a priority and stick with it. 
• Eliminate sugar and processed carbohydrates. Sugar and simple carbs put stress on the adrenals as they interfere with the adrenal glands’ role in regulating blood sugar levels. 
• Eat animal proteins raised with no growth-hormones or antibiotics. Choose organic vegetables when possible, enjoy fruits, nuts, legumes, beans and whole grains.  
• Quit the coffee habit and drink plenty of fresh filtered water every day.

Ho Ho Ho Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz

Winter has arrived and with it has come the Holiday Season. As the air cools, animals hibernate and trees shed their leaves, conserving their energy by sending it down into the roots. We, on the other hand, are shopping, traveling, eating, drinking and partying from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. This puts us out of sync with winter's restorative energy.

Introspection is a beautiful and timely process for the winter season. In the spirit of the holidays we celebrate with light during the darkest of seasons. Introspection carries a similar energy of shining light on the areas of our life that feel dark. If the holiday season emphasizes loneliness, it might inspire us to invest in deepening our connections with friends, partners and family. If feeling tired and overwhelmed by our numerous commitments, it’s time to shed some draining obligations and invest in the actions and relations that nourish our soul.

Often though, we distract ourselves in busyness, avoiding this reflective time until the arrival of New Year resolutions. Indulging in food, drink and guilt only to attempt yet another diet next month is not an act of loving one’s self. Engaging in physical and emotional self-indulgence now while vowing to do things differently later makes no sense. By the time the holidays are over, many people are exhausted, stressed or depressed, and dealing with colds and flu. Be smart with your time this year. Celebrate with your loved ones, get plenty of rest, drink less and laugh more, eat less and sing more, shop less and hug more.

Let’s Talk Coffee:

With more obligations, less sleep and a natural attempt of our body to slow down, we may be feeling the need for an extra boost of energy.

When we are naturally stressed, we produce a hormone called adrenaline. During the course of our day, our body starts to tire and we feel the need to recharge. Ignoring the need for proper rest and nutrition, we may develop a craving for stimulants in the form of caffeine and sugar to give us a sense of energy.  These may seem to provide a boost of energy, but has the opposite effect.

By reaching for a cup of coffee we cause our bodies to release more adrenaline so that we can operate at an even faster and quicker pace. Caffeine stimulates the stress response in the body and causes our adrenals to release more adrenaline. In a natural environment such a flush of adrenaline would happen if we were suddenly faced with danger. The body goes into survival mode where it is once again alert and ready to “fight or flight” any rising situation. We feel alert though the body never got the rest or nutrition it originally needed. Continually flushing our body with adrenaline through the consumption of caffeine can eventually lead to adrenal exhaustion, leaving us vulnerable to a variety of health disorders related to inflammation, autoimmunity and fatigue.

Consuming caffeine may feel like it is helping us cope with stress and fatigue, although it is actually contributing to the increase of more stress in the body. Just as with an addiction (such as to drugs, nicotine or alcohol,) we only feel better when we feed our body more of the substance that is causing it most damage. Stress can be addictive in a similar manner.

Caffeine stimulates the excretion of stress hormones, which makes us feel more alert. However, this hormonal response can produce increased levels of anxiety, irritability, muscular tension, indigestion, insomnia and decreased immunity. Increasing the levels of stress will increase heart rate and elevate blood pressure, and can therefore contribute to the development of heart disease. Both decaf and regular coffee increase cholesterol and homocysteine, the biochemical linked to an increased risk of heart attack.

Caffeine stimulates a temporary surge in blood sugar followed by an overproduction of insulin, which causes a blood sugar crash within hours. Diabetics and hypoglycemics should avoid caffeine. In this manner caffeine can contribute to weight gain, since insulin's message to the body is to store excess sugar as fat. On an emotional level depression may occur as part of the letdown after the stimulant effects of caffeine wear off. It may also appear during the withdrawal  period after quitting caffeine while the brain's chemistry is readjusted. Rather than increasing mental activity, caffeine decreases blood flow to the brain by as much as 30%, and negatively affects memory and mental performance.

You Don’t Have To Give Up Coffee:

If you really love coffee then put in the time to enjoy it. Most Americans drink their coffee “on the go,” while rushing to work or while multi-tasking. If we consume a stress-stimulating substance (caffeine and sugar) while our body is already stressed, we are pushing ourselves to an extreme.

In Europe you will often see people enjoying a cup of coffee while sitting peacefully with friends at a local coffee shop. In Italy a small espresso is consumed after a large meal as a digestive aid. In the States; “America Runs on Dunkin’.”

Caffeine has wonderful health benefits. We can read plenty of studies that show that coffee contains high levels of antioxidants. These antioxidants are stored in the coffee bean but are destroyed within half an hour of grinding and brewing the beans. When drinking instant coffees or purchasing a cup from most stores where the beans are not fresh, we are not getting those benefits. We are just causing the stress response.

Savor the experience. Purchase a high quality organic brand of coffee, grind it fresh (or store your freshly ground coffee in the freezer) and sit down and relax while drinking it. Make sure your coffee is an addition to a healthy diet and not substituting a meal or hours of sleep.

Balancing Diet With The Fall Season

In nature, fall is a time when everything begins to slow down, and the expansive energies of summer begin to contract inward and downward. Leaves fall, grasses dry, and the sap of the trees go into the roots. Similarly, we can often feel in our own lives that it is time to organize the scattered patterns of summer and create new rituals that will best support us through the slower winter months. Fall provides us with the process of cooling and slowing down. 

While nature may be slowing down, our schedules often don’t allow us to do the same. We must take extra care to be sure not to fall out of sync with the natural cycle around us.

All foods and flavors have different effects in the body. Some foods are warming while others cool the body’s thermal temperature. Here in New England, the vegetables that grow in the summer cool our bodies during the hot and humid season. In the fall the vegetables growing have a more warming, dense and stable effect. When we eat seasonal, local foods, we receive the energies that naturally balance out the seasonal shifts that occur within our bodies. 

The way we prepare our food plays a role in the effect it has on our body. Rather than keeping to the raw foods and grilling methods of summer cooking, which keep the cooling properties, fall and winter are about meals that are cooked on a lower heat for a longer period of time. This releases the more warming qualities of our food and provides a settling affect which in turn helps internalize one’s focus. 

Baked foods, sautéed foods, heartier foods, and root vegetables all contribute towards the thickening of the blood. If one lives in a cold climate, it is necessary that the blood gets thicker as the weather grows colder.

Traditional Chinese Medicine suggests that we can use different flavors to synchronize the body’s energy with the seasons. During summer, pungent, spicy foods may have served a purpose as they provide an outwardly expansive energy; causing us to break into a sweat. Since fall is a process of contracting our energy inwards, we want to incorporate sour flavors as they have a similar effect. Sour foods include sauerkraut, olives, pickles, vinegar, leeks, adzuki beans, yogurt, lemons, limes, sour apples and sourdough bread. Extremely sour foods should be used in very small amounts as they have a strong effect.(*1)   As we move further into winter, the salty flavor will be of value for its contractive benefits. Wholesome salts are found in foods such as unrefined sea salt, seaweeds, barley, millet, soy sauce, miso, or pickles that are prepared in salt water.(*2)

*1 Caution: Minimize sour foods when feeling a “heavy mind or body” or constipation. 

*2 Caution: Minimize salt in conditions of over weight, edema, lethargy, or high blood pressure. 

Are You Living On The Edge?

Modern nutrition does not lend much attention to how diet influences our emotional being. While we may recognize how an emotional state can lead to certain eating habits, we haven’t paid much attention to how the foods themselves can create certain emotions or stress.

Food contains more than just vitamin A, B, or C. Just as our bodies pulsate with energy, food contains energy as well. As the two energies mix, our food can have either an expansive effect in our body or a contractive one.

When we consume sugar, caffeine, alcohol or drugs we feel “lighter”, hence more expansive. If we eat meat, eggs, salt, or hard cheeses, the feeling can be more grounded. This is a more contracted energy.Too much contracted food can make us feel heavy and lethargic. Too much salt can make us feel tight. Too much alcohol or ice cream can leave us with a headache. Expansive has a more upward moving energy while contractive has a more downward one.

If an individual’s diet consists mostly of contractive foods, heavy in animal protein and cheeses, his or her diet can be too extreme on the contractive side. Since the body is always looking for balance, we may experience cravings for something expansive like sugar or alcohol to balance us out. A craving for a sweet dessert after a meal is not uncommon. Have you ever had an experience that you were so full and heavy but when dessert showed up, you were suddenly ready to eat more?

Cravings are not a bad thing as many of us seem to perceive them. They are the body’s natural search for balance. Not to say that the dessert is going to balance you out. It will most likely cause havoc, cancelling the digestion of your meal, leaving it to ferment undigested in the stomach. Even so, since the body is in search of finding center, the thought of something more uplifting when feeling full can sound appealing.

Each craving holds a clue to help us find balance. In this case, the desert craving may be a clue that the overall diet needs to consist of less contractive foods.

Lifestyle as well as diet can cause cravings for expansive foods. When we feel stressed, our body will contract and muscles will tighten. This tightness is a state of contractiveness. If we feel contracted in life, we will crave expansiveness for balance.

At times of stress we may be reaching for a candy bar or a cup of coffee to keep going. We may crave a cold beer or ice cream at the end of a stressful day. If this is the case, your body is signaling it needs more expansive experiences throughout the day. Implementing some simple stress reducing techniques, can help eliminate the craving.

Can a person also be too expansive? Absolutely! If you are only eating fat-free, substituting breakfast with a cup of coffee, minimizing caloric intake, (while often binging on sweets), you are too extremely expansive. In this case, more grounding energy is needed. Often you can overcome the sweet tooth by adding more grounding foods such as healthy fats and a proper breakfast.

Our diet is woven into the fabric of our lifestyle with respect to our physical, biological, emotional and spiritual aspects.

Use your body’s feedback to understand how to change your diet:If you feel tight, tense, or too rigid, reduce the amount of contractive foods. If you feel too spacey or scattered, increase your contractive foods and diminish the expansive ones.