Seasonal Foods II

Make your food choices according to the seasons:

• In summer, include light, cooling foods. You can enjoy fruits like strawberries, apple, pear, and plum; vegetables like cucumber, gourds, leafy vegetables, and citrus fruits like oranges, watermelons; and spices and seasonings like peppermint and fresh coriander leaves.
• In rains, turn toward the more warming, autumn harvest foods, including carrot, sweet potato, onions, and garlic. Also, emphasize the more warming spices and seasonings including ginger, peppercorns, and mustard seeds.
• In winter, turn even more exclusively toward warming foods. Remember the principle that foods taking longer to grow are generally more warming than foods that grow quickly. All of the animal foods fall into the warming category including fish, chicken, beef, and lamb. So, do most of the root vegetables, including carrot, potato, onions, and garlic. Eggs also fit in here, as do corn and nuts.

Reasearch Supporting Seasonal eating:

In a research study conducted in 1997 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in London, England, significant differences were found in the nutrient content of pasteurized milk in summer versus winter primarily due to differences in the diets of the cows. With more salt-preserved foods in winter and more fresh plants in the summer, cows ended up producing nutritionally different milks during the two seasons. Similarly, researchers in Japan found three-fold differences in the vitamin C content of spinach harvested in summer versus winter.