Foods of the Season
The Season for plant based diet
Multi coloured plates of crunchy fresh food!
sprouted seeds, fruit, cucumber, tofu (flower and leaf teas). If you are damp (have a white coating on your tongue) and forming mucus remember to keep drinks warm and not full of ice, warm your salads by adding a warm dressing or have hot food with your salad. You can add warming spices but watch your chilli consumption as these will disperse heat. If, however, you are too hot and can’t cool down, you can add a little extra chillies as this will aid sweating and will naturally cool the body down. Hot liquids will do this too. Drinks with ice will push the heat in.
Foods like meat, eggs, and excesses of nuts and seeds and grains may cause sluggishness on a hot day. So BBQ’s maybe not a great idea if you want to keep your energy upbeat and focused. Here is a great short video from Nutritionist Jamie wright, i love this video, its spot on correct and to the point info – thanks Jamie!
The colour of food for the season is red
Summer’s colour is red, and the Element is Fire, so it is time to be active and the foods you eat should fuel you for this purpose. Food colours reflect the colour of the season, so this means that lots of red and purple foods are great for fire energy, i.e. strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, tomatoes, red peppers and beetroot. Keep your diet real, clean and light, full of fresh summer foods, and try not to buy processed or pre-prepared foods including cut up salads. Buy foods as near to the way it was grown as possible, as every process it goes through takes a little more of its vital life-force. Aim for forty to sixty per cent of your diet to be made up of fruit and vegetables, such as pea pods, baby leaf spinach, broad beans, pak-choi cabbage, and asparagus and have lots of raw foods to help your body reach a balance with the heat outside. A way of effortlessly feeding yourself nutritiously in the summer is with freshly made fruit juices. If you do not own a juicer, it is a good time of year to buy one.
Bitter food
This is the taste to promote. as bitter foods stimulate digestion. They can also help the respiratory system — handy for this time of year when one is supposed to be doing more cardiovascular exercise
The cruciferous family contains many bitter-tasting vegetables including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, radishes and arugula, coco, coffee, green tea, citrus peel, cranberries, kale & dark chocolate !
Cooking style for summer
Steaming
Boiled – warming
Avoid –
Barbecued – most heating
Shopping list
Green leafy Olives/ olive oil Tofu vegetables, organic or local, celery, Kale, Ginger, Bitter salad greens Sesame Horseradish, rocket, chives, Radish, Spring onion, Broad beans, Chinese cabbage, Broccoli, Avocado, tomato, cucumber, peppers,
Fish
Clams Mackerel Sardine
Grains
Rye, Wheat- germ
Fruits
Strawberries, Raspberries, Rhubarb, Water melon, Grapefruit, Elderflower, grapes, all of the melons, pear, banana, mango
Sprouting seeds – mung bean, sprouts, and found any sprouting seeds are really great at this time of year.
Seeds, sunflower, and sesame seeds
This is just an overview of the food types which would be ideal. Unless the weather is absolutely freezing cold. Then you would need to make sure you stick with more warming foods like stir fried greens not too much cold foods. When the weather heats up, then you can eat the cooling water-based foods that are ideal for a winter season. We always include food info in all the trainings, as it is essential to health, its all about Seasonal eating and particularly about eating locally, Seasonal yoga and Seasonal living is based around matching Energy of what’s happening out in nature, so we align with what is being grown hopefully locally, but if not sensibly in line with the season. If you’d like any more information about any of our trainings, please go to any of the websites below, thank you for reading
Julie Hanson
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