The ancient Chinese believed that human beings should live in harmony with the natural cycles of their environment. At Coastal Natural Therapies are big advocates for seasonal eating. With the arrival of Winter it’s time for a change up in our diets! We consider ourselves lucky that we have access to whatever foods we want right at our fingertips, but is it really all that beneficial to our health? Not really…
Why?
Just like animals storing fat to go into hibernation over the winter, humans do this too in a milder version. In Autumn, our liver increases fat production to prepare for winter by increasing glucose production for our brain to use. This switches back to an insulin-sensitive state in late winter/autumn to prepare for the abundance of spring & summer.
Rotating your diet with the seasons improves your immune system and your gut benefits with a variety of bacteria from the different foods. This not only improves your ratio of beneficial bacteria, but can improve your mood, lower your risk of allergies, reduce inflammation and therefore oxidative stress. An overexposure to certain foods can create an allergic response in an already reactive system, therefore keeping foods on rotation can help to reduce this.
Foods that are ‘in season’ are going to be the most nutrient dense and when you are buying them from the local farmers market, they have generally been picked in the last few days, making them fresh and still very high in vitamins & minerals. The further they have to travel, the longer they are stored, the less nutrients you are actually benefiting from, so avoid eating imported foods particularly for this reason.
We generally crave according to seasons as well, in winter we feel like heavier foods like potato, slow cooked stews and grains to help with the colder months and store fat, but by summer we are looking for lighter salad vegetables and fruits like melons and berries.
If you want to know what’s fresh & in season right now, pop down to your local farmers market and see what they’re selling! Opt for spray free or organic where possible and change up your diet to give your whole system a shake up!
If you’d like an appointment with one of our practitioners to see how we can help you, call us on (07) 5531 6461 or book online here.
© Coastal Natural Therapies Gold Coast 2021
