With so many choices for foods to eat just about anywhere you turn, particularly if you live in an urban or suburban area, it’s no wonder many of us are in a constant struggle to lose weight, to feel better, to eat less, to sleep better, to not feel bloated, to have less stress and the list can go on.

Eating foods that are in season and local as well, is nothing new. Before national and international shipping began, folks ate what was available at that particular time of year. Personal canning was more popular than it is today and root cellars were more popular as well.

Seasonal eating is the essential key of holistic and medical traditions; good health and emotional balance. Seasonal eating means building meals around foods that have been just harvested and adjusting your diet to particular health concerns each season brings. It connects us with the calendar in the way that:

• Winter foods warm you, keep you full longer and use spices that are warming and immunity boosting.
• Spring foods cleanse your blood & lungs, ridding your cells of unwanted fats and prepares your body for warmer days.
• Summer foods hydrate your body and keep it cool and lighter.
• Fall foods help build your immune system and help to ease your body into transition for colder months ahead.

In season foods taste better and are more nutritious due to being picked when they are fully mature with all their vitamins, minerals and antioxidants in tact. For example, spinach picked at its peak has 3 times the vitamin C as spinach picked early to ship across the states or to other countries.

Seasonal foods are not limited to fruits and vegetables. Fish also has seasons and by eating fish that is in season, you’re more apt to eat wild caught fish which is healthier than farmed fish which has high levels of cancer causing chemicals as well as unhealthy fats and less protein – particularly salmon. And I will add that tilapia is not a healthy choice due to it having 56 mg. of bad cholesterol in just a 4-ounce portion.

For resources and lists of what is available where you live, check out these links:

http://www.eatwellguide.org/

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

http://www.sustainabletable.org/seasonalfoodguide/

There’s a reason for the seasons and there’s a reason all foods don’t grow in all seasons. Eat what is local to your area at each time of the year and even from month-to-month for better health; your body will thank you.

Your body will only treat you as well as you treat it.

Happy local and seasonal eating!