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As a general rule, it is best to eat foods that grow during the current season and/or have a warming affect.  In the winter time, or when we are trying to strengthen the kidneys and bladder energy, the following foods can be added:

Catherine Varchaver, Nutrition Counselor at Body and Soul Nutrition, has great wisdom about eating with the seasons.  Her article Season to Season: Ode to Eating and Living with Winter, is a lovely piece echoing the energetics of winter I treat through acupuncture, by using foods appropriate to the season.  I know that by eating stews, root vegetables and other warming foods during the winter, I feel stronger and more grounded than when I eat the raw and cooling foods more appropriate to summer.  Food is one of the main ways we gain qi/energy, and it serves us best when we eat with intention – both in what we eat and how we eat it.

There was a very simple and powerful piece in The Wall Street Journal the other day that I thought useful.  Written by Deepak Chopra, Dean Ornish, Rustum Roy and Andrew Weil, it stated that diet and lifestyle changes are often more successful and cost effective healthcare than medicines and procedures currently paid for by insurance.  Click here to read the full text.

Try this simple but delicious recipe for Carrot Ginger Soup which blends the nourishing, soothing qualities of late summer’s Earth energy, according to Chinese medicine, with Autumn’s pungent clearing energy found in ginger.  Cooked carrots are very gentle on the digestive system and the nervous system, too. Serve this in a soup plate with a side of crusty whole grain bread and arugula salad made with roasted walnuts, apples and balsamic mustard vinaigrette. Or have it in a small bowl as a first course, followed by blackened cod and your favorite cooked greens and garlic– another pungent gem of Autumn’s healing energy.  Learn more at Body and Soul Nutrition.

As we head into cold and flu season, take advantage of one of Nature’s most powerful medicines for the lungs: ginger. It’s pungent, spicy quality is associated with Autumn and the Metal Element in Chinese Medicine and it is considered to be warming and clearing.  Drink it as a tea with a spoonful of honey and a squeeze of lemon– it’ll make you sweat and help loosen any phlegm so that your body can move it out. Ginger is also great for soothing a queasy stomach, so enjoy!

To support your health this season, add a few of these foods into your diet.

Beans (Sprouted): Adzuki, Garbanzo, Fava, Lentil, Mung

Fruit: Avocado, Blackberry, Date, Grapes, Grapefruit, Jicama, Lemon, Lime, Loquat, Olive, Orange, Strawberry, Tangelo, Tangerine

Grains (Sprouted): Barley, Buckwheat, Corn, Rice, Rye, Wheat

There’s a good bit of controversy over water intake and dehydration. For a while there was an email going around claiming pretty impressive powers of water. It appears to have some research to support it, though I haven’t been able to nail down the original article.