SEASON TO SEASON
Ode to Eating and Living with WINTER
Even Western, conventional nutritionists and medical doctors recognize the value of eating foods grown in that season—Nature provides us with the nutrients we need for each seasonal cycle. The heat of late spring and summer gives birth to antioxidant superfoods like cherries, blueberries, cantaloup and peaches. These fruits protect our skin and eyes from the unhealthy effects of strong sunshine and also provide a light, fiber-rich way to hydrate our bodies. Winter's energy on the other hand provides foods that are grounding, strengthening and warming. The rich array of root vegetables and dried beans are surprisingly nourishing.
History of Winter Eating
If we were only able to eat what farms in the region could grow and
harvest, as I did in Hungary and Kyrgyzstan years ago, our
wintertime dinner tables would offer up dishes made from baked winter
squashes, bean and root vegetable soups or stews made with small
amounts of meat, and freshly baked breads or grains like buckwheat
or red rice.
The Hungarians I knew, as well as my Russian friends in Central Asia, would cook with turnips and potatoes. They made Borscht with beets and cabbage in beef stock, or big pots of pink or black beans, perhaps mixed with home-canned tomatoes and simmered with spicy paprika made from dried red peppers. The Asian inhabitants of Kyrgyzstan would make pumpkin-filled dumplings and mutton soup with potatoes, carrots or parsnips, garlic, ginger and hot peppers along with their standby version of the Kim-chee, a garlicky cabbage salad influenced from their neighbors along the Western Chinese border behind the Mountains of Heaven. The only fruits available were apples and pears (and in Hungary, delicious quinces eaten only cooked) kept cool in basement storehouses or cooked as applesauce or compote to complement the store of summer fruit compotes, all prepared to last through the long, cold winter.
Warming Foods
These foods were (and are) warming and grounding, stabilizing and
soothing. They nurtured and protected us as the winter winds howled
and the frost fastened itself to any available surface. While the
American in me yearned for an occasional avocado or pineapple, or
some steamed asparagus or fresh greens, for the most part I felt
content being creative with the bounty of the moment—especially
since I knew that in a few weeks the earth would offer up new foods,
new colors and textures and flavors, new energies, to take in.
Eating in Winter
Normally, winter should be a time of burrowing in, energetically
speaking—of sinking into the quiet and inward-oriented energy
of the season. With the leaves of autumn having dried and fallen off
the trees, winter provides an opportunity for the leaves to decompose
and sit, enriching the earth. Without leaves on the trees, the
wind through the trees sounds less rustling and more whistling. When
it snows, the blanket of white over the earth dampens sound and
creates a deep stillness. It’s a good time to read and sit by the
fire. It’s a good time to sleep more and eat warm, well-cooked
meals that nourish gently and deeply. It’s a good time to snuggle
with someone you love and quietly enjoy a deep connection to people
and to the greater, mysterious forces of life.
Typically at this time of year, my body yearns for long-cooked soups and savory stews, baked casseroles and steaming hot cups of tea or chocolate for a special treat. But, as I write this, the temperatures will reach almost 70 degrees and so I struggle to reconcile what I know about the natural energy of winter and what I'm experiencing in the moment. The unseasonable spring-like warmth at a time of year when we are used to complaining about the layers of sweaters coats, gloves and scarves we have to keep track of, makes it difficult to know how to eat. The reality of these warm temperature is competing with the natural energetic resonance of the season.
What to Eat this Winter
So what’s the best way to balance the energetic pull of winter and
the realities of global warming’s new influence on the seasons?
Eat more:
- cooked food rather than raw, because they are warming and easier for the body to break down and absorb—avoid too many green salads or you may feel weak and experience uneasy rumblings in your belly;
- bean dishes, stews and casseroles made with less animal fats like meat, cheese, cream and butter;
- lightly cooked vegetables or salads (if the weather does warm up) that include cooked vegetables like beets, chickpeas and a hard-boiled egg over greens with a warming bowl of stew or soup.
Other things to do this Winter
- Spend more time outdoors getting exercise, but also make time to do quiet, restorative activities you enjoy like reading, art, journal writing, listening or playing music, cooking, playing chess (or playing Monopoly, my son's favorite indoor game these days).
- If you are getting less than 30 minutes of outdoor exposure to the sun, make sure you are drinking a protein shake or taking a whole food multi-vitamin that includes Vitamin D. For healthy people eating a reasonably good diet, it’s probably fine to do this every other day or even every 3 or 4 days, rather than daily.
- If you’re feeling scattered and over-stretched, eat some black or other beans and find different ways to eat root vegetables—roasted, in soups, cooked, sliced and eaten room-temperature with a drizzle of vinaigrette, boiled and tossed with fresh chopped garlic and your favorite herbs (I like cilantro or dill or rosemary).
- Eat an apple or a pear each day—they’re great for managing mucous, keeping your gums healthy, giving you healthy dose of fiber and more.
- Drink teas (if it’s actually cold out, ginger or Indian spice teas are very warming and excellent for managing cold and flu season).
- Enjoy winter treats like cookies and cakes and chocolate; but choose high-quality items and aim for smaller, less frequent amounts and savor what you do have guilt-free.
I wish you all a nurturing, restorative winter.
Catherine
Your advice was concrete
and practical.... I eat a healthier
diet, enjoy cooking delicious
meals, and have kept off
twenty pounds. 
—Jonathan C.