“Spring” Into New Food

Seasonal eating? What is seasonal eating? Our bodies are meant to have variety in all parts of life, especially with our food. Remember the old saying “variety is the spice of life”? Well that definitely is the perfect quote for this!
Most of us get excited for the season to change, especially after being in hibernation mode for the winter. With any of the seasons, we tend to get excited for something. Summer to fall (football/tailgating/sweatshirts/hearty warming foods) then fall into winter (sledding, snowball fights, holiday fun, and of course the food changes again), and now we are in the spring season! What comes to mind? Spring cleaning, flowers blooming, wearing less clothing, lighter cuisine and getting ready for summer. If you are a foodie and especially a chef, new produce and farmers markets appearing outside may make you UBER excited!

So again, why eat with the season? Well, back in the day we couldn’t get strawberries year round and various other fruits and vegetables 24/7. We could anticipate their arrival and couldn’t wait to sink our teeth into our summers first watermelon or our first cob of corn (hey it is Indiana of course). However, we had to wait and eat what was available and growing at that season of life. The way to preserve our seasonal eats would be to of course can them! Seasonal eating allows for the natural shift and change up in our diets. Our bodies thrive and grow from natural change! If you eat with the season, you will also find that those foods tend to be cheaper because they are being harvested at that time.
So what is seasonal for spring time? Here’s just a sample sneak peak to keep your eyes open for : Asparagus, cauliflower, lettuce, rhubarb, beets, collards, mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, green onions, turnips, cabbage, peas, kale, radishes.

A little fun grocery store shopping homework…notice prices of the seasonal fare vs what they may have been a couple months ago. You will begin to notice vegetables like asparagus (sometimes $3.99/lb) dropping drastically in price.
So embrace the season! Eat the season, and most importantly have fun with all the new seasonal produce!

Mango Fuel LLC

 http://mangofuel.healthcoach1.integrativenutrition.com/