December 2007 | Locally Yours
Warm It Up
Foods that keep you toasty from the inside out
Jennifer Adler, M.S., C.N.
Have you ever wondered why most raw food retreats are in sunny, tropical locations? Or, why we crave a bowl of hot oatmeal on a brisk morning instead of fresh fruit? When it is cold outside our bodies gravitate toward foods that are naturally warming.
In Chinese medicine, the body is seen as a microcosm of the natural world, changing with the seasons. Chinese dietary traditions focus on eating foods that harmonize with each season. During the winter, that means eating foods that warm us internally. In Chinese medicine, cold is yin, which is considered an expanding, upward energy. Heat is yang, the contracting, downward energy that balances yin. There are many warming foods and cooking methods you can use to get enough yang to balance yin weather.
One easy way to find warming foods and harmonize with the seasons is to eat local. “Nature provides the foods that keep our bodies in balance at certain times of the year,” says Elson Haas, M.D., author of Staying Healthy with the Seasons. “When it’s cool out, we need to add more fuel to the furnace.”
Most of us are intimately aware of the “more fuel to the furnace” tendencies during winter and see it in the “winter coats,” (a.k.a. extra pounds) we put on when it gets chilly and wet outside. Even pet owners notice an increase in their animal’s appetite when the temperatures drop. Animals in the wild live in harmony with the changing seasons. They eat what is available and the food helps sends signals to their body on how to respond to the environment. Eating the foods that are available to them during the different seasons, they naturally keep warm in winter and cool in summer. Since our grocery stores have foods from far reaches of the globe available at our fingertips year-round, we need to be more conscious about the foods we choose if we want to stay warm in the cold weather.
Tips to stoke your internal fire
Focus on cooked winter squashes and root vegetables, like burdock, beets, carrots and parsnips. The downward contractive energy of foods grown under the soil makes them ideal warming foods. These foods are typically harvested in the fall and stored for the winter.
Store up energy by enjoying warming foods like long cooked soups and stews. Start your day with a whole grain warm cereal or porridge. Branch out and try brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth or millet to name a few.
Utilize warming spices such as cayenne, black pepper, ginger, cumin, garlic and coriander. These spices add zip to everyday foods and will increase circulation and warmth within your body.
Limit the consumption of iced beverages, which are too yin and cold for winter weather. Instead, drink hot or room temperature fluids.
Limit yin foods like bananas, which increase cold in our body and can increase our susceptibility to getting a cold.
How you cook food in the winter can also help warm you from the inside out. Try braising on the stovetop or in the oven with a flavorful liquid or broth. This tenderizes the meat and vegetables and infuses them with flavor. You can also simmer foods with low heat. The longer you cook food, the stronger the warming effect it will have on your body. Another method is to roast vegetables in the oven with butter and salt until golden and crispy around the edges. This is a delicious way to turn an ordinary vegetable, extraordinary. Crock-Pots and pressure cookers are also a great way to cook during the winter. Imagine putting a chicken and root vegetables into a Crock-Pot in the morning to return home at night with dinner hot and ready. Cooking food with these methods nourishes our body on a very deep level while helping our body to build heat. An added bonus is that these long-term cooking methods also make the food easier to digest.
It is easy to get chilled and catch a cold during these frosty months. Take care this winter to stay warm by focusing on foods that will nourish and warm you from the inside out.
Jennifer Adler, M.S., C.N., provides nutrition counseling at her private practice Realize Health, www.realizehealth.com. She in notorious for wearing long underwear all but four days out of the year so she is especially conscious of warming her body with food in the winter.
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