We’ve all heard it 1000 times – if you want to eat well, loose weight or be healthy you should eat more salad. But what if that's just the opposite for some people?
Ok, there is no question that leafy greens, whole foods and lots of vegetables are good for you, but what you might want to examine is not only what you eat, but HOW you eat those nutrient packed pieces of goodness.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is based on the principle of balance – the idea that if the body is in balance we are healthy, pain free and have ample energy. That applies to internal and personal factors (work stress, exercise, healthy diet, emotional stressors, sleep patterns etc.) but applies to our balance within the environment and within the seasons as well.
So what exactly does that mean? Much of it is intuitive, like bundling up in the winter or staying in the shade and decreasing activity in the hot sun or craving warm drinks in the frigid winter months and cooler ones in the hot summer. Unfortunately we’ve drifted away from this in our culture with things such as offering ice water in restaurants even if it’s minus 20 outside.
So how does this relate to salads you ask? Well try to think of your digestive system a bit like a furnace. You need to be continually stoking that digestive fire in order for it to break down the food you eat, assimilate the nutrients and send them out to your body. If you’re continually adding cold foods, icy drinks , or raw uncooked foods into the mix, you’re making your system work extra hard to try to absorb nutrients from the food.
This is key in the fall and winter months in particular when the weather gets colder and your body is trying to keep you warm. During these seasons and including the early part of spring, you want to be adding warm things not cold things like frozen smoothies or icy drinks to you diet Think of it like leaving the front door wide open in the middle of winter when you’re trying to heat your house – it just makes everything work harder and not very efficiently and doesn't make sense.
By making your diet rich in warm cooked foods in the winter month and leaving salad for side dishes in the hotter months your body will thank you.
And, if you’re one of those people who seems to be cold all the time and get tired and bloated no matter what they eat, you should be avoiding salad, raw and cold foods all together including the summer months! These cold pattern people should focus on warm cooked foods and easy to digest things like steamed vegetables or soups and stews year round.
So even though ‘raw’ foods may have been promoted as having more nutrients than their cooked counterparts, if your body is unable to digest and assimilate them, it’s a waste. By lightly cooking and steaming your foods, you’re still maintaining nutrients but maximizing absorption…helping you get the most out of the food and feel great in the process!
Stay healthy and well nourished this fall and winter – eat warm!