The Healthy Benefits to You of Eating Fruits and Vegetables In Season
Pesticides and toxins used on conventional fruit and vegetable farms make you sick. Read about how to choose healthier fruits and vegetables for you and your family!
Earlier generations were much more in tune with the Earth’s natural seasons and cycles. What they ate was determined by what could be grown locally and what could be grown, stored and preserved thru the cold winter months. In today’s world, we’ve gotten used to having any kind of food we want, whenever we want it.
Gone are the days when walking to the local market was the onlyway to purchase fruits and vegetables that were available and in season. Today’s consumer knows that the bounty of produce in their local supermarket is just as likely to include broccoli in July as it is in December.
Yet fruits and vegetables in season are much more supportive of not only your health, but also the health of the planet.
When you buy fruits and vegetables that are NOT in season:
- They have to be brought to you across long distances, if not from across the globe. In fact, some statistics suggest that fruits and vegetables at your local supermarket travel between 1500 and 2500 miles before they get to you.1 Doesn’t suggest “fresh,” does it?
- They are picked while still immature, to ensure that they don’t spoil along the way. Not only does this affect the fresh taste and aroma of your fruits and vegetables, it causes vitamin degradation and nutrient loss.
In fact, researchers from the Austrian Consumers Association have confirmed that vegetables picked and frozen while in season are actually higher in nutrients than the same ones that were transported off season, from abroad!2
- Shipping fruits and vegetables over long distances has a huge impact on our planet: increased greenhouse gas emissions, atmosphere pollution, and depletion of the earth’s limited energy resources!
The Body Ecology system recognizes that for us to have a healthy inner ecology (inner ecosystem), we must respect the Earth’s ecology.
Pollution, pesticides and farming practices that strip the soil of minerals lead to foods that do not support our health. It is no surprise that people are experiencing mineral deficiencies and poor health.
For this reason, it’s not just fruits and vegetables in season that is important, it’s also choosing organic fruits and vegetables.
Why Choose Organic?
A multitude of studies have found that fruits and vegetables grown organically contain significantly more nutrients such as vitamin c, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, and other essential phytonutrients.3
By eating organic fruits and vegetables you:
- Reduce the amount of harmful pesticides and artificial chemical treatments you expose you and your family to.
- Increase your consumption of natural antioxidants, called flavonoids, found in fruits and vegetables.
Researchers have found that organic fruits and vegetables are higher in natural anti-oxidants than conventionally grown fruits and vegetables4
- Support agriculture that increases the health of our soil, which in turn grows more vitamin and mineral rich foods.
Large conventional crops deplete the soil of friendly bacteria and minerals essential to our health and to biodiversity5
I always recommend organic foods as part of your healthy Body Ecology program. As you reduce environmental toxins and processed foods along with following the 7 principles of Body Ecology, you can begin eliminating toxins, fighting candida, and treating mineral deficiencies.
One of the principles of the Body Ecology system is to have land and ocean vegetables compose 80% of each meal. So you can see how choosing the most vitamin and mineral rich vegetables is important to your health and immunity.
As for fruit, if you are on stage one of The Diet, we recommend that you eat only those very sour fruits like organic lemons, and limes, or the very sour juice from unsweetened cranberries, pomegranates and black currants. When your symptoms of candidiasis have disappeared and you have been eating and drinking probiotic foods and liquids you can begin to add small amounts of fruits to your diet again. Their natural sugars will help feed the beneficial microflora in your intestines and help them grow and multiply.
It is important to know that while fruits are healthy and full of vitamins, minerals and fiber, the natural sugars in most fruits (except those just mentioned) feed pathogenic yeast or candida.
For more information on how to make the most of your vegetables in season and how to include fruit in your healthy Body Ecology program (including delicious recipes!), read The Body Ecology Diet.
We Love Farmer’s Markets!
Consumers are beginning to realize the importance of organic foods.
In fact, the organics industry has mushroomed in the last couple of decades, and as a result, large companies are going organic too.
This means it’s becoming more likely that your organic fruits and vegetables are coming from a mega-farm that transports its product across long distances, burning diesel and spewing pollution along the way.
By seeking out your area farmer’s market, you can enjoy the wide array of bright colors and fresh smells you’ll encounter from fruits and vegetables in season – knowing they’ve been picked just for you!
They types of fruits and vegetables in season will depend on where you live, but some general guidelines would be as follows:
- Spring represents renewal and fresh new growth, so choose leafy, vibrant greens like dandelion, spinach, kale, swiss chard, or romaine lettuce that aid in cleansing the blood to help you renew your body’s vibrancy.
Keep in mind that you’ll want to cook cruciferous vegetables because they have thyroid suppressing properties.
- Summertime is when our bodies usually desire more cooling foods, like cucumbers, zucchini, or red bell peppers.
- Fall and winter are when we need to eat foods that warm us and that means more cooked foods that often grow below the soil. Dense, nutrient and antioxidant-rich foods like onions, garlic, squash, turnips, potatoes and carrots to keep us warm and protect us against illness. These vegetables were also easy to store in root cellars during the cold winter months.
But perhaps the healthiest of foods that our ancestors ate were fermented foods. And while they did not know exactly why these foods kept them hardy and strong, they certainly knew it was of vital importance to eat them.
Preparing them in the fall (when food was abundantly available) was often an important family or community event. Only if they “put them up” would they have certain nutrients like vitamin C for the long winter months ahead. And while our ancestors most likely understood that fermented foods created immunity, they wouldn’t have known that they also nourished their inner ecosystems.
Feed Your Inner Ecosystem with Fermented Foods
Cultured vegetables have been around for centuries, long before refrigeration was an option.
And even though they were important foods for our ancestors they were completely forgotten as refrigerated and processed foods began to dominate our “modern” world.
Unfortunately, our bodies are suffering from their loss.
They are an excellent source of vitamin C, and the fermentation process significantly increases the nutrients in the vegetables! The Chinese and the Russians cultured cabbage each fall to ensure that they had a source of fresh greens throughout winter.
Fermented foods aid your digestion, boost the growth of healthy microflora in your inner ecosystem and aid your digestion.
Fermented foods like cultured vegetables are a great way to take advantage of organic vegetables in season.
You can use Body Ecology’s Culture Starter to start creating delicious raw cultured vegetables full of healthy, immune boosting microflora.
Culturing your own fresh vegetables is a delicious way to enjoy the fresh taste and rich nutrients of vegetables in season year-round! Learn More about “Culture Starter” Now!
Another way to enjoy fruits and vegetables for longer periods, without sacrificing their nutritional content, is to dehydrate them.
Healthy Earth, Healthy YOU!
The wide array of fruits and vegetables are nature’s most precious gift to us.
Demand healthier, fresher, local fruits and vegetables in season. This will support the Earth’s healthy ecosystem, which in turn supports a healthy you!
Sources:
- Local is the New Organic. The Growing Movement to know Your Farmer And Your Food
www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4410.cfm - Seasonal Foods: Better for your Body
www.saga.co.uk/health/healthyliving/healthyeating/seasonalfoodsbetterforyourbody.asp - The Benefit of Organic, from the Organic Trade Association
http://www.ota.com/organic/benefits/nutrition.html?PHPSESSID=e8ffc00c61cd5541e3f9c60718e435c6 - ibid
- Soil Health, from The Organic Trade Association
http://www.ota.com/organic/benefits/soil.html