Eating with the seasons for better health & wellbeing

According to the ancient wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine, choosing foods that are in tune with the flow of nature creates balance between your body and the environment, helping you better adapt seasonal conditions and transitions.

This is why you crave 'warming' foods like stews in the winter, and 'cooling' fruit and veggies in the summer!

Discover how you more about this approach to seasonal eating in this short video with Product Development Manager Maddie Ong.

In the same way that we respond to the weather around us by dressing in clothes that keep us snug and warm in winter and cooler in summer, choosing the foods based on their seasonality is a way to keep your body in balance with your environment.

That's partly about choosing foods according to when they're in season - for example, right now I'm enjoying fresh berries from the farmer's market, because they're in season at the moment and really delicious!

But TCM takes it a step further, encouraging us to also understand that different foods have medicinal or therapeutic effects above and beyond the nutrients they contain.

A simple example is that some foods are considered heating or warming in TCM, while others are considered cooling (regardless of the temperature they're served at) - and that influences the functioning of our organs and the way they interact with each other.

As a general rule, foods that take a long time to grow (like potatoes and other root vegetables) are more warming than fast-growing foods like salad greens and cucumbers. Similarly, foods that are cooked for a long time (like casseroles) are more warming than foods that are raw (like fresh fruit).

So, before you decide what to eat, think about how you feel now, and how you want to feel after you eat. What type of food would you intuitively reach for to help you achieve that in a healthy way?