Dr. Corinne: Welcome Fall! How to Eat Healthy by 'Eating Seasonally' with Some Delicious Recipes
Dr. Corinne Weaver : Sep 20, 2019
DrCorinneWeaver.com
Seasonal food is fresher, tastier, and more nutritious than food consumed out of season. Additionally, seasonal produce comes from local farms. This means foods will be fresher since they don't require long distances for transport.
I live in North Carolina and I love eating with the seasons. Fall is now here and it's a bountiful season providing so many wonderful foods! All produce has a natural harvest period. While we've become accustomed to getting whatever food we're craving at any time during the year; this wasn't always possible. (Image: Pixabay)
Take, for example, watermelon. When we think watermelon, we think summer. This is when the fruit is most abundant. With technological advances, we can produce watermelon in the fall, but you may notice it doesn't taste quite as good!
Does anyone know why watermelon is a summer fruit?
It's no secret that summer is HOT. We tend to sweat more in the summer, and watermelon is mostly water! Pretty cool right? Nature naturally produces what our bodies need throughout the seasons.
Seasonal eating is defined as food that is purchased and consumed around the time that it is harvested.
Seasonal food is fresher, tastier, and more nutritious than food consumed out of season. Additionally, seasonal produce comes from local farms. This means foods will be fresher since they don't require long distances for transport.
When consuming locally grown foods, produce ripens naturally, unlike produce harvested early to be shipped and distributed to your local retail store.
Plus, studies have shown that fruits and vegetables contain more nutrients when allowed to ripen naturally, so it's a win for your body and the environment!
Have you ever heard of a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture program?
The definition of a CSA has become synonymous with a once-a-week or biweekly box full of local fruits and veggies that are in season, but every CSA operation looks different. Some deliver to your door, and others have specified pick-up locations. Some pick all of the fruits and veggies for you, while others allow you to pick and choose options.
The benefits of joining a CSA include:
-supporting your local community
-eating more produce
-experimenting with new foods
-EATING SEASONALLY
-saving money
Here's a link where you can search for your local CSA by zip code.
Depending on where you live, different good stuff will be in season at different times. Before we get into the fall goodies, let's do a quick review of foods abundant during the other seasons. The following list is a breakdown of many in-season fruits and vegetables for North America:
SPRING
Veggies: Artichoke, asparagus, avocado (hoorah!), broccoli, fava beans, fennel, kale, peas, leeks, radishes, rhubarb, turnips
Fruits: Blood oranges, grapefruit, kiwi, pineapple
SUMMER
Veggies: Arugula, asparagus, bell pepper, cauliflower, corn, cucumber, eggplant, garlic, radishes, spinach, zucchini
Fruits: Apricots, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, figs, lemons, limes, melons, mulberries, nectarines, passion fruit, peaches, pineapple, plums, strawberries,
tomatoes
WINTER
Veggies: Beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celery, kale, leeks, onions, parsnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, radishes, rutabagas, turnips
Fruits: Citrus, kiwi, pomegranate
FALL: includes the months of September, October, and November. When you think of fall produce, think rich colors, burnt-orange, deep purple, and red.
Veggies:
Artichoke, beets, bell pepper, broccolini, brussel sprouts, butternut squash, cauliflower, celery root, chard, corn, eggplant, fennel, garlic, mushrooms, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkin, radishes, rutabagas, spinach, sweet potatoes
Brussel sprouts get a bad wrap - but when cooked properly they are delicious!
How to Buy
Look for Brussel sprouts that are still on the stalk, and avoid those with yellow or damaged outer leaves. If stalks aren't available, bulk is fine too!
How to Store
On the stalk, simply keep in the coldest part of the refrigerator. Loose sprouts will keep for weeks refrigerated, but once they're off the stalk, the flavor begins to deteriorate after a few days.
How to Prepare
Wash your Brussels sprouts with cold running water and remove any loose or damaged leaves. Pat dry, then trim the woody end of the stem. When using sprouts whole, slice an X into the bottom of each to help them cook more evenly.
Try this simple recipe for tasty roasted sprouts.
Let's end on a sweet note and make brownies!
Sweet Potato Brownies
Ingredients: 1 cup carob powder (or cocoa powder) ½ tsp sea salt ½ tsp baking soda ¼ cup arrowroot flour ½ cup coconut flour 1 cup mashed sweet potato (about 1 medium sweet potato) 1/3 cup maple syrup ½ cup coconut milk ½ cup coconut oil, melted 2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions: Preheat oven to 350°F. Scrape the sweet potato away from the skin and mash with a fork, then set aside 1 cup of mashed sweet potato. Mix dry ingredients Mix wet ingredients. Fold wet into dry until a dough is formed. Spread dough in an 8X8 pan and bake for 25–30 minutes. Cool and cut into squares. Enjoy!!
I hope you plan to incorporate seasonal eating into your diet this fall and enjoy God's colorful creation. If you want some more FREE healthy recipes... Click Here.
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Keep Breathing,
Dr. Corinne Weaver
Email: Dr@DrCorinneWeaver.com
Website: www.DrCorinneWeaver.com
Dr. Corinne Weaver is a compassionate upper cervical chiropractor, educator, motivational speaker, mother of three, and internationally bestselling author. In 2004, she founded the Upper Cervical Wellness Center in Indian Trail, North Carolina. Over the last 13 years, she has helped thousands of clients restore their brain to-body function. When she was 10 years old, she lost her own health as the result of a bike accident that led to having asthma and allergy issues that she thought she would always have to endure. Then, after her first upper cervical adjustment at age 21, her health began to improve thanks to upper cervical care and natural herbal remedies. This enabled her to create a drug-free wellness lifestyle for herself and her family, and she also enthusiastically discovered her calling to help children heal naturally.
Dr. Weaver was named one of Charlotte Magazine's "Top Doctors" in 2016 and is now a number-one internationally bestselling author to two books: Learning How to Breathe and No More Meds.
Upper Cervical Wellness Center is known for finding the root cause of health concerns through lifestyle changes, diagnostic testing, nutraceutical supplementation, and correction of subluxation (as opposed to just medicating the symptoms). The practice offers cutting-edge technological care at its state-of-the-art facility, including laser-aligned upper cervical X-rays, bioimpedance analysis (measures body composition), digital thermography (locates thermal abnormalities characterized by skin inflammation), and complete nutritional blood analysis, which is focused on disease prevention.