By Jes Williams @feelmoregooder
One of the best things about the summer months is the vegetables and fruits that begin to grow bountifully. Everything around us begins to turn green, birds are more vocal, and many animals become more active.
Us humans - as well, seem to gravitate outside more often and seek nature for the reprieve it offers. If we know what’s good for us, we are outside more, finding some time for vacations, and partaking in outdoor adventures - bonus points if we’re barefoot and connecting to the earth, reaping the benefits of grounding.
Though the new growth around us may seem like a purely aesthetic pleasure to enjoy, it actually can be very beneficial to get curious about what’s growing seasonally around you.
Even though we can purchase tropical fruits at our local Whole Foods year-round doesn’t mean that we are intended to have access to food that isn’t grown near us in quantities that we consume. Rather, perhaps our physiology is designed to consume foods grown in our local light environment. This gets into the emerging research on quantum biology, quantum nutrition, and more topics that surpass the mainstream nutrition advice.
According to leading global neurosurgeon, Dr. Jack Kruse, eating what’s seasonally and locally available offers benefits that are connected to our mitochondria & circadian health. He says, “Why should you eat a seasonal diet for your latitude and longitude? Because Mother Nature built you this way to operate well.” He discusses that eating food grown in your local light environment is highly advantageous to your health.
This approach to eating, though it’s been mentioned through decades of healthy nutrition trends, appears to be at the current forefront of dietary approaches. As we consider the importance of circadian rhythm on health, this logically is a reasonable consideration. Seasonal eating ties to the circadian mechanism in your body, which impacts things like body weight, inflammation, and metabolism. (1) Looking at seasonal eating through this lens is truly insightful and it’s interesting to learn more & integrate it! (2)
Curious about ways to include more seasonal produce in your routine? Juicing is a great way to experiment and also to ingest produce that you do not normally consume enough of.
The benefits of drinking a juice like this (low glycemic, nutrient-dense) are:
- -Ingesting about 2.5 pounds of produce per 16 ounces (hello, nutrients!)
- -Benefitting your cardiovascular health (3)
- -Lowers blood pressure (3)
- -Improves lipid profiles (3)
- -Provides your body with polyphenols, vitamins, and minerals (3)
- -Offers you anti-inflammatory actions in the body (3)
-Create positive changes in the gut microbiome, in some cases eliciting healthy weight loss (4)
-Contains a potent amount of chlorophyll (what makes plants green the the result of photosynthesis) which has been shown to have antioxidant, antimutagenic, antigenotoxic, and anti-cancer properties (5)
Now for the juice!
Details:
-Makes roughly 24 ounces of juice
-Fill up jars as much as possible for maximum freshness
-Feel free to substitute any ingredients for vegetables that you locally have access to. To keep the drink low glycemic, aim for a focus on green vegetables or low-sugar fruits. Think: 80% vegetables and 20% fruit.
Ingredients:
1 head of green leaf lettuce, roughly chopped
1 head of lacinto kale, roughly chopped
2 large lemon, halfed
2 small knobs of ginger (feel free to use less for less of a zing)
2 large cucumbers cut into thirds
2 whole celery stalks
Directions:
-Have 2 jars ready, one for immediate juice drinking and one for storage.
-Run all produce through your juicer, ending with the highest-yield vegetables (cucumber + celery), which will help “clean the pipes” of your juicer and give you the biggest bang for your produce “buck”
-Drink half of the juice and store the other half. Try to consume within 5 days for maximum freshness, flavor, and nutrient density.
*Some Doctors and Practitioners that are at the forefront of easy-to-understand education on circadian rhythm, seasonal eating & importance of light environment are Dr. Max Gulhane, Dr. Jack Kruse, Dr. Carrie Bennett, Dr. Catherine Clinton, and Dr. Alexis Jazmyn.
References:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5063707/
- https://doctorschierling.com/blog/dr-jack-kruse-on-using-light-to-control-ones-weight-and-health
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5372571/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5438379/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10384064/
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