by Dr. Stephanie Auerbach, N.D.
The many benefits of eating seasonal food
Berries and peaches in the summer, squash and pumpkin in the fall. Seasonal eating is already a natural part of various cultures and diets. Lucky for us there are numerous benefits to eating foods grown in their prime. It’s healthier. It’s better for the environment. Quite simply, it tastes better. It can also be more cost effective, as what’s most available is often less expensive.
Being grown and harvested at the right time in an environment that cultivates its best qualities is what helps seasonal produce taste superior. By contrast, out-of-season produce often starts by being picked too early and then stored for several months to help guarantee supply during the off-season. That onion sitting on your counter or in your fridge may have been picked from its soil a year ago!
Foods lose nutrients soon after harvest
As a general rule, the longer it’s been since an item was harvested, the more nutrients it has lost. This is a big reason why eating seasonally and locally can help ensure your produce is still nutrient dense, as it’s not traveling thousands of miles over a span of weeks or months to get to you. Plenty of research has been done already to see just how quickly our food starts to lose its nutritional value once it’s been harvested. In spinach, ascorbate (a form of vitamin C and a strong antioxidant) was found to reduce by over 50% after 10 days of storage. B vitamins were found to be reduced by up to 30% after only 2 hours. Starting to see why seasonal and local is better?
Your recommended seasonal eating guide
Want to get started? Here are some recommendations for produce according to the season in which they are grown most optimally. You can even take it a step further and check out your local farmer’s markets to see which options are grown and available closer to you!
Winter
Vegetables- brussel sprouts, beets, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, sweet potato, turnips, parsnips, leeks, kale.
Fruit- orange, lemon, lime, kiwi, grapefruit, tangerine, cranberries.
Spring
Vegetables- artichoke, asparagus, rhubarb, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, peas, swiss chard, onion.
Fruit- apricot, strawberries, mango, banana, pineapple.
Summer
Vegetables- bell pepper, green beans, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini.
Fruit- avocado, berries, stone fruit (cherries, peaches, plums, apricots), watermelon, figs.
Fall
Vegetables- pumpkin, potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, mushrooms, beets, squash, carrots, radish, broccoli.
Fruit- Apple, pear, grapes, cranberries, dates.
Improve your health and support the environment
Another plus to eating seasonally is that it encourages your diet to change from month to month, helping to broaden and diversify your nutrient profiles. Seasonal foods mimic our bodies’ natural metabolic rhythms, and eating them helps fulfill your nutritional needs. It’s so easy to get stuck in patterns as a way of simplifying our lives, and the foods we eat are not at all immune to the habits that we humans like to form. There are hundreds of different fruits and vegetables out there, and most of us limit ourselves to maybe a couple dozen in our average diets.
For the above reasons, seasonal eating year-round can help improve not only the health of our bodies, but that of our environment as well. Storing and transporting food requires a lot of energy and has a major impact on the environment. When there is more demand for seasonal and local produce, it enables farmers to take better care of their land by growing crops that are more compatible. Plus, growing a diverse array of crops helps farmers improve their soil quality while helping to support more responsible and sustainable agricultural practices.