Season changes take place 4 times a year. Spring, summer, fall/autumn and winters. Every season comes with its own specialty and excitement. All these seasons also come with their own specific seasonal produce. With technology and science development most of the fruits and vegetables are available all year round but if you sit back for a while and think again, we would come up with a question that why does nature provide us with different seasons and with different varieties of produce specific to each season.
Fruits and vegetables naturally grow in cycles and ripen during certain season. At that point they are most nutritious and tasteful. Hence, we should prefer seasonal produce as much as possible. Also if you have ever noticed, when a particular season approaches you start craving for certain fruits and vegetables. For example pumpkin, persimmons and apples in the fall, mangoes and pears in summer, green leaves like spinach and kale in winters, pineapples and watermelons in spring.
In summer we sweat a lot and hence our body needs to stay hydrated and requires more fat to beat the heat. So certain fruits and vegetables fulfil this requirement of our body.
During fall the leaves start falling and winter starts approaching. In this transition the body needs some fat and also some vitamin D rich fruits and vegetables to be stored to fight the cold weather. Also certain natural fruits and vegetables help us fight this flu season.
During winters we need to eat more greens and this is the season when the vegetable harvest is best. If we consume these greens adequately our body stores all the good vitamins and prepares us for future weather changes.
During spring some days are cool and some days are warm. Most days are rainy. This season is also a flu season and certain fruits and vegetables help us develop antibodies to fight the germs and diseases, naturally. For example we consume more of vitamin C during spring.
Benefits of preferring seasonal produce:
1. They are cost effective during peak season.
2. They are ripe and hence more nutritious and full of taste.
3. You would be adding more variety to your diet or else your taste buds may get bored of eating the same food all year round.
4. You will add more variety of nutrients to your food and hence the health benefits.
5. Seasonal produce provides specific nutrients that are important for your body for that time of the year.
6. When we consume seasonal produce we also indirectly help the local farmers and the local farmers’ market in terms of economic growth.
Health Tip of the week
“Consume more seasonal produce and stay in tune with nature”.
Fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org
Agatha says
I think it depends on where you live. I was living in East Asia for a while and in the winters they didn’t have the green leafed vegetables. Most of them were squash.
Gunjan says
Hi Agatha, I totally agree with you. My main aim for writing this article was to stress on eating seasonal produce that is available in your area. 🙂
Mari says
Great share my daughter was suggesting we changed to this type of shopping just last month. Said it would be healthier for us to eat foods that were in season and less of canned or processed foods not in season. Love the post:)!