Spring is a breath of fresh air after the colder, darker days of winter. The snow melts, the days get warmer and brighter, and the flora and fauna of our planet bring forth new growth and new life. It’s the perfect time to follow nature’s example and breathe new life into your diet, to regenerate your body and revitalize your health.
Try these ways to give your diet a thorough spring cleaning.
Pitch excess baggage in your diet. If you haven’t cut refined foods out of your diet yet, now is the perfect time to start anew by eliminating refined flours, sugars, and oils. These “foods” weigh down the body with nutrient-poor calories and present numerous risks to your health. To shed unwanted pounds and help the body function at its tip-top best, wipe the slate clean on your diet and avoid foods with these processed ingredients.
Get in sync with the season. Chinese medicine teaches that spring is the time to cleanse and rejuvenate the liver and improve the body’s detoxification process. To do that, avoid heavy foods (such as red meat and cheese), eat less, and eat lighter. Relish the foods of the season, such as salmon, trout, young chicken, dill, chives, asparagus, and strawberries. Eat artichokes and consider taking milk thistle extract—both of which have liver-protective properties. Take a load off the liver by avoiding alcohol, a drug the liver has to detoxify.
Make it a very veggie time. Include more green in your diet than brown or tan. Reduce the amount of grains and breads you eat, and eat more non-starchy vegetables, which have considerably fewer carbs and calories per serving. Fun seasonal foods to try include baby vegetables—those young, smaller versions of common vegetables—everything from green beans to zucchini to broccoli. Also include the traditional foods of spring: greens of all sorts, including mixed baby spring greens, baby spinach, dandelion greens, watercress, chervil, and sorrel. According to Judith Benn Hurley, author of “The Good Herb,” these greens are European herbalists’ prescription for spring rejuvenation. Dress greens lightly with the simplest of dressings—extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice or unrefined apple cider vinegar.
Get fresh. Emphasize foods that are as fresh as possible. When the weather is still cool outside, cook fresh foods and steam, bake, poach, simmer, sauté, or broil them. As the weather gets warmer, add more raw foods, such as salad greens or raw veggie sticks, to your diet. Eating more raw foods promotes detoxification and renewal, but too many uncooked foods can weaken digestion and trigger excessive cleansing reactions, according to “Healing with Whole Foods,” a classic guide on the healing power of Chinese medicine, by Paul Pitchford. So don’t add raw foods too quickly, especially if you feel cold, the weather is cold, or your digestion is weak. Other foods appropriate for spring cleaning are sprouted foods, such as flax bars, flax crackers, and sprouted seeds.
This article is an adapted excerpt from Chapter 3 in “Gluten Free Throughout the Year: A Two-Year, Month-to-Month Guide for Healthy Eating” by Melissa Diane Smith.
Filet of Sole Florentine
With baby spinach and dill, this is a simple springtime meal in one dish.Ingredients:
- 4 cups baby spinach leaves
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup finely chopped onions
- grated nutmeg
- 1 pound sole, flounder, or other mild-tasting fish fillets
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- the fresh juice of 1 medium to large lemon
- 2 tablespoons dill weed or Spice Hunter Deliciously Dill seasoning (a combination of dill weed, onion flakes, lemon peel, ginger, garlic, and chives)
Cover the pan, cook on medium-low, and check after 5 to 7 minutes. (Scoop underneath the fish and spinach mixture once to make sure it isn’t drying out or burning.) The fish is done when it’s milky in color and flakes easily with a fork. Garnish with lemon slices on top, and sprinkle with extra lemon juice at the table if desired. Serves 3 to 4.
* Recipe reprinted from “Gluten Free Throughout the Year” by Melissa Diane Smith.
Melissa Diane Smith is a holistic nutrition counselor and journalist who has been writing about health topics for more than 25 years. She is the author of several nutrition books, including “Syndrome X,” “Going Against the Grain,” “Gluten Free Throughout the Year,” and “Going Against GMOs.”
