SRPING FOODS- What's good to eat this time of year

SPRING: What foods we should consume during spring.

During spring it is important you consume gentle nutritious food- full sweet flavours such as legumes and vegetables. We should also eat foods with upward energies such as young, green, sprouting above ground vegetables. Tis also the season to enjoy scallops, prawns and calamari.

FACTS
• Stress headaches are connected to the function of the liver. Drink spearmint tea or try eating celery to eliminate and reduce your headache.
• Peppermint tea can dispel wind and clear heat from the head & eyes and relieve stagnant qi. Try a cup to relieve nausea.
• Chinese Red Dates: act as a sedative and calm the mind and spirit. Make a meal of them by adding a few to rice congee. They are excellent support for the spleen during spring.
• People engage in more physical activity, which creates more internal warmth thereby enabling you to consume more raw foods such as salads etc. If you are weak or deficient, or not very active stick to warm, freshly cooked foods.
• In Spring, get rid of phlegm by eating papaya
• For a dry cough, try eating celery.
• Mung beans, green peas and green beans are colour coordinated to enliven the spirit of spring. They also remove heat, which can be very beneficial.

FOODS TO EAT
Oats, pine nuts, prawns, ginger, fennel, spring onions, basil, celery, mulberry, strawberry, peppermint, hot water with fresh lemon, prawns, scallops, calamari, leafy greens, broccoli, spring onions!!!!, grapefruit, chamomile, peas, sunflower seeds, cherries, cabbage, sweet potato, carrot, beetroot, rosemary, oregano, dill, bay leaf, Grains, legumes, seeds, mung beans, green beans, chicken, watercress, lettuce, seaweed, raw honey, apple cider vinegar, liquorice root.

FOODS TO AVOID
Hot spicy foods, greasy foods, too much tofu, slippery foods such as honey and spinach, especially if you suffer diahrrea.

GUIDELINE: an example of a typical day.

Breakfast.
Porridge/Oats with fresh berries or Whole GRAIN toast with avocado/tomatoes/pepper/mushrooms/little cheese or hummus or tahini

Snack
Nuts/sultanas/apricots/sunflower seeds/pine nuts

Lunch
Rice with shitake mushrooms, chicken/ beef (NB: Cabbage, broccoli and leafy greens promote digestion of meat)
Sushi with miso soup
Sandwich- salad on rye bread

Dinner
Pick any of the above out of foods to eat
Asparagus soup
Steamed fish with ginger/ salad/vegetables
Prawns, scallops, calamari (steamed)
Scallops with asparagus
Stir fried rice noodles with vegetables
Shitake mushroom with tofu
Vegetarian shish kebabs
Chicken and rice casserole with prawns and chestnuts etc

This gives you a base of things to pick and choose. Don’t go crazy on one particular thing- balance it out.