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June 9, 2015

Superfoods for June.

food

June is a transitional month in Ayurveda and an exciting time as spring finally starts rounding the bend towards summer.

Depending on where you live, June can feel like the middle of summer or still the April showers of spring. Seasonal eating and following the cycles of nature with our diets is one of the tenets of Ayurveda. Doing so supports a diverse, thriving microbiome, and ultimately, our health, mood, and well-being. (1-9)

Spring is the time of year the earth holds more water, and we do the same. This manifests as spring allergies and colds that frequent this time of year. If we did not do that great of a job eating the mucus-erasing leafy greens and berries of spring, we often enter summer carrying much of the spring’s mucus with us. Of course, this mucus generally accumulates in the gut and sinuses.

If we allow summer’s heat to accumulate unchecked by cooling seasonal foods, this spring accumulation of mucus can quite literally bake onto the intestinal and respiratory mucosa, causing further irritation and a major alteration to the environment of our good microbes.

During the summer, nature is harvesting an abundance of naturally cooling, blood, skin and liver cleansing and supportive foods with all its fruits and veggies. These foods are important because of what spring has left us to deal with. Summer calls for foods that are higher in healthy carbohydrates (vegetables and some fruits) to drive energy for the long days of summer. Summer is also when we begin to accumulate heat energy.

While we suggest to mostly eat off the Spring Grocery List in June, there are definitely exceptions to that rule according to your climate. During these days of transition, when it is wet some days and hotter than the peppers Peter Piper ate other days, there are certain foods that that you should focus on that I like to call transitional superfoods. You can find these foods by cross-referencing the Spring and Summer Grocery Lists.

Below, I have listed these transitional superfoods for you. Enjoy!

Vegetables:

• Alfalfa sprouts
• Artichokes
• Asparagus
• Bean Sprouts
• Bell Peppers
• Bitter Melon
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Chicory
• Cilantro
• Collard Greens
• Corn
• Dandelion
• Endive
• Fennel
• Green Beans
• Jicama
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Mushrooms
• Mustard Greens
• Parsley
• Peas
• Radishes
• Seaweed
• Snow peas
• Spinach
• Swiss Chard
• Watercress

Fruits:

• Apples
• Blueberries
• Papayas
• Pears
• Pomegranates
• Raspberries
• Strawberries

Meats:

• Chicken
• Duck (moderation)
• Eggs (moderation)
• Freshwater Fish
• Lamb (moderation)

Grains:

• Barley
• Rye

Legumes:

• Adzuki
• Black Gram
• Fava
• Garbanzo
• Goya
• Kidney
• Lentils
• Lima
• Mung
• Split pea

Oils:

• Flax

Spices:

• Anise
• Asafoetida
• Chamomile
• Coriander
• Cumin
• Fennel
• Peppermint
• Saffron
• Spearmint

Herb Tea:

• Chicory
• Dandelion
• Hibiscus

Sweeteners:

• Maple Syrup

Nuts and Seeds:

• Piñon
• Pumpkin
• Sunflower

~

References: 

1. Mongolians core gut microbiota and its correlation with seasonal dietary changes. Zhang J, et al. Sci Rep. 2014.
2. Seasonal variation in human gut microbiome composition. Davenport ER, et al. PLoS One. 2014.
3. Haskell, David George. The Forest Unseen. Penguin Books: 2012.
4. Microbial endocrinology: the interplay between the microbiota and the endocrine system. FEMS Microbiol Rev. 2015 Feb 19. pii: fuu010. [Epub ahead of print] Neuman H1, Debelius JW2, Knight R2, Koren O3.
5.  Mind-altering microorganisms: the impact of the gut microbiota on brain and behaviour. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2012 Oct;13(10):701-12. doi: 10.1038/nrn3346. Epub 2012 Sep 12. Cryan JF1, Dinan TG.
6.  Gut microbiome composition is associated with temperament during early childhood. Brain Behav Immun. 2015 Mar;45:118-27. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2014.10.018. Epub 2014 Nov 10. Christian LM1, Galley JD2, Hade EM3, Schoppe-Sullivan S4, Kamp Dush C4, Bailey MT2.
7. Gut emotions – mechanisms of action of probiotics as novel therapeutic targets for depression and anxiety disorders. CNS Neurol Disord Drug Targets. 2014;13(10):1770-86. Slyepchenko A, Carvalho AF, Cha DS, Kasper S, McIntyre RS1.
8. Nutrient tasting and signaling mechanisms in the gut. II. The intestine as a sensory organ: neural, endocrine, and immune responses. Am J Physiol. 1999 Nov;277(5 Pt 1):G922-8. Furness JB1, Kunze WA, Clerc N.
9.  Allergy and the gastrointestinal system Clin Exp Immunol. 2008 Sep; 153(Suppl 1): 3–6. doi:  10.1111/j.1365-2249.2008.03713.x PMCID: PMC2515351 G Vighi,* F Marcucci, L Sensi, G Di Cara, and F Frati

~

Author: Dr. John Douillard

Editor: Caroline Beaton

Photo: Flickr

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