Why You Should Care About Seasonal Eating By Sarah Abedi, MD “When we eat seasonally, not only are foods more nutritious and flavorful but are also cheaper and better for the environment.” Seasonal eating encourages consuming fruits and vegetables during the time of year when it’s naturally ready for harvest. Although we now have access to many fruits and vegetables in grocery stores, not all of the produce has grown in season. When we eat seasonally, not only are foods more nutritious and flavorful but are also cheaper and better for the environment. Seasonal eating is a beautifully simple food philosophy but has become complicated through our global food market systems. “Not only are peak season broccoli more nutritious but they will also have more flavor.” Seasonal eating will harvest produce when nutrients are at their peak. One study looked at the vitamin C content of broccoli and found that peak season broccoli grown in fall had a higher vitamin C level than during other seasons. Not only are they more nutritious but they will also have more flavor. Chef Thomas Keller who runs the world famous The French Laundry restaurant boasts the importance of seasonal eating in his Michelin star restaurants- seasonal food just tastes better. “Eating seasonally helps the environment.” Eating seasonally helps the environment. Imagine the fuel emissions associated with getting an apple from Mexico to the United States. Compare that to picking up that same apple from your local farmer’s market. When produce is shipped from long distances, particular post-harvest treatments are used to maintain freshness. These include heating processes, edible films, and ripening agents. These processes help slow the ripening process and protect the produce from pathogens. Studies show these ripening agents can decrease the nutrient content of produce. “When produce is in season, it is abundant and therefore cheaper.” When produce is in season, it is abundant and therefore cheaper. It’s simple supply and demand. When we buy produce that is out of our local season, it will be sourced from locations with different climates and can also be stored for long periods of time to offer people year-round produce. When produce is stored, some antioxidants such as folate, carotenes and vitamin C can rapidly decline. Eating healthy can be expensive but eating with the seasons can help with savings. Seasonal eating has been naturally practiced for centuries and only in the last hundred…

Meeting The Change in Seasons with Equanimity By Amanda Gilbert Fall is my favorite time of the year. There is something about the slow letting go of the lush colored foliage and long ripe nights of summer that equally inspires an internal slowing down within me to feel the transition at hand. Some years, I meet fall with more of a celebration of harvest, delicious pear and apple pickings, and the endearing excitement of seeing the black oak acorns covering the golden turning Topanga ground beneath my feet. While other years when fall arrives I feel thrown into the state change abruptly, wishing summer was not ending and feeling uncertain about meeting the natural cycles of death and rebirth that are right around the calendar corner with winter. For this reason, I often revere the inherent unpredictability and uncertainty that fall brings to me. Because it gives the great opportunity to take a look at how my inner-equanimity is doing during any given year, by asking the pivotal question: how am I meeting change right now? Am I welcoming this transition from known to new while seeing it clearly? Or am I feeling decentered and disoriented by this change? Or, even resistant to change? One of the most helpful ways I have found to approach this seasonal question is by bringing my mindfulness practice to it. And, by focusing on the direct cultivation of equanimity. Especially if the recent inner questioning had brought about the response that more grounding and adaptability amidst change is presently required. In my recent book, Kindness Now, an entire section is solely devoted to the practice and deeper understanding of equanimity. Depending on the translation from Pali or Sanskrit (the languages ancient Buddhist texts were written in) the word symbolizing “equanimity” is transcribed as “balance” or “evenness” - particularly an internal state of evenness known as an evenness of mind and heart in the midst of life’s endless ups and downs, pulling toward and pushing away, liking and disliking, wanting, and wishing away. Equanimity centers us in the reality of things exactly as they are. It gives us the skillful means to see our own hearts and minds clearly so we can ultimately be in authentic alignment with exactly where we are internally. This way of thinking about equanimity has always been helpful to me as feeling equanimous reminds me a lot of that feeling…