Our wellbeing is based on the choices we make daily. One of these, and possibly the most important of them all, is doubtlessly the choice of food consumed. Just as we carefully choose spa treatments in the periods set aside for relaxation, so we should pay special attention to choosing our food which should preferably be seasonal.
Link this to the spa: together with sauna sessions, pool use and targeted treatments, reach for a healthy buffet of light meals, organic ingredients and controlled portions. If eating five servings of fruit and vegetables a day is the basic rule for healthy nutrition, then take advantage of snack times to eat healthy food, that is, above all, seasonal!
We often see supermarket shelves stocked with tomatoes in December and cabbage in summer. These foods, however, are very different to seasonal produce for they do not grow outside on trees and plants but in greenhouses. Alternatively, they might be grown far away and therefore do not ripen naturally on trees but in refrigerated trucks that transport them to our supermarket shelves.
Choosing to eat tomatoes in summer means consuming produce that has ripened naturally on plants which have enjoyed the sunshine and which, therefore, have benefited from a proper growth cycle. These tomatoes will be much richer in vitamins and minerals, not to mention the fact that the nutrients in tomatoes are those that our bodies need at that specific time of the year!
Think of the fruit that is naturally available in winter: oranges, kiwi, lemons, all those foods rich in Vitamin C that help us fight typical winter colds. Conversely, in summer there are watermelons, melons, peaches and apricots, which, thanks to their high water content help to rehydrate the body.
Therefore, the choice of fruit and vegetables to consume should depend on a variety of food that is seasonal, and this is the foundation of a healthy, well-balanced diet. Eating what nature provides in a given year will teach us to follow our natural biological rhythms. Just like a spa, this will provide us with those nutrients that are necessary to render our wellbeing easier to attain.
