Cold Weather. Warm Food.

Is it just me but for those of us who live in cold climates, do you also have cravings for warm food while rejecting the idea of eating a cold salad or sipping a glass of iced tea this time of year? As I delve more into the study of Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of health and healing, I find that some of its main principles, such as how our eating patterns change from season to season, are right on target with what I am experiencing. In the summer, my body can’t get enough of leafy salads, fresh fruit and the occasional soft serve ice cream cone, but when the first snap of winter hits, my taste buds quickly switch to begging to be fed with warm bowls of soup and cups of hot tea with threads of steam hovering over it. According to Ayurveda, we should combat the coldness and dryness of winter by opting for food choices and lifestyle changes that employ the opposite qualities. So my insistence on warm food or perhaps your need to slather yourself in rich lotion each morning to thwart off the dry skin that winter also brings is not that far off from what the ancient Indian sages recommended thousands of years ago.