Autumn puts an end to summer and introduces winter.
The explosive energy of the summer months is gradually fading, often too quickly for what we would like, and is transformed into a more introspective energy belonging to winter.
We move from the extreme yang to the extreme yin; autumn connects these two opposites, accompanying the body and mind in folding the yang towards a more intimate and peaceful yin.
Winter is the domain of cold and darkness, while summer is dominated by heat and light; the amount of light affects the metabolism and mood, and even the temperatures cause the body to need more warming foods .
According to traditional Chinese medicine and macrobiotics, health is the result of the correct adaptation to the seasonality of the period one is living, both from a philosophical and a food point of view.
The imbalances that are often encountered during the autumn are now recognized and attributed to the "change of season". If we consider that winter is the season in which viral influences and colds are more often found, we understand how important it is during the autumn to prepare the body for the more or less rigid months that will be encountered.
Supplements for the autumn: starting with nutrition
According to macrobiotics, nutrition can do much as a natural remedy for imbalances of various kinds, especially if they are environmental.
According to this philosophy, food is therefore the first supplement that can allow you to cross the autumn season with serenity and prepare for winter .
The first element on which to intervene is the type of cooking: if in summer the raw meals based on fruit and vegetables abound, in autumn you can gradually add the cooking, short, with the addition of a few fatty and warming seasonings.
The seasonality of fruit and vegetables is always and in any case to be respected: the pumpkins and cabbage, which begin in late September to abound in the markets, belong to the sweet taste, indicated in autumn. You can also resume using heating cereals, such as buckwheat, in the kitchen.
It's easy, if you listen to the body, to notice and follow what it tells us: you have less desire for ice cream and fruit, because they cool; the sugar, extremely yin and therefore very "cold" should be avoided, always, but particularly in this period . Furthermore, sugar prepares for mood swings, which are already frequent at this time of year when light is gradually decreasing.
We must be careful about what is "desire" and how much is instead "useful need": to be able to distinguish one from the other it would be useful a period, even a short one, of detoxification : the grapes, present at this time of the year, taken for a whole day or a meal replacement a day, is a strong detoxifier .
Healthy autumn with the right foods
Supplements for autumn: herbal teas, essential oils and spices
Other supplements for the fall serve to rebalance the sleep waking rhythm, often disturbed by the change of summer time, such as infusions for insomnia, herbal remedies based on passionflower, which allow to restore a continuous and regular rest .
Against the slight melancholy that often takes at the beginning of the first colds and in correspondence with the shortening of the days and the decrease of the hours of light, it can be useful to have the house where you are staying in warm lights and burnt essences containing special mixtures essential oils for autumn.
If, on the other hand, you want to prepare your body for winter and support your immune system, you can opt for:
- supplements based on echinacea (there are natural extracts and dosages in the pharmacy that act as preventive flu),
- re-insert warming spices such as ginger in the diet, both as an herbal tea and in the kitchen; turmeric remedies such as "golden milk"), pepper, cinnamon, cloves and curry . Even cardamom, added to vegetable milk, warms and cuddles in the cool evenings that start in winter.
