Are you full of the joys of Spring? Flicking around the house with a duster? Filled with a desire to declutter, wash curtains and vacuum all your hidden nooks and crannies?
As well as your house, it’s a really good idea to “spring clean” your body at this time of year to get it ready for a new season and clear out the sluggishness of winter.
In some traditional medicine systems, foods are classified according to their effects on the body– whether they are hot and ‘heating’ or cold and ‘cooling’. You probably already instinctively know about hot and cold foods—think about how you want to vary your diet through the year! In winter, we naturally lean towards carrots and onions and roots (all heating foods), while a lovely summer’s day has us running for lettuce and cucumbers (unsurprisingly cooling).
All those roots and store cupboard meals of winter take their toll on our vitality and energy. The carbs and sugars we need to get through a bleak midwinter are fine, but spring and summer is a great time to bring fresher and lighter, cooling foods into your diet.
If you’re really keen, you can try a herbal tonic tea to put a ‘spring’ in your step (sorry!). Herbs such as cleavers or sticky willy were traditionally used to cleanse and give the lymphatic system a flush.
But you can get just as good an effect by modifying your diet and bringing in lots of fresh spring greenery, including a few ‘herbs’ like chickweed! Or nibble on one of our herby salad bags—with lots of lovely fresh spring herbs (and not a sticky willy in sight).
