So I listened to a great old podcast of Alexandra Jamieson’s about winter foods.  I am reading her new book ” Women, Food, and Desire”  right now and wanted to hear a little more of her work.  You may remember her from the award-winning documentary “Super Size Me” in which she was the co-star with her ex-husband.  Since then she has an amazing transformation story and outlines a lot of that in her new book and on the pod cast she does with Sean Croxton from Undergroundwellness.com.

Anyhow, I really love some of the points that she makes about our food choices in the winter and our New Years weight loss goals.  She suggests that we actually sabotage our weight loss efforts in these New Year resolutions by trying to diet with foods that aren’t in season and are to cooling to the body.

For instance —we often reach for a smoothie in the am with lots of frozen fruits and then do salads for lunch.  Our bodies in the winter are in hibernation mode –they don’t want those cooling foods like bananas, grapefruit, and cold salads. Our body wants to metabolize warming foods. It is more natural for the body’s internal environment. Here is a short list of Warming Foods—

Anise

Basil

Carob

Cumin

Chives

Cinnamon

Cloves

Coriander

Dates (and most dried fruit)

Dill

Fennel

Garlic

Ginger

Ginseng

Honey

Kumquat

Leeks

Mustard greens

Nuts

Oats

Onion

Papaya

Parsley

Parsnips

Pepper (black, Chile, red bell, green bell)

Quinoa

Rosemary

Rutabaga

Scallions

Seeds

Tea

Vinegar

Wasabi

Watercress

Wild rice

Here is a copy of the book–I’m about 1/2 way through and I really like it.  It really puts emotions, cravings and eating into a different perspective