Seasonal Eating: What a Dietitian Eats to Feel Energized
Now that I have your attention with a click-bait worthy headline, I have some great news: seasonal eating is one of the most nutritious ways to eat. It is also one of the cheapest ways to eat. And I think those two things are something everyone can get on board with.
What actually is seasonal eating?
Seasonal eating is eating what grows in your general area around that general time of year.
There isn’t a perfect definition of it, but you know it when it’s happening: the strawberries are extra delicious. The corn is on point. And that watermelon - it’s perfect. Your body knows it’s seasonally eating before you do.
What are the benefits of seasonal eating?
When I think of seasonal eating, there are three main benefits I argue in its favor. They range from scientific to economic to a little “woo” .
1) Less transit time = higher nutritional content
As soon as a plant is picked off of its tree, vine, bush, out of the ground, or off its main stem, it starts losing nutrients. It’s been separated from its food and water source. Food transporters have some pretty cool science to help keep food as fresh as possible (like using ethylene gas disruptors to keep apples from spoiling for months), but there’s only so much that can be done.
Sure, the food can be frozen (often done right up where the food is harvested), but not all foods freeze well. Like have you ever tried to eat a frozen head of romaine lettuce? Not the best experience. Likewise, sometimes you just want to eat a fresh plum, juice dripping down your wrists and all over your face.
Through the advent of globalized food, large supermarkets are almost always stocking year-round produce - but how? How is there citrus available in July when the citrus season in the US is largely in the winter? Leveraging the globe’s southern hemisphere (and therefore opposite growing season) and pairing it with massive-scale food transport.
So, instead of blueberries only having to travel 1-2 days to get to your supermarket shelves, now they’re taking 2-3 weeks. And they’re at least twice as expensive.
2) Longer transit times + basic macroeconomics = higher food costs
Even before tariffs and oil surcharges, imported foods were significantly more expensive than their seasonally available counterparts. I mean, it makes sense. Everyone involved in moving fresh food needs to be paid. The barges and trucks have to be refrigerated.
Case study: Why Do Imported Blueberries Cost More?
Consider the humble Chilean blueberry which may show up in your bowl if you crave fresh blueberries in the middle of winter. Multiple companies are now involved in handling the movement of the blueberry to your table - 15-20 players, including customs brokers, port/terminal operators, ocean carriers, multiple inspection agencies, and sales agents). Compare this to the US blueberry that only uses 5-7 entities - essentially just growers, transporters, and the supermarket.
Then, we introduce supply and demand. When supply is low and demand is high, we get a price jump. I see this at the very beginning of pomegranate season, in early November. We can all sense that pomegranates are coming around and maybe you start seeing a few in the stores - but they’re expensive.
Are we really going to spend $4 or $5 for a piece of fruit that is going to take us watching a YouTube video to remind us how to get all those little arils out? (Jeopardy clue for your - “aril” is the name for a pomegranate seed)
Yes, we will spend $4 to $5 for that first pomegranate because we’ve been waiting forever for it. But, if you’re willing to wait a bit longer, the full breadth of the harvest will start coming in. The supply will glut. The initial rush of consumer demand will slow.
And the price will eventually drop to “buy 2 for $4!” and you’ll be asking yourself if you really have it in you to stand at the counter and bang on a wooden spoon on the back of a pomegranate, splashing staining red juice everywhere, because someone said that was the fastest way to process a pomegranate (even though you like the meditation of picking out each of the arils).
3) It connects us to time and place
I think of this like how we can feel that there’s a “soup season” and a “salad season”. Your body just knows what it needs when it needs it. A (now quite old) study did look into this and showed that there were caloric differences in how we ate through the year, with our bodies needing more calories to feel full in the fall (I guess we are going into hibernation after all).
There is precedence to say that our bodies experience some rhythmic changes through the year’s seasons. Another study identified that thyroid activity changes based on the time of year.
Beyond that, eating seasonally is, to some degree, eating locally. It’s eating what’s available to you where you are when you’re there. And if you're a busy traveling professional, this can help with grounding and centering when everything else is feeling busy and chaotic.
For example, I am split between three places: I grew up in Connecticut, moved to Alaska, and am now spending more time in Arizona. These are three very different climates and growing cycles. So, when I’m in an area, I eat what is in season in that area. It plugs me in to that world and grounds me to the place and time (there’s the woo). And, it’s easier than trying to maintain a rigid diet.
How can I start eating seasonally?
1) Look up your local resources to learn what’s seasonal in your area
This is what I google: “seasonal growing calendar in [enter state here]”. There will often be resources from a local university cooperative extension or farmer’s market network. What is seasonal in South Carolina is not what will be seasonal in Oregon. America is an incredibly varied place in our geography and climate, so it’s fair to assume that there will be minimal overlap in what’s easy to get nearby.
For example, let’s consider August in the three places I travel to regularly. Each state name has the resource I found for seasonal availability:
Connecticut: I can grill peppers, eggplant, and summer squash!!
Alaska: Maybe I’ll make a spinach and strawberry salad with some pickled red onions (August is probably the best time for seasonal eating in Alaska).
Arizona: This is the time for enjoying melons, peppers, and cucumber.
2) Go to a nearby farmer’s market and talk to local growers
These folks know the area like no one else. They know what upcoming weather and pest patterns will affect crop yields, what the market is supporting, and generally when they may start being able to harvest the next round of seasonal produce.
They also likely have ideas on how to best prepare the food - whether it’s best roasted, tossed with vinegar and herbs, paired with a pork chop or filet of fish, or chopped into a pasta salad.
3) Stay flexible with your menu and your snacks
Eating seasonally and menu planning are not mutually exclusive. This point is just to say, if strawberries aren’t in season, it’s ok to swap that dish out for one that features oranges. And not every meal has to be centered around seasonality - so slotting out a few days of the week where you may want to enjoy a summer corn and bean salad, or a winter potato and leek soup, may be a nice way to start.
