I would like to return to the important principle that we must always strive to consume seasonal products. In my opinion it is a fundamental concept from which many other food rules should also be respected to promote good health.
When you stop and think about it, everything is seasonal food! I have already discussed the subject of eggs, whereby if you halt the consumption of eggs in the winter it should protect against developing IgG allergy (birds do not lay eggs in winter, do they?). Then there is that ridiculous idea that you should eat an apple a day all year long (this will supposedly keep the doctor away?). Another example is to consume strawberries in winter (even in February when they come from Spanish hot houses, with no flavour or nutrients, but covered with a lot of pesticides). Here's how to get rid of allergies to fruit and vegetables: eat them in their normal season.
I encourage everyone to download from my website www.gmouton.com your list of seasonal foods: click on “seasonal” then click on the tab “English” and you are there!
If we look more closely, nearly all food should be rotated with their normal seasons. Take East Africa for instance, where the people are no longer nomadic hunter- gatherers. They now practice subsistence agriculture ("food to mouth agriculture") and do not care for intensive production for sale. In their environment it is all that is possible on extremely arid and stony land. There, I have observed that the herds are systematically heterogeneous: one or two zebras, several cows, goats and sheep. Hence they are benefiting from a good form of natural food rotation. And when they consume dairy products they do not do it all year round or from the same species….
Maybe you are going to tell me they do so given the chronic lack of food affecting these populations. The fact is quite different as these people recognize how important it is to interrupt their milk consumption while the mother is breastfeeding its newborn. In these regions, they require all the maternal milk to grow and develop, especially in this particularly harsh environment where there is not much other food available. So, they create a cycle and benefit from this seasonal interruption so essential for the immune system to rest, thus avoiding the development of unwanted reactions.
For further proof, let’s look at the traditional farms within European counties where animals were raised to feed the families. On these farms they did not sacrifice an animal at any time of the year: there was generally a season for everything!
When one respects the seasons it carries with it many other advantages beyond the avoidance of any adverse food allergies. First of all, there is the obvious freshness of the foods. In addition you also avoid the abomination of long-haul transport, where fruit is picked while still “green” and sprayed with chemicals to prevent too rapid ripening, held in refrigerated conditions for the same reason (but this process leads to a degradation of the flesh of the fruit and reduces the shelf life once the warming up takes place), without ignoring the huge wastefulness that this practice entails.
The intercontinental export of perishable goods is only possible thanks to cheap oil, which are the result of the US-Saudi agreements following the end of the Second World War. Alas, the price of oil doesn't reflect its rarity and pushes us to excessive consumption, while oil reserves are being rapidly depleted.
Global agriculture is thereby upset because we grow anything anywhere (roses in Kenya!) by using very intensive methods, most often with very destructive consequences for the environment. In addition people are exploited by this system: emerging market farmers are under-paid by multinationals, while in Europe the produce bought out of season is over-priced versus produce bought in season and locally grown….
We must buy locally: virtually everyone knows this but who actually does it? One extremely good reason is the superior taste of fresh foods locally produced and in season. These foods are far superior in comparison with the expensive altered products that are imported and transported from afar. A good flavour always reflects the presence of abundant alkaloids, these precious phytonutrients that are crucial to our health. What are you waiting for? Please download the list of seasonal foods from my website now!