Best Eating Practices for Energetic Fall

Any time we come to the conclusion of an energetic season in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), it’s smart to check in with your diet. Make sure you're aligning your eating practices with the season. When you live in harmony with the spirit of the season and nature, you’ll live a more vibrant life.

In the case of energetic Fall, observe the season. Notice that our natural environment is beginning to slow down and contract. It’s preparing to rest for the Winter. 

If we choose to align ourselves with nature’s current seasonal behaviors, we’ll slow down, too. We’ll sleep a little longer, become a little more contemplative and inwardly focused and we’ll eat warming, nourishing foods, especially foods that nourish the lungs, the organ associated with Fall. 

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Best eating practices for energetic Fall include eating lung clearing and moistening foods (lung is the organ associated with the season) like apples, pears and persimmons. Sounds like it’s time for some fresh baked pie!

Foods with gently pungent flavors strengthen the lungs and should be balanced with sour foods which work to protect the skin against attack from the winds of Autumn. 

Gently pungent flavors come from herbs and spices like basil, coriander, bay leaves, capers, cardamom, chives, cinnamon, cloves, dill, fennel, ginger, oregano, nutmeg, rosemary, safflower, thyme, and turmeric. More powerful pungent flavors such as white pepper, garlic, chilies, onions and horseradish are best to use sparingly at this time. Gently pungent vegetables include cabbage, leeks and turnips.

Sour foods to balance the pungent might include sauerkraut, sour plums and apples, olives, pickles, lemons, limes, grapefruit and yogurt.

The Fall energetic season is the time when we may tend to eat less salads and raw foods while cooking our food at low temperatures for longer periods of time. For example, steam your food rather than do a quick stir fry. Or make some hearty, slowly cooked and simmered stews and soups that include navy and lima beans which are very good for the lungs. Begin phasing in to your soups and stews root vegetables which we will soon even more heartily use in the Winter.

Using small amounts of Himalayan sea salt in your cooking will help alleviate dryness caused by windy Autumn.

Autumn is a time of establishing a rhythmic order. There is a downward energy, grounding our bodies, minds and even our food into the earth. It is the ideal time to focus on the colon as life energy contracts and will prepare for a dormant state in the winter. Autumn is associated with white, and also the time of year our “white” foods are at their peak. They are the digestives and immune boosting foods such as: apples, pears, cabbage, cauliflower, garlic, and leeks.  – Kate Kennington, Holistic Health Coach

Here’s a list of supportive nourishing foods to incorporate into your best eating practices for Fall as we build our immune systems in preparation for Winter:

1. almonds

2. apples

3. apricots

4. asparagus

5. bananas

6. basil

7. bay leaves

8. black pepper

9. broccoli

10. cabbage

11. capers

12. cardamom

13. cauliflower

14. celery

15. cheese

16. chilies (sparingly)

17. chives

18. cinnamon

19. cloves

20. coriander

21. cucumber

22. dill

23. fennel

24. garlic (sparingly)

25. ginger

26. grapefruit

27. grapes

28. Himalayan salt

29. horseradish (sparingly)

30. leeks

31. lemons

32. limes

33. miso

34. mustard greens

35. navy beans

36. nutmeg

37. olives

38. onion (sparingly)

39. oregano

40. pears

41. persimmons

42. pickles

43. radish 

44. rice

45. rosemary

46. safflower

47. sauerkraut

48. sour plums

49. sourdough bread

50. soy beans

51. sweet potato

52. thyme

53. turmeric

54. turnips

55. vinegar

56. walnuts

57. white pepper (sparingly)

58. yogurt