Originally published in Allens Creek Living, January 2015

You know the expression: you are what you eat. Native Americans who lived in the Northeast believed they were one with the deer because venison was a primary food source. The corn, squash and beans were referred to as the Three Sisters because they provided a full range of nutrients. The Native Americans knew this centuries before nutritional science broke our molecular needs down into proteins, fats, carbohydrates and minerals.

In our modern health quest, there are many food “systems” we can turn to for guidance: blood type diets, ayurvedic, macrobiotic, raw food, inflammation-reducing diets, cleanses, Paleo, low-carb, no-carb, etc. How does one choose?

Unless your doctor has given you a medically-prescribed diet for a specific condition, there are a few guidelines that give you a good place to start.

1.       Be mindful about food

Are you aware of what you eat? This may sound obvious, but it can be a surprisingly complex question to answer. Marketers depend on emotional food associations to sell us things we wouldn’t choose to ingest otherwise. Do you make a conscious choice about every item in your grocery basket? Do you make a conscious choice every time food goes in your mouth?

2.       Buy local seasonal foods from growers you know who use organic (or close to organic) growing methods.

Among folk healers there is a strong belief that Nature’s local offerings provide the best remedies for seasonal diseases, that the soil and its produce contain what we need for the health challenges that present as we move through the seasons. Eat local apples, carrots, beets, kale, and cabbage through the cold months instead of citrus brought from warmer climates. As regulations regarding what can be labeled as organic change, it can be challenging to know what it means that a product is labeled “organic.” Organic growing processes have changed as large corporations move into the organic boom. Getting to know your grocer or farmer means you can get answers about how the food is produced. You may decide to choose a “mostly organic,” Integrated Pest Management, or “low or no antibiotic” food item from a farmer you know over an ambiguously organic item from a corporate farm in Chile or California.

3.       If you must buy prepackaged food, buy foods with ingredients you recognize and can pronounce.

For those of us who aren’t food scientists this guideline keeps us away from mystery chemicals. We need foods that the body can break down, use to maintain health and eliminate. Mystery chemicals can be wild cards in a system that, while miraculous in its ability to sustain us, can become unbalanced by chemicals that don’t naturally occur in food.

By using these guidelines as you approach what you eat, you can feed your cells the best fuel and give your body the nutritional resources best suited for building and maintaining your amazing physical structure. Every molecule in your body comes from what you take in as breath or food. You are what you eat.

Here in upstate New York our winter season starts around Thanksgiving (that’s when the ski resorts open!) and seems to extend to the end of March. That is four to five months of dark and cold. According to Five Element Theory, winter is the season of Water. Water asks us to look within, to explore our dreams, create a still and quiet place to hibernate, to knit and craft beside a warm fire, to tell transmit wisdom through stories to the young ones.

   The fearful dark and cold of winter led our ancestors to create rituals of light. They hoped that by celebrating the light, the Sun would lengthen his days again. Imagine how bleak the unending winter landscape could seem if you were without fire, and how joyful and cheering the fire would feel when you came in from the cold.

   The traditions surrounding the winter solstice (and the “coincidental” timing of Jesus’ birthday within days of the solstice celebration) have created a conflict within the typical upstate New Yorker’s soul: At precisely the same time we should be hunkering down for an extended time of self-reflection, solitude and hearthside chats, we run around like gerbils on a wheel making preparations for our festival of Light.

   For those of us who grew hardy and resolute to the steel gray skies of late November and December, we simply act as though nothing different is happening. Now that we have central heating, electric lights, movie theaters and shopping malls, none of our summer running about has to cease. As a matter of fact, we can triple our festival preparations because we’re so much more efficient!

   But the elements ultimately demand their due from us. The Kidneys and Bladder are the Water organs. The Kidneys store our vital life force. Kidney energy is what determines how hardy or frail we become. Winter is the gift that Nature brings of forcing us to move less and accomplish more sitting by the fire instead of galloping through the fields. In Japan many people wear a scarf around their lower back to guard their Kidney energy from the Wind. Try it and you’ll feel how much more efficiently your body stays warm!

   The Kidney meridian in Traditional Chinese Medicine rules the bones. Weak Kidney energy can manifest in lower back pain and osteoporosis. Throughout the Great Lakes region more people than usual exhibit the Kidney symptom of dark circles under the eyes.

   The Bladder meridian runs along the entire length of the posterior body. It assists all of the other meridians in the body and helps to keep our bones sturdy and upright. The ears correspond to the Water element: they contain fluids and bones to assist with hearing and equilibrium. Balancing the Water element within ourselves will help to keep our bones strong, and our hearing sharp.

   So we must honor the Water element with plenty of time for introspection during the dark parts of the year. We can dare to look at the shadow parts of ourselves, knowing that the light will return with the Spring.