Summer Squash

Summer Squash, a photo by pancakes for dinner on Flickr.

Recently, I had the great opportunity to take Cathy McNease’s class: The Tao of Nutrition: Harmonizing the Seasons. As most of my patients know, TCM’s view of nutrition and how to use it is a very handy tool to have. As you can tell from the title, there were terrific recommendations (based upon TCM theory of course) about what foods to eat to minimize the injurious climate of each season.

It’s no surprise that heat is the possible injurious climate of summer- that is if you live in a place that has hot summers. The hotter your summer, the more important it is to try to counterbalance its effects. Also, if you live in a hot place but live in air conditioning this also changes the picture. As well, if your summer is very dry or very wet this will affect food recommendations. The following foods best address the HEAT part of summer and not all of them are part of mainstream American eating ways so, where appropriate, don’t be afraid to experiment!

Mung bean
Watermelon
Cucumber
Summer squash
Tomato
Lemon
Soybean sprouts

Beverages:
Peppermint
Hibiscus tea
Chrysanthemum tea
Lemon balm tea
Green tea