At the peak of summer, its easy to eat what’s fresh and available – the markets abound with tomatoes, melons, berries, salad greens and stone fruit. Sometimes, this abundance gives us a false sense of what’s truly in season the rest of the year. By eating local and in-season, we eat produce at the peak of their flavor and the high point of their nutritional value. In all likelihood, it supplies much needed nutrients that are key for that time of year – think of the hydrating quality of watermelon on a hot summers day. So break out your gazpacho recipes and make a fruit salad and get excited that we will see beautiful new produce as we move into the fall.
Perusing Diabetes Forecast magazine and they discussed a new study that shows that berries help slow cognitive decline in aging. This is due to the anti-inflammatory properties of the flavonoids (specifically anthocyanidins). So just in case you needed one more reason to pour yourself a bowl.
Ideally, you are shopping for mostly foods without a label, but sometimes you are in a pinch or need something that you can’t make from scratch. During those times, make sure that your label has no words that you don’t recognize and ideally, no more than 5 ingredients.
Here’s a quick rule of mine; food that you didn’t like the first time will not improve by heading to the freezer. However, if you make too much (and liked it), put some in the freezer on day one and give yourself something to look forward to when you have a busy day.