Autumn will soon officially be here, and if previous years are anything to go by, the harvest moons can be particularly breathtaking. Therefore, it’s time to delight in the flavours of autumn cooking and learn how to create delicious dishes using the fruits and vegetables of the season. Learn how to apply the Eastern wisdom about autumn in your own cooking for optimum health, nourishment, and vitality.
Autumn
In nature, autumn reflects dryness: when the leaves lose their moisture, they shrivel up and ‘let go’ of the branches they have hung onto since springtime. As a result, it is the time to reflect on the past year and prepare to withdraw as the winter months close in.
The life-giving light of the spring and the summer begins to wane, and the vigorous energy of those seasons comes to an end.
There is a beautiful sadness to autumn.
If we look at the grander scale of things, individual old age corresponds to autumn in the larger cycle. Enjoying the wonderful fruits of our life and harvesting the memories should be a joyous time. Sadly, this is not the case. Our elders are losing their golden years to ill health, physically and cognitively.
If we look deeply enough, we see that body and mind are one. Mental conditions are rooted in physical health and our mentality conditions our physical health. Daily diet has a profound influence on both physical and mental health, as well as on the quality of life we experience in old age. I advise all of my students and clients to follow my dietary and lifestyle recommendations.
If they do, they will have better health as they age than they did in their younger years.
My mum, at ninety-four years young, is a dynamic, healthy, beloved soul and talks about the ‘old buddies’ in the nursing homes that she often visits. They have dementia, Alzheimer’s, and all sorts of non-communicable diseases. So much suffering and all so unnecessary. This is my birthday month and at sixty-three years of age, I am blessed to have my mum as my number one fan. She eats as I do, walks everywhere, and takes no medication.
