The seasons govern what we wear, what we do, what we drink and even more importantly, what we eat. During winter, we’re drawn to hearty vegetables stews, casseroles and grainy breads and rightly so. Why? Because when the cold and flu season is upon us, our meals need to be flavourful and delicious. They should fill our bellies, warm our senses and also keep us healthy, strong and fighting fit.

The 72-hour plan

The trick to fighting off the winter nasties is to ensure everything you pop into your mouth is as fresh as possible. That means giving your fridge an overhaul every 72 hours.”It’s better to buy your fruit and vegetables every couple of days,” says nutritionist Melissa Edgtton. Indeed, after 24 hours in the fridge, a lettuce loses 50 per cent of its vitamin C, ” says Susan Schuler, a natural hygienist and “living food” specialist.

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“Cooked beef tends to develop more HCAs [heterocyclic amines - a chemical that may increase your cancer risk] than other kinds of cooked meats, such as pork and chicken,” said Professor Smith. “Cooked beef patties appear to be the cooked meat with the highest mutagenic activity and may be the most important source of HCAs in the human diet.”

Professor Smith’s team studied six spices, cumin, coriander seeds, galangal, fingerroot (also known as Chinese ginger or Chinese key), rosemary and turmeric. Fingerroot, rosemary and turmeric were the most effective, with rosemary in the lead.

Using rosemary to prepare your meat before barbecuing should help to reduce the risk. The British Dietetic Association (BDA) also suggest marinading meats before you cook them as this can reduce HCA levels by 95 per cent. The ingredients often used in marinades, such as citrus juices, herbs, spices and olive oil are rich in cancer-fighting anti-oxidants. Other healthy barbecuing tips from the BDA include serving meat from the barbie with yogurt, as the bacteria help to protect your digestive tract, and cutting off the most burnt bits before you tuck in.

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Smoothies are a wonderful way to enjoy fruits of all kinds — not just the bananas and berries we’re used to throwing in a blender but also more unusual choices, like nutrient-dense kiwis. I like a smoothie that has more to it than fresh fruit, though, so lately I’ve been experimenting with adding oatmeal, nuts or nut butters and seeds. I think you’ll like the results.

I’ve also been looking at old-fashioned Southern California recipes for “date shakes,” and I’ve come up with a few date-sweetened drinks that have seen me through many a morning workout at the pool.

Of course, smoothies aren’t just for fruit. When I began work on this week’s recipes, I had a dim memory of a thick shake I used to make many years ago with carrots. I found the recipe in an old New York Times natural foods cookbook and tweaked it a bit. Now I remember why I liked it so much: it’s nice to have a smoothie you can chew on.

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There are many possible reasons why someone will experience frequent salt cravings.

Cravings can often indicate a deficiency of some nutrient in the body. In the case of salt, cravings may indicate a mineral deficiency. According to Paul Pitchford, author of “Healing with Whole Foods,” and an expert in traditional Chinese medicine, there are two possible reasons why someone may be lacking sufficient minerals.

One reason is that while all salt originates from the sea, refined sea salt that finds its way to most kitchens and is used in industrial food processing has been stripped of all of the trace minerals that are essential to forming vitamins, enzymes and proteins in the body. In addition, Pitchford blames chemical farming and industrial food production since World War II for depleting the soil of naturally occurring minerals that would otherwise find their way into the food system

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Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen: Recipes from the East for Health, Healing, and Long Life by Yuan Wang, Warren Sheir, and Mika Ono (Da Capo, $19.95)

The secret to counteracting fatigue, treat pain, and even increase sexual potency could be not your medicine cabinet but rather the family food pantry.

It’s no secret that various herbs and foods are considered superfoods. For example, goji berries, ginger, garlic, and mint have been used for thousands of years in Asia to promote better health. When combined, such as sprinkling cinnamon on your morning oat meal, the foods become even more powerful.

Yuan Wang, former physician-in-charge of several departments of the Chengdu Traditional Medicine in San Diego, Warren Sheir, a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist, and Mika Ono, an award-winning writer and editor, have compiled delicious recipes that are supplemented with anecdotes and facts about various herbs and foods. There are also details on more than 100 healthy Asian ingredients, an overview of traditional Chinese medicine, herbs, and food therapy, and more than 150 healing recipes for common health concerns including fatigue, menopause, high cholesterol, weight control, and one of America’s number one problems, diabetes.

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Featuring two local obsessions – Chinese herbs and Japanese cuisine – it is no surprise that the 2010 World Gourmet Summit’s Eu Yan Sang Experience is selling out fast, very fast.

But this is not the only partnership making the news at this year’s dinner event. To be held at Capella Singapore’s Grand Ballroom, the one-night-only six-course feast, paired with wines from Grand Vin (April 21, $228+), will feature the clever culinary handiwork of both award-winning chef-owner Ronnie Chia of Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant and Capella’s executive chef Jakob Esko.

Think, for example, foie gras with pork belly, caramelised plum and tangerine peel paired with a homemade plum wine tipple made with soda, honey vinegar and Chinese wolfberries. Or soup of double-boiled tuna belly infused with mitsuba, Solomon’s seal, ophiopogon, lily bulb and American ginseng, to name a few herbs.

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There’s nothing like a spring tonic to get you energized. And it’s all the better when that tonic comes in the form of a cocktail based on ancient Chinese herbal medicine.

That’s just what bar manger Danielle Tatarin is shaking up at the stylish cocktail lounge and Asian tapas bar at the new chic-boutique Keefer Hotel in Chinatown, which opened just before the Olympics started.

“Chinatown has elements of rawness, realism and history all wrapped into one,” says Tatarin. “I think the Keefer Bar squeezes in quite nicely.”

The neighbourhood’s traditions were also an inspiration when it came to creating her drinks list. In her past gigs — most recently at DB Bistro Moderne — the talented Tatarin has developed an expertise in classic cocktails and played with trends like molecular mixology. But the Keefer gave her an opportunity to try something completely fresh.

“Incorporating Chinese medicine into cocktails is pretty out there and some people are, like, really?” Tatarin says. “But to me it was a no-brainer. I found that the herbs used in Chinese medicine are often incorporated into teas and tinctures and that made it easy for me to work with in my cocktail formulas.”

While it may seem unusual to mix health and alcohol, in fact, that’s exactly how the original cocktails came about.

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In the realm of Traditional Chinese Medicine, everything is comprised of yin and yang. The sun, heat, is deemed as yang and its opposite, is considered yin. For those who have consulted with a Chinese herbalist/acupuncturist, you might have heard suggestions as “you have a cold body type, so eat more warm property foods and stay away from cold property foods”, or “your body has too much heat, you shouldn’t eat too much heating foods”.

The general idea behind these statements is that produce are harvested in accordance with the four seasons, hence when it is summer, cooling foods like cucumbers and watermelons are in abundance to naturally cool our body down from the summer heat.

So if you eat with the seasons, it is easier for your body to be in sync with your natural habitat. With global trade, many might ask, “how do I know what’s in season?” Now days, it is true one can still buy watermelons in the dead of winter, but at a hefty price. The easiest way to tell what’s in season (and grown locally) is by price and how much produce space it is taking in the markets.

If the produce is imported, which country it is from will also give you a clue as to the food’s intrinsic yin-yang property. For instance, fresh coconuts are typically imported from S.E. Asian countries, and the climate there is hot or hotter all year round.

If your constitution is more yin-based (often cold, digestion is worse when drink iced cold drinks, etc.), you should think twice before downing fresh coconut juice in autumn and winter.

Other than eating with the seasons, another general rule of thumb in understanding the intrinsic yin-yang property of produce (namely vegetables) is by its color (leaf and stem); darker colored vegetables are warmer than paler/white colored.

So, if you tend to feel cold, your body will be happier if you eat more broccoli than cauliflower. Remember, this intrinsic yin-yang food property is not about the temperature of the food. A cooked broccoli has the same intrinsic yang property as when it is raw.

As for meats, warm blooded animals will yield warm property meat. Red meat is warmer than white meat. And yes, snake meat will cool down your body because they are cold blooded.

The ultimate tool to figure out what suits your body is simply be aware of what your body is telling you. People automatically stay away from certain types of foods because they feel groggy or bloated after eating them. Make your own list of what those produce are and most likely, they’ll be in the same yin-yang property.

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A fungus widely used in folk medicine in Taiwan – Taiwanofungus camphoratus – has been proven to contain an anti-inflammatory compound whether it grows in the wild or is cultivated, a local research team said Monday.
David Sheng-Yang Wang, an associate professor in National Chung Hsing University’s Department of Forestry and the head of the team, unveiled the results of the study at a news conference that was also attended by university president Shaw Jei-fu.

The study was also recently published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Though T. camphoratus contains some 100 components, the team was able to prove that the fungus, which can only be found in the wild growing on the inner bark of a local camphor tree called Cinnamomum kanehirai, has anti-inflammatory properties through its bioactive compound antrocamphin A.

The study also found that the same amount of antrocamphin A can be derived from T. camphoratus after being cultivated for nine months, Wang said.

In isolating the antrocamphin A compound, the study only solidified the medical credentials of the fungus, which currently sells for up to NT$500,000 per kilo when found in the wild.

It has long been prized in folk medicine for treating liver cancer, food and drug intoxications, abdominal pains and hypertension, but Wang cautioned that because there are no standards used to verify the quality of the fungus sold in Taiwan, big discrepancies exist in the price and quality available.

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Read the whole thing, and incorporate these foods into your diet.

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