The Greening Of Spring

At the first hint of white, cheery snowdrops popping up out of the half-frozen ground, I know warm days are just around the corner.

Wintertime is a season of preserving and resting. It’s the time of year when we eat heavy, fatty, protein-rich foods, and perhaps even put on a few pounds. As the season of rest and repair comes to an end, the budding of new life takes place within and without. With the spring equinox, your body yearns for movement and overflows with renewed energy. It’s a great time to shed unwanted weight, flush out toxins, and revitalize.

Just as the greening of the world takes place around you, let your diet follow suit. Start spring with the greening of your plate. Lead your palate on an adventure of vibrant young lettuces, dark leafy vegetables, and bitter greens. Immerse yourself in the pleasure of stretching and reaching up to the sun in body and diet.

YOUR SPRING-GREEN DETOX FOODS
Young Lettuces

These pioneers of spring are filled with nutrition and solar energy. Young, tender greens and sprouts are filled with chlorophyll, packed full of nutrients, and create an alkalizing effect on the body, helping you strengthen the immune system and make your body an inhospitable environment for unwelcome invaders. Look for pea tendrils, broccoli or radish sprouts, mesclun mixes of baby, frisée, spinach, radicchio and baby beet greens, mizuna, oak leaf, romaine, and sorrel, and young weeds such as dandelion, pepper grass, arugula and watercress.

Dark Leafy Greens

Glutathione, the liver’s primary antioxidant and a key nutrient in the detoxification process, is plentiful in dark leafy greens such as arugula, collard or dandelion greens, parsley, spinach, Swiss chard, watercress, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage. Be sure to lightly steam or blanch dark leafy greens to reduce antinutrients and to make the vitamins more available. Dark leafy greens are also rich in fat-soluble vitamins and should be accompanied with a little bit of dietary fat to help the body absorb them.

Bitter Greens

Bitter, astringent and pungent greens have been traditionally used to cleanse the blood, clear away congestion and mucus, improve liver, gallbladder and kidney function, and increase circulation. Look for endive, dandelion, escarole, radicchio, chicory, rapini, mustard greens and turnip greens. Tame their wild, sharp flavors by blanching, dressing with warm vinaigrette and augmenting with sweet bacon or savory sausage.

Allium Family

Leeks, young onions and garlic, chives and wild ramps are spring’s immune system boosters. They lower cholesterol, regulate blood pressure, inhibit tumor formation, protect against free radical damage, and enhance the body’s ability to detoxify naturally.