Jambalaya - Spice up Your Mid-Winter Meals for Health

During the mid-winter season, most of the country is damp and cold and although south Florida is warm, it is not exempt from cool weather. Therefore, adjusting the diet with foods that support the cold season is essential.

To counteract the cold element, we can incorporate warm foods and spices. In Eastern Medicine, balancing with the opposite quality will prevent the build-up of that quality in the body. For example, if you ingest cold foods in cold weather, internal fluids (such as lymph and blood) don't move as easily, and they begin to build up. We see more mucus in the system during the winter because we breathe dry, cool air, and the tissues and hairlike structures within our airways aren't working as efficiently. Just as the snow and rain put out a fire, the cold temperatures naturally dampen the digestive fire our digestion depends on to run effectively. Therefore, it's important to ingest warm spices and savory meals to ensure our body's systems adjust with harmony and a robust immune system.

The role of the pungent taste couldn't be more important than in winter. Made of fire, it is what makes foods spicy. It is penetrating and fast-acting, spreading through the body just like "wildfire," so it does an efficient job of warming you up quickly. It cleanses the mouth and improves digestion, absorption, and elimination. In addition, the pungent taste improves circulation, flushes, and dissolves thick or hardened masses such as mucus. Finally, it encourages sweating and cleanses the blood and muscles.

Energetically, the pungent taste is stimulating, invigorating, and penetrating. But, on the other hand, excess pungent can lead to excess heat in the body, and cause burning sensations, redness, excess thirst, agitation, and digestive discomfort, so ingest with caution.

Warm and pungent spices to start using and experimenting with include ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cayenne, pepper, turmeric, cumin, cardamom, mustard seed, chili powder, paprika, and asafoetida, to name a few. These spices contain the bitter and pungent tastes that we typically don't get in our western diet. Using them in your cooking balances seasonal discomfort and has numerous medicinal properties and health benefits.

Continue the spirit of Mardi Gras with one of my spicy Creole favorites, Jambalaya. A perfect dish to warm your body and your soul.