Name: Fall Bounty Salad with Pomegranetes
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 4 cups Swiss chard (washed and sliced thinly); 4 radishes (washed and cut into thin slices); 2 cups Red Cabbage (sliced thinly); 1 Carrot (shredded); 1 12oz can Chickpeas (drained and rinsed); .25 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil; 2 Tbsp Raw Apple Cider Vinegar; 1 tsp Fresh Ginger Root (shredded); .5 Orange (juiced); .5 Lemon (juiced + zest); Pinch grey or pink sea salt

Every season brings with it a shift in our energy, emotions, and of course food. The beauty of nature is that it always offers exactly what we need for that particular time. The trick is to tune into your intuition.

If you observe children, when given the opportunity and resources, they actually take what they need. They understand how to regulate their food intake much more intuitively than us as grown ups, because their mind is not yet cluttered with the 100’s of different dietary theories.

So I invite you to tune in this season, and pay attention to what your body is actually craving. Perhaps it’s the beautiful winter greens, like Swiss chard and kale, or the golden delicious winter squashes, which are abundant in vitamin A to support your immunity.

These types of intuitive ‘cravings’ are more like insights and less like “give me that chocolate cake now before I bite your head off” type cravings. You might be attracted to the smell, colour or texture of certain ingredients in a more subtle way, and feeling satisfied after enjoying these foods.

One food that I adore in late fall and winter is pomegranates, they are just bursting with antioxidants!

Here are the benefits of pomegranates:

Pomegranates contain some unique polyphenols that may be especially supportive in the area of cardiovascular health 1
Provides protective properties against cancer (and especially prostate cancer) 2
Studies found that pomegranate juice concentrate decreased cholesterol absorption, increased fecal excretion, and improved cholesterol metabolizing enzymes, thus improving total / HDL and LDL / HDL cholesterol ratio 3
Pomegranates provide anti-aging and skin protective properties from harmful UV damage 4
Known compounds in pomegranate, such as punicalagin and ellagic, gallic, oleanolic, ursolic, and uallic acids, have been identified as having anti-diabetic actions due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties 5

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