Have you ever wondered why most raw food retreats are in sunny, tropical locations? Or why do we crave a bowl of hot oatmeal on a brisk morning instead of fresh fruit? When it is wintry outside our bodies gravitate towards foods that are naturally warming.

In Chinese medicine warming foods are foundational during winter. This is because the body is seen as a microcosm of the natural world, changing with the seasons. Chinese dietary tradition focuses on eating foods that harmonize with each season.  This can be accomplished naturally by eating more local foods. “Nature provides the foods that keep our bodies in balance at certain times of the year,” says Elson Haas, M.D., author of Staying Healthy with the Seasons “When it’s cool out, we need to add more fuel to the furnace,” says Haas. You may notice this in your four-legged companion’s hunger, as they become ravenous in the wintertime. It is natural to have a stronger appetite and crave heavier foods. Traditionally people gain a few pounds in the winter only to have them melt off in the warmer months.

In the Pacific Northwest, the weather in winter is cold and wet. Cold is yin in Chinese Medicine. Yin is considered expanding, upward energy and needs the contracting energy of yang for balance. Heat is yang and is the contracting, downward energy. There are many warming foods and warming cooking methods you can use to get enough yang to balance the yin weather.

Animals in the wild naturally live in harmony with this cycle. They eat what is available and this signals their body how to respond to the environment.  Eating a balance of seasonal foods, they keep warm in winter and cool in summer. Since our grocery stores have foods from far reaches of the globe available at our fingertips we need to be more conscious about choosing warming foods if we want to stay warm in the cold weather.

This winter experiment with these guidelines to stoke your internal fire:

Focus on cooked winter squashes and root vegetables, such as burdock, beets, carrots and parsnips. The downward contractive energy of foods like these that are grown under the soil makes them ideal warming foods. These are foods that are typically harvested in the fall and stored for the winter.

Store up energy by enjoying strengthening, warming foods like long cooked soups and stews. Start your day with a whole grain warm cereal or porridge. Branch out and try brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth or millet to name a few.

Utilize warming spices such as cayenne, black pepper, ginger, cumin, garlic and coriander. These spices will add zip to your everyday foods and increase circulation and warmth within your body.

Limit the consumption of iced beverage. These are too yin and cold for winter weather. Instead drink hot or room temperature fluids.

Limit yin foods like bananas. These increase cold in our body and therefore can increase chances of getting a cold.

Just as some foods that are in season in the winter will warm your body, so will different cooking methods. Braising on the stovetop or in the oven, with a flavorful liquid is a perfect example. This tenderizes the meat and vegetables and infuses them with flavor and can make tough, less expensive cuts of meat tender. You can also simmer foods with low heat. The longer you cook food the more of a warming effect they will have on your body. Another method is to roast vegetables in the oven with butter and salt until golden and crispy around the edges. This is a delicious way to turn an ordinary vegetable, extraordinary. Or use a pressure cooker or crock pot. Imagine putting a chicken plus a bunch of root vegetables into the crock pot in the morning to return home at night with dinner hot and ready. Cooking food with these methods nourishes our body on a very deep level while helping our body to build heat. An added bonus is that these long term cooking methods also makes the food easier to digest.

It is easy to get chilled and catch a cold during these frosty months. Take care this winter to stay warm by focusing on nourishing warming foods to keep you toasty from the inside out.

Jennifer Adler M.S., C.N. provides nutrition counseling at her private practice Passionate Nutrition, www.passionatenutrition.com. She in notorious for wearing long underwear all but four days out of the year so she is especially conscious of warming her body with food in the winter.