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fruit in several months. I filled bags with grapes, pomegranates, mangoes and limes, and, after feeling the ache in my arms on the walk home, realized I had overdone it. As I came to the gate of my apartment building, I offered some of the fruit to the guard outside the apartment where I was staying. “No thank you, sir,” he said, smiling politely. I knew he was a poor man, and fruit was a relative luxury for him, so I was confused. “Do you eat fruit?” I asked him with curiosity. “Yes, sir, thank you sir. You are very generous, sir. But I don’t eat fruit in the wintertime because the weather gets cold at night.” Although, he’d probably never read a diet book, the guard instinctively knew that fruit is a cooling food. He knew not to eat food that reduced his body temperature during a cold time of year because it would lead to sickness. Returning to my apartment, I realized it probably wasn’t such a great idea for me to be eating all this fruit either. I had some anyway, but it was an “aha” moment. I learned more from this man than from all the diet experts’ books. It completely fascinated me that an uneducated guard knew more about food than all the “educated” nutritionists in the United States. Our ancestors ate seasonally because they had no choice. Fresh greens grew in spring, fruit ripened in summer, root vegetables kept them going in the fall, and people relied on animal food to get them through the winter. But when California and Florida were settled and highway transportation and refrigerated trucks were invented, pretty soon Americans could eat more or less anything they wanted, anytime they wanted. But there are costs to this kind of convenience. When we have ice cream in the middle of January and hot barbecued foods on the 4th of July, it’s likely to confuse the body. Eating locally grown food in accordance with the seasons will help you live in harmony with yourself, your body and the earth. In the wintertime, it’s natural to crave animal food because that’s when the body needs to feel more solid and insulated from the cold. Look at how animals get ready for the winter. Squirrels gather nuts and fatten up to prepare for the cold season. Humans also need more fat in the winter. Allow yourself to eat heavier meals at this time and be sure to have plenty of oils, protein and nuts. If you want to remain on a vegetarian diet through these cold months, it may be an interesting experiment to grill your vegetables, giving them more