Ask John Douillard: Eat more Carbs in Winter?

Ask John Douillard: Eat more Carbs in Winter?

Q. During the winter months I always crave more carbs – warm bread to go with a winter stew, risotto, and filling pastas etc.


Is it bad to eat too many carbs?

What’s your take on this, Dr. Douillard?

A. This is a great question!

Most experts tell us that about two-thirds of the diet should be alkaline and one-third should be acid. While this may sound healthy, it is quite a challenge for even the most health conscious Americans to accomplish.

Basically this means that every meal you eat, when you look down at the plate: two-thirds of it should be fruits or veggies and the other one-third should be bread, grain, meat, cheese and other acidic foods.

Not only is this a challenge, but a flat out impossibility in nature. While experts decree the 2/3, 1/3 plan should happen each day, in nature it takes one year, a full 365 days a year to complete nature’s annual cycle.

In nature, there are three main harvests, thus the title of my book, The 3-Season Diet. Here’s the seasons according to the harvests:

The first harvest of the year is Spring, which is almost 100% alkaline, loaded with spring greens, root veggies and berries.

The second harvest of the year is summer which again almost all alkaline. A summer garden will supply you with more alkaline fruits and veggies than you can possible eat.

The third harvest is the late fall and winter harvest which is almost all acidic. In the winter, without a grocery store, one would be eating stored grains, nuts, meats, eggs, cheese and other more dense and very acidic foods.

Two-thirds of the year, in the spring and summer, the harvest is alkaline.

The last one-third, during the winter, the harvest is acid.

So nature accomplishes a two-thirds alkaline and one-third acid meal plan – it just takes one full year to accomplish.

What about breads?

It is quite natural to crave grains, breads and meats each winter. This is a natural desire to insulate, store fats and proteins to rebuild in the winter so to be ready for natures new year come spring. In fact, what is interesting according to Ayurveda is that each winter, the digestive fire or digestive strength becomes stronger so to be better able to digest the more insulating and dense foods of winter. So go for it….eat those foods while the fire is hot!