June 3-Season Diet Guide

The 3-Season Diet Guide: June Guide | John Douillard's LifeSpa (https://youtu.be/3RUPqukJdLw)

Welcome to June!

The edible flowers blooming in June include borage, daylily, lavender, broccoli, cauliflower, calendula, dianthus, oregano, marjoram, red clover, dill, coriander, and English chamomile.

These flowers can be a gorgeous appetizer or lovely addition to salads, smoothies, and meals.¹ They have nutritional and antioxidant benefits and can also support emotional balance.^2-5

Flowers, in fact, have been scientifically found to support emotions in myriad ways. Giving and receiving flowers, seeing and smelling them, and generally just being around them elicits emotional responses: for instance, you feel joyful and delighted when you receive flowers from someone you love. Not to mention that when you give or receive flowers, they are usually symbolic of an emotion such as celebration, sympathy, love, or romance, to name a few. In fact, just looking at a rose was shown to enhance relaxation and calm as measured by an increase in parasympathetic activation.⁶

Plant and flower aromas have been shown to have significant effects on behavior, mood, and cognitive function. For instance, smelling ylang-ylang can significantly increase calm, while smelling peppermint significantly increases alertness and memory.⁷ Similarly, smelling fresh roses has proven to activate our rest-and-digest (parasympathetic) nervous system as well as increase “comfortable” and “natural” feelings.⁸

Because science suggests that the smell, appearance, and general presence of a flower can affect our mood and psychology, eating them may also offer such a benefit. (Note: not all flowers are safe to eat. Find a list of safe, edible, seasonal flowers below.)

While we know that flowers can change our emotions, how each flower specifically affects emotions hasn’t yet been mapped through science. That said, flower essences have been clinically tested and used for decades, based mostly on the work of Edward Bach, who developed a prominent system of flower essence remedies in the 1930s.⁹

While eating and smelling flowers is not quite the same as a flower essence, I will list the emotional correlate for each flower according to Bach below. All flowers listed are seasonal, edible June-blooming flowers!

As an experiment, much the way Bach discovered his flower essences, take some time to smell, taste, and fully experience the flower. Notice its subtle emotional and physical impact. Science tells us flowers have an effect,^6-8 so let’s have some fun and experience the flower fully, with awareness!

Edible Flowers

Borage

Borage can promote boldness and courage; ward off feelings of fear, rawness, and vulnerability; and encourage using your voice to speak your truth.¹⁰

Daylily

Daylily can support your healthy zest for life and balanced life activity.¹¹

Lavender

The flower essence of lavender can help soothe you and bring you peace. It can promote centering, calm, and relaxation when you are stressed and exhausted.¹²

Broccoli + Cauliflower

The essence of broccoli flower helps you find balance when you feel unprotected or unsafe, and helps maintain a healthy equilibrium of power.¹³

Cauliflower flower essence, which comes from the same plant family as broccoli, can help us to filter through our emotions to sift out blocks, as well as keep our body tissues healthy and well-hydrated.¹⁴

Calendula (aka Pot Marigold)

The flower essence of calendula can support you in being dependable, responsible, solid, productive, and there for others when they need you. Calendula is helpful in enhancing your ability to actively contribute in life.¹⁵

Dianthus

There are a variety of types of dianthus. One variety is Dianthus Lace, which has a fuchsia-colored flower. This flower essence can be supportive for the lungs, allowing you to metaphorically breathe in the wonder of the world and sift out what does not support you. Dianthus Lace flower essence can help overcome physical blocks and clarify your life path.¹⁶

Another variety of dianthus is Dianthus Tiny Rubies, which bloom a medium pink color. The flower essence of Dianthus Tiny Rubies can enhance a harmonious environment in social settings and community. This can support you in groups and gatherings by helping maintain your individuality while finding a synergistic place within the whole. This flower essence can also help take you out of survival mode into a space where you can attract and manifest what you want.¹⁷

Marjoram

Marjoram flower essence can support you during loneliness or separation anxiety.¹⁸

Oregano

The flower essence of oregano can help to identify, target, and facilitate healing and harmony in areas of the body that need attention.¹⁹

Red Clover

Red clover flower essence supports you in feeling the strength of your individuality and independence. This can be especially useful when you feel you are being overly caught up in the energy of those around you.²⁰

Dill

Dill flower essence can help relieve stress and tension and calm nerves from exhaustion and overwhelm. It can support brain function, and can soothe being frazzled by overstimulation.²¹

Coriander

The flower essence of coriander can support you in being able to bloom and develop in your own time, and can be particularly helpful for transitional times in life, such as puberty.

Interestingly, coriander flower essence also helps to naturally balance your hormones and sync you up with nature’s cycles, counteracting hormonal imbalances from food additives and violent media portrayals.²²

English Chamomile

English chamomile flower essence can be soothing when you’re upset and help you regain a calm, upbeat mood. This flower essence can also be calming for the stomach and help you to “digest“ your life experiences.²³

Note: Unfortunately, there has been little research on edible flowers and the safe limit of daily consumption for edible flowers is not yet known. So before you make flowers your next meal, start with small amounts, such as sprinkling some on your salad, adding them as a colorful garnish to your favorite dish or dessert, or tossing a few petals into your smoothie.

On that note, do not eat flowers from florists, nurseries, garden centers, or flowers found on the side of the road. Consume only flowers that you or someone else has grown specifically for food.

Support your summer with the flower essences of June’s blooms! What effects have you noticed June flowers have on you?

Download and Print the Annual Edible Flower Guide

Still Looking for Weight Balancing Strategies?

Spring is kapha season and a time where the qualities of kapha increase. This means that there is a tendency for all of us to hold more water, gain weight, feel sluggish, and become congested.

Nature’s antidote to this is its harvest. In spring, the harvest is roots, leafy greens, some berries: not much. If you’re ready to make June your detox month, we have lots of options:

Read my Spring Elimination Diet article, where you avoid dairy, grains, sugar, and processed food for a month or more.
Download my free Weight Balancing eBook, where I teach you weight loss strategies using Ayurvedic time-restricted eating techniques.
Consider our free 4-Day Short Home Cleanse eBook and reset over a weekend with an Ayurvedic ghee cleanse.
Try our 2-week Colorado Cleanse and Digestive Reboot, which is our more comprehensive lymph, liver, and intestinal detox with a digestive strength reboot.

Seasonal Grocery List

When we adjust our diet and lifestyle to match the season, health-promoting digestive microbes dramatically change. Spring microbes support balanced immunity, digestion, mood, energy, blood sugar, weight, sleep, and much more.

Spring is associated with the qualities of kapha: heavy, cold, and oily. To stay balanced, focus on foods and activities that are light, dry, and warm. Download and print this list, circle your favorite spring foods and look for them at the grocery store. Experiment with the flavors and enjoy

Download Spring Grocery List

June Seasonal Posts

Move Saffron to Your Medicine Cabinet: Saffron may be the most prized spice in Ayurveda. Harvested from the stigmas of the Crocus sativus flower, recent research is giving credibility to why our ancestors used to compare saffron’s value to gold. Numerous studies suggest it offers a wealth of health benefits, including mood support, reduction in dietary cravings, and enhanced learning and memory support.

June Superfoods: A transitional month in Ayurveda, June is exciting, as spring finally starts rounding the bend towards summer. Depending on where you live, June can feel like the middle of summer or like the April showers of spring. While we suggest eating off the Spring Grocery List in June, there are definitely exceptions to that rule. Seasonal eating and following the cycles of nature with our diets is one of the tenets of Ayurveda. Doing so supports a diverse, thriving microbiome, and ultimately, our health, mood, and well-being.

June Recipes

By Emma Frisch

By Divya Alter

Sautéed Mung Sprouts + Arugula

By LifeSpa Staff

Spring Rolls with Pansies

Prebiotics that Balance Kapha

Garlic | Harvested Spring or Fall: Balances Kapha

lifespa image, superfoods, string of garlic bubs

Garlic is high in the prebiotics inulin and fructooligosaccharide (FOS). Garlic has been found to increase proliferation of bifidobacteria in the gut, which supports gut health immunity.⁹

Onions | Spring or Fall: Balances Kapha

Like garlic, onions are high in inulin and FOS, which support healthy gut bacteria, break down fats, and boost the immune system by increasing nitric oxide production in cells.¹⁰

Leeks | Harvested Spring or Fall: Balances Kapha

Leeks, onions, and garlic all come from the same family and deliver inulin and FOS as their source of prebiotics. Like onions and garlic, they also support proliferation of good gut bacteria and gut immunity.

Seaweed | Harvested Spring: Balances Kapha

Seaweed is a powerful prebiotic. However, it is rarely consumed outside of Japan and other Asian countries. It is a natural prebiotic soluble fiber rich in minerals like iodine. Seaweed has been studied to support growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut.¹¹

To see all prebiotic recommendations, read Nourish Your Microbiome: Seasonal Prebiotics for Your Ayurvedic Body Type.

Recommended Supplement

Amalaki also known as amla or Indian Gooseberry, belongs to a group of herbs described in Ayurvedic texts as rasayana. According to Ayurveda, rasayana herbs promote youthfulness and longevity, and induce nourishment. Modern science has been equally fascinated by Amalaki. One study even referred to it as “the Ayurvedic wonder,” as it supports everything from digestion to elimination, immunity, and inner and outer skin health. Amalaki has repeatedly shown to support heart and arterial health, healthy blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels already within the normal range, and overall vitality.

#3SeasonDiet

Introduce yourself to your new community! Let us and your fellow challengers know why you’re looking forward to the next year of living and eating with the seasons. Post inspiration, photos, recipe ideas, and more to social using hashtag #3SeasonDiet. Grab your copy of the 3 Season Diet book today.

Not signed up for the 3-Season Diet Guide yet?
Do so here.

References

June 3-Season Diet Guide

In This Article

Are you in the Southern Hemisphere? See the December Guide here.

Welcome to June!