
No-Grain No-Dairy Season is Upon Us!
Have you ever wondered why so many religions have fasting holidays in the spring? While Lent, Ramadan, and Passover encourage fasting or calorie restriction, Mother Nature is encouraging the same. When we look outside and see what’s being harvested, the choices are austere.3
In this article, I suggest eliminating just two food groups this spring—the results make for a powerful digestive and circadian rhythm reset, and if you celebrate any of these holidays, perhaps your understanding and connection to it will deepen.
In my book Eat Wheat, I make the case that wheat, grains, and dairy are seasonal foods and have never been eaten year-round. Most grains, which are high in starch, are fall-harvested. As a result, our circadian rhythms amp up production of the starch-digesting enzyme amylase every fall to deliver the starch as an insulating and energy-reserving fuel for winter.1 Come spring, these starch-loving enzymes decline, suggesting that we should avoid or reduce consumption of starchy foods, as they are out of season.
Dairy is also out of season in the spring. Every spring, cows give birth and nurse for the first few months of life. Even today, most respectable dairy farms, like the Kalona Dairy in Iowa, allow the calf to nurse directly from the mother for three months. Traditionally, this was the practice of dairy farmers. By midsummer, when calves were big enough to grass-feed and nurse less, some of the excess milk was available for the farmer to make butter, cheese, and other dairy products in preparation for winter.
Seasonal Feast + Famine
Spring is the season of famine, where the body becomes ketogenic (switching to using fat as fuel), due to the natural austerity, calorie restriction, and lack of carbohydrates. Summer is the season of feasting, when an abundance of carbohydrates are available, switching the fuel supply back to carbs.
In nature, according to the diets of our ancestors and our circadian rhythms, the diet and our fuel supply should shift from fat in the spring to carbs in the summer-fall.5 Changing our fuel supply is linked to our circadian clock: microbes to digest carbs surge in the summer and fall, while microbes to digest fiber and fat surge in our guts every spring.5
Eliminating all grains and dairy for just one month this spring is enough to reset your body to burn fat rather than carbs as its preferred source of fuel. No doubt, by month’s end, you will find that you are not missing these foods and may feel compelled to do it for another month or two. This diet can be continued through July if desired. At that point, we start adding carbs back into the diet, as they are starting to be available in nature and harvested once again.
The Spring Elimination Diet
Simply eliminating grains and diary for a month (or two or three) during the spring is a great way to reset your circadian clock, gut microbes, and digestive health. The benefits include losing winter weight, supporting healthy blood sugar, stabilizing mood, improving sleep, and shifting your body’s fuel supply to fat instead of sugar and carbs.2,4
Avoiding out-of-season food groups (like grains and dairy) during the spring also provides a great opportunity to evaluate your ability to successfully digest these foods.
The natural austerity of the harvest each spring, along with the natural calorie restriction that we endure due to a lack of available foods, creates a natural annual elimination diet. This is a great way to test the digestibility of certain food groups. After you eliminate a food group for a period of time and then reintroduce it, you get a close-up look at how well you digest it.
For example, if when you reintroduce dairy, your digestive concerns come back, then we can conclude that you are having trouble digesting dairy. If the dairy was organic, grass-fed, and cultured (like yogurt, buttermilk, or cheese) and you still had digestive issues, then we do not automatically conclude dairy is “bad for you”; we conclude that the component of your digestion required to break down dairy is out of balance.
This was the point of my book Eat Wheat—rather than only removing food groups,we aim to troubleshoot digestive imbalances and repair them with foods, spices, and herbs, so it is not necessary to eliminate foods—just eat them in season in an unrefined, unprocessed form.
Of course, many folks may have lactose intolerance, which could be the cause of digestive distress. But raw organic cheese in America has to be sitting for at least three months before it is sold. During this time, the bacteria in the cheese gobble up most or all of the lactose and most of the hard-to-digest protein casein, allowing most folks who are dairy intolerant to consume it. If you can’t, we are likely looking at a digestive imbalance.
Eliminating dairy during this period is straightforward. It includes all goat, sheep, and cow products. Eliminating grains means all grains, including rice, wheat, oats, barely, millet, quinoa, amaranth, corn—all grains. Beans, tubers, and legumes are okay.
Beans, according to Ayurveda, are best eaten in the spring. We all know they are gas-producing, except the kitchari bean: split yellow mung beans. Beans are hard and resist breaking down from the fall harvest to spring because of their protective antinutrients. Then, with the warmth and dampness of spring, the beans germinate and sprout, making them easier to digest and amping up their nutritional content. If you have digestive issues, sprouting your beans will break down the protective antinutrients and make more bioavailable all the protein, fiber, and micronutrients they have to offer.
If your digestion is strong, well-cooked beans are fine in the spring. Beans are dry and astringent and spring is a wet, rainy, heavy time. Beans will provide a natural antidote to the damp, heavy, and wet (congestive) properties of spring. Beans also provide a large dose of fiber, which attaches to toxin-carrying bile and escorts those toxins to the toilet—a natural component of spring cleansing.
Grains are generally high-starch foods and break down quickly into sugar or glucose in the blood. As a result, in this elimination diet, we also restrict foods with added sweeteners.
Some fruits are okay, but in moderation. In nature, there are very few fruits available in the spring. Apples (best to choose tart apples) can store through the winter and some berries and citrus fruits are available in the spring. Avoid sweet fruits like bananas, melons, mangoes, etc. and enjoy small amounts of tart apple, berries, lemons, oranges (not my favorite because they have been hybridized to be so sweet), and grapefruits, which are better spring choices.
The Plan: What to Avoid
- No Grains
- No sugar or added sweeteners
- No dairy: including sheep, goat, cow
- No processed or packaged food
- No refined foods
The Plan: What’s Okay—Choose Organic
- Whole foods,except what’s restricted above!
- Fruits: berries, apples, grapefruits, lemons
- Beans, legumes (sprouted if digestion is weak)
- Tubers
- Veggies: all
- Nuts, seeds
- Meats, seafood, poultry
- Ghee, coconut oil, olive oil
- Coffee, tea
Remember, the basic plan is to avoid dairy and grains. And because these high-starch grains become sugar in our body, avoid all sugar and sweets.
Like any health-conscious diet, this elimination diet restricts all refined and processed food. Don’t miss the opportunity spring offers all of us to reset digestion, burn fat, and prepare the body to deliver the lasting energy and stable mood we need to navigate the long days and short nights of summer.
Note: If you are underweight or have a medical condition, please consult your doctor before changing your diet.
Bon appétite and enjoy your Lent, Passover, Ramadan, or spring celebration!
Linda says
I have systemic candida. I cannot eat rice so cannot eat kitchari. How can I do cleanse? Thank you Linda
LifeSpa Staff says
Hi Linda,
Substitute mung dahl for the rice in the kitchari and the rest is the same. You can order split mung dahl here: https://store.lifespa.com/product/organic-mung-dahl-beans/
Best,
LifeSpa Staff
Helena Odeborn says
Was going to do the kitchari cleanse starting now but it’s rice rice and more rice. This is starch starch and more starch 😞 I’m pitta-Vata with a super aggravated Kapha and spring is upon us. I am new to this but well into herbal and Chinese medicin. It took me 40 years to come around to this, it blows me away, this is a profound system of medicine and just because I have some issues with India I never open an Ayurvedic book. It was just the other week you showed up in my stream and talked about the natural rhythms and the deep study this system hold of this. I love being surprised after so many years and so many years studying herbal and natural medicine. I am so thankful but still Kapha unbalanced. I also would like to start a deeper healing of accumulated AMA. Any advice on the rice and dal ? / kind regards Helena
LifeSpa Staff says
Hi Helena,
Some people like to make the kitchari with more dal and less rice for a number of reasons, so that could work in regards to your concerns.
You may also be interested in this article, as it explains how beans are kapha pacifying: https://lifespa.com/beans-springs-unexpected-superfood/
Best,
LifeSpa Staff
Pax says
I have been trying this out since May and seen some amazing changes – better digestion, MUCH less joint pain from arthritis, much less use of migraine meds. I am wondering how to transition in a month or so (it’s hot here through August) without losing these benefits!?
LifeSpa Staff says
Sign up for Dr. John’s free 3-Season Diet Challenge to get monthly tips on how to live in harmony with the seasons:
lifespa.com/3seasondietchallenge/august-seasonal-guide
You can also consider doing a cleanse in the fall to transition your digestion to the fall/winter season. The Colorado Cleanse is a nourishing option and Dr. John offers a guided support option as well. Sign up for our newsletter to get updates on that.
Best,
LifeSpa Staff
Stefano says
I would also like to know if eggs are ok in this elimination diet.
Moreover, I was wondering: if high-starch foods are one of the main issues in this time of the year, shouldn’t potatoes be avoided as well?
Thanks in advance!
Kasia says
I didn’t find information about eggs? Are they ok for spring season?
Marg says
Any ideas of what’s for breakfast?
Lynn says
All hypothetical bs. No references cited.
Pax says
Nobel Prize given for study of circadian medicine a few years ago? Doesn’t that count!
Susan says
Lynn, did you not see the five reference links??
Julie says
I was just about to start the kitchari cleanse as spring cleanse. (With rice) Now I’ve read this and am unsure. Hmmm. Maybe I will do the cleanse for 7 days and then eliminate the grains. I am already dairy free. Thoughts?
niladri h says
Cows in India are not traditionally bred every year. They’re only bred every 6+ years in which time you would get milk from them continuously for that time, although in decreasing amounts towards the end.
Steph says
If we are supposed to switch to burning fat via ketosis in the spring, wouldn’t beans, legumes and tubers have to be out as well? From my understanding ketosis will not be achieved if those foods are still being consumed.
Kelly says
As someone diagnosed with Hashimoto’s my functional medicine doctor has put me on the Autoimmune Protocol diet. I have been grain, dairy, legume, sugar free since last summer. Now my digestion is terribly messed up. Do you think it’s because I eliminated those grains over the winter? Any suggestions to get it back on track?
Anne Brpwn says
No pun intended but I tend to follow my gut instincts. There are just too many so called experts and one has to ask, where did they get their information?
Alma says
This may be a dumb question, but with the availability of these foods year-round now, wouldn’t our gut microbes adapt to digest them all year instead of just seasonally? Or is it really that our gut microbes are tied to the seasons?
angelo says
I second that previous question on gaining weight and would very much appreciate your perspective, Dr. John or, perhaps you will devote a newsletter to this issue; gaining weight is a challenge for many people, while weight loss overwhelmingly seems to hog the spotlight. Of course, seeing a doctor is by far the most offered advice but what if one has already done that (multiple times) and already knows there are no, more- pressing, underlying conditions?
I remember reading that getting to bed early and eating only warmed foods is helpful to underweight individuals, but I’m thinking there must be more…
Leslie says
Is rice considered a grain then? Should it be eliminated too? Thanks!
Ashley says
Rice is mentioned in the article as a food to eliminate in the spring.
Ruth Donald says
Do you have any information for helping gain weight.
I’m a very underweight 67 year old female vata.
Thanks