Making the Most of the Spring Mood Bounce

April 10, 2009— -- It's something I haven't seen for a few frigid months here in New York City -- a normally miserable, low-energy person whistling an ABBA song with a smile stretched across his face.

This is the third day in a row that I have seen people who, over the past months, have shuffled around miserably, pick up the pace, move faster and respond to my hellos.

After the cold winter months, finally the days are getting longer. Instead of waking up in the dark and coming home in the dark, we experience sun upon arising and after our office hours. Physiologically, we start to feel the arrival of a new season of growth and renewal.

It is good news for both seasonal depression and for the economic depression. Admit it -- maybe you might have gained weight during this time to deal with stress and to make you feel better. Not that you did it intentionally; it just happened. But the end of your dilemma is here -- springtime.

So how can you make the most of the springtime bounce?

The winter months are not the easiest times to diet. Our bodies have a natural need to stay warm, which means that we may feel like we need additional calories. To insulate our systems, we tend to eat foods that are higher in calories. And nature provides us the foods that we need according to our local seasons.

Just take, for example, the squash. Believe it or not, summer squash has fewer calories then winter squash. In winter, there are many more root vegetables available than fresh, green foods. Root vegetables -- such as celery root, beet root, carrots and potatoes -- are easy to store and long-lasting over the winter months versus green foods, which tend to spoil quickly and can't be stored.

When spring finally arrives, some purported fat-burning, slim spring foods come with it. If you are a nature person and follow seasonal changes (or perhaps have your own vegetable garden), you know that some foods appear sooner than others. Chives, ramps and asparagus are the first to come back. These belong to the sulfur-containing family of vegetables, which are said to be fat emulsifiers and are also believed to increase liver function and bile production.

All of this helps with your metabolism. All of those extra calories that you can't burn over the winter are converted in the liver from glucose to glycogen. During low calorie intake, the glycogen stored as fat will be converted back again for usage for our body -- and liver-friendly food helps this process of conversion.

And that's where bile comes in. Bile, which is synthesized and secreted by the liver and stored in the gall bladder, helps the liver to break down fats. Bile, however, cannot do its proper job if it lacks certain nutrients that make up the bile salts. Sulfur-containing foods such as chives and asparagus aid in the quality of bile production, thus aiding in the fat breakdown.