Temperament of the Seasons

In addition to the fact that people’s lifestyles should be different in different seasons, the clothing, and foods that a person wears and eats in different seasons must also be different, otherwise he/she will get sick. From the point of view of Iranian medicine scholars, each season of the year has a special temperament, and accordingly, it is necessary to know and apply the recommendations and measures of the four seasons to maintain health and prevent the occurrence of diseases and to minimize the complications and consequences of those seasons.

Table of Contents Spring Spring is moderate in terms of hot, cold, moist, and dry, but it has a desire for mild heat and moist. Therefore, some believe that spring is hot and moist. Spring is the best season; Because it is suitable for the temperament of the blood. This season attracts blood to the surface of the skin; it reddens the color of the face. But is not erosive like the summer weather. Spring excites chronic diseases. In other words, it makes the stagnant humors flow and old diseases appear, hence the condition of melancholia patients worsens and nothing but wet cupping or bloodletting, using laxatives and expelling excrement, doing moderate exercises, reduce eating food, drinking a lot of cold liquids and drinks can save people from the diseases of this season. Those who eat too much and exercise less in winter, their humors increase, and when spring comes, they will get several diseases. Traditional medicine recommends a light food diet in this season to enjoy spring freshness and prevent frailty and increased blood concentration. Spring diseases are as follow: nosebleeds, swellings, boils, diphtheria, cracked veins, cough, stroke, paralysis, joint pain, and pharyngitis.

Suitable Foods for Spring:

Lemonade- barberry juice- sour cherry juice- pomegranate juice – sekanjebin syrup – chicory hydrosol- plum – rhubarb – non-alcohol beer.
In this season, it is better to use more cold temperament food, especially cold and dry food.

Harmful Foods for Spring:

Hot temperament, bitter and especially salty foods.
It is necessary to consume less meats, especially red meat, and blood-producer food.
It is not recommended to consume fatty and spicy foods in spring.

Summer The temperament of this season is hot and dry. Due to its nature, is erosive for humors and weakens body forces. It reduces blood and phlegm humors and increases yellow bile, so choleric temperaments should eat cold and moist food more. The summer is suitable for elderlies temperaments, phlegmatic and people with moist temperaments. Summer weather reduces moist and modifies coldness. In summer, since the heat reaches the surface of the body, the inside of the body is cold, and that’s why digestion is weak, and therefore it is necessary we eat light and moderate foods, unlike winter. In the summer, you should eat less, exercise less, and rest more. In this season, the symptoms of heat and dryness intensify in people with a hot and dry (choleric) temperament who are also in their youth age. Strong laxatives should not be taken. In this season, cold temperament drinks and sour foods should be eaten more.

Suitable Foods for Summer:

Yogurt- cucumber- lettuce- zucchini- coriander- spinach- boiled foods- soups- pottages- sour foods- lemon- bitter orange- barley soup- barberry- blackberry- raspberry- sour apple- cherry- pomegranate- peach- apricot- watermelon

Harmful Foods for Summer:

Grilled or fried foods – kebabs- a lot of meat – salty foods – nuts – vegetables and hot and dry foods and drinks.
In summer, consumption of all kinds of spices and pepper, fats and oil, sweets, banana, dates, cocoa, all kinds of sauces, garlic, camel meat, hot temperament drinks (such as mint, chamomile, lavender, ginger and …) should be reduced.

Autumn The temperament of this season is cold and dry. The autumn sunshine completely dries the air. Cold temperament foods should not be consumed, cold water should not be drunk, and shower should not be taken by cold water in this season. In this season, you should not sleep in a cold place where the body shiver due to the coldness. You should not sleep on a full stomach. You should avoid midday heat and morning cold and cover your head at night and in the morning. In this season, you should avoid seasonal fruits as much as possible. Suitable fruits for this season include apples, pears, and quince. It is necessary to remove excrement from the body so that they do not accumulate in the winter. This season is the peak of skin diseases such as eczema and lips chapped. Mental illnesses such as depression are becoming more prevalent. It is better to eat more warm and moist foods such as almonds and mutton in this season.

Prohibitions of Autumn

• Frequent wet hijama and bloodletting and anything else that reduce the blood.
• It is forbidden to use strong laxatives in autumn.
• In this season, it is not recommended to sleep in a cold place and wear few clothes, because the temperature changes are a lot in this season.
• In autumn, you should avoid bathing with cold water, because cold water blocks the pores of the body, and as a result, waste materials do not evaporate. They accumulate in the body, causing some diseases.
• In autumn, it is inappropriate not to cover the head, especially in the early morning and when sleeping at night. Because coldness causes the skin pores to close. The closing of these pores causes the vapors to not be expelled, and their accumulation in the head causes the occurrence of some diseases, including a type of cold and cough.
• Emotional states, especially sadness, are harmful in any season, but in the autumn, especially for people who have had melancholic diseases (such as: heartburn, constipation and flatulence, gout, hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, melancholy, depression, Parkinson’s, etc.), it is more harmful and they should avoid these cases as much as possible and engage in things that bring joy and happiness.

Autumn Suitable Schemes

Anything that effectively helps to increase body moisture and reduce body dryness is appropriate for this season. Some suitable schemes in this season are:

• Using mild natural fragrances, greasing the head and face with suitable oils such as almond and violet oil, bathing with lukewarm water.
• More use of sunlight.
• Wearing clothes even if you don’t feel cold, because the autumn wind is harmful and the body should be away from it. Just as the autumn wind is deadly for trees and nature, it causes leaves to fall and trees fall asleep, and it also has negative effects on humans, who are a part of nature’s system.
• Doing wet hijama as a preventive scheme, only once, in the second half of the lunar month at the beginning of the autumn. (Basically, it is better to perform cupping in the time range from the 17th of every lunar month to the 27th.)

Suitable Foods for Autumn

• Wide use of hot temperament drinks such as lavender tea, quince tea, oregano, and thyme tea, etc.
• Also, the use of goleghand, pomegranate juice and aromatic drinks such as musk willow and saffron rose water nectars.
• It is recommended to eat all kinds of traditional pottages which are suitable for the cold season.
• In the autumn, it is recommended to consume lamb kebab.
• Use fruits and vegetables, such as sweet and sour-sweet pomegranates, dried figs, pears, quince, persimmons, carrots, turnips, pumpkins, etc.
• In general, consumption of hot and moist foods is recommended due to the coldness and dryness of autumn. Some of them are: lamb, camel, turkey, and quail meat, wheat (bread, sprouts, in soups and stews), peas and beans, apples, pears, quince, boiled and grilled foods, sweet and juicy fruits, dried fruits and nuts (raisins, currants, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts and pistachios), egg yolk (boiled or soft-boiled), date and grape sap, cedrat jam, beetroot, horseradish, cardamom and cinnamon, figs, milk with honey, porridge and sesame, etc.

Harmful Foods for Autumn

• Avoid eating cold temperament foods, especially at dinner and when you are sick; For example: yogurt, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and watermelon.
• Use nuts (pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts) instead of any cold temperament foods.
• Avoid excessive consumption of dry food such as: eggplant and lentils.
• Eating a lot of garlic, onion, and foods containing spices and salt, lemon juice, vinegar, pickles, reduce body moisture and increase dryness in the autumn.
• Excessive use of dates in cities where dates are not grown there is not recommended in the fall. Because eating a lot of dates in autumn causes dryness in the body and increase black bile. If you eat it, consume them with its modifiers such as sekanjabin and pomegranate juice.
• Also, some other inappropriate foods for the fall include: beef and veal, hot spices, fried foods, mushrooms, strong tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, chewing gum, ice, sauces, salty meats, chips, salty cheese, baguette or dough, sour fruits (lemon, grapefruit, sour pomegranate, and orange), green beans, and etc.

Winter Winter has cold and moist temperament and is the basis for the aggravation of phlegmatic diseases. That’s why people over 50 years old have more problems in this season. Considering that winter season is almost the opposite of summer, nutrition in this season is also the opposite of summer. In winter, you should eat food that provides warmth and you should not use foods such as seeds and vegetables low in nutritive value. Winter food should have more nutritional value. Due to the cold weather in winter, the body must be active and eat a lot. But if it is southern winter, you should do a lot of exercise and eat less food. Vegetables such as purslane and chicory should not be used in winter and vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, beets, and celery should be replaced instead. In winter, the heat inside the body gets higher and stronger, so it is easier to digest food. Therefore, it is appropriate that the food has higher quality and quantity.

Schemes of Winter

• People with cold and moist temperament should avoid consuming cold foods in winter and especially at night.
• In cold seasons, especially winter, it is recommended to use warm temperament foods such as butter, honey, almonds, and hazelnuts along with main meals. Obviously, the consumption amount of these foods in each person depends on his/her temperament.
• In this season, after bathing, you should not suddenly be exposed to cold weather.
• Sleeping during the day, especially in winter, causes cold and moist diseases. Bad complexion, weakness of the body, feeling of boredom and loss of appetite are other side effects of daytime sleep.
• The best time to exercise in winter is at the end of the day (around 4 or 5 P.M.).
• In the winter, the body needs more food and more meat, but if the winter does not have winter-like temperament, and it is warmer than expected or there is little rainfall, the food should be eaten in moderation.
• The moderate temperament should eat hot and dry foods in this season.
• In winter, drinks and food should be consumed warm.
• In this season, heavy sports should be done to prevent the accumulation of bad humors in the body, especially in people who have a lot of moisture in their body.
• In this season, you should wear warm clothes such as woolen, leather, silk, and cotton clothes, because these types of clothes absorb the warm vapor of a person’s body and keep it between their particles and prevent his body from getting cold.
• In this season, it is better for people to walk a little under the sun and benefit from solar energy.
• Due to the fact that in today’s world all kinds of fruits are available to the public in the winter, in this season it is better to reduce the consumption of cold and moist fruits (such as watermelon, cucumber, tangerine, etc.) and eat more warm and dry fruits.
• Elderly people should eat soaked figs in winter, which is very good for their bowel movements.
• It is better for people to live in high places where the sun shines on them and they are protected from moisture and damp and sit on warm and soft carpets in winter.
• It is better to warm the quilt and cover yourself while sleeping.
• Anyone who gets sick in winter should quickly remove waste materials from the body.
• In winter, in order to get rid of waste materials, diarrhea is preferable to vomiting.
• In this season, you should avoid strong laxatives, heavy wet hijama, vomiting, and diarrhea, but when needed and with the diagnosis of a skilled doctor, you can use weak or moderate laxatives and wet hijama or bloodletting as needed.

Suitable Foods for Winter

The food of healthy people in this season should be moderate and thick food such as meat, salted meat, hot spices, kebabs, partridge meat, and quail. Also, all kinds of soups, fried meat with walnut oil, olive oil, or apricot oil, and the like, especially with cinnamon, cumin, fennel, and …; Because the instinctive heat is integrated and strong and also the digestion is strong and good in this season.

Hot and dry ingredients that are suitable for feeding in this season include: mango, paper almonds, basil seeds, pistachios, oregano, onion, tallow, horseradish, leek, parsley, black tea, mustard, dates, persimmons, cinnamon, oil, basil, turmeric, saffron, ginger, ajwain seed, olive, caraway, garlic, fenugreek, pepper, hazelnut, celery, black grape raisin (raisin), cabbage, artichoke, walnut, damask rose, split pea, savory, shallot, beeswax, coconut, chickpeas, mint, orange blossom, cardamom and… Of course, it should be noted that the consumption of each of these items has a direct relationship with the temperament of the people and it is necessary to avoid excessive use of any of them.

Harmful Foods for Winter

Eating cold temperament food, especially cold and moist food such as yogurt, lettuce, salad, cucumber, tomato, barley, pickles, spinach, mushroom, fish, potato, and cheese is harmful in this season and causes cold diseases such as rheumatism, colds, sinusitis, obesity, MS, Parkinson’s, white hair, cataracts, hypothyroidism, flatulence, and anemia.