2023-10-28 11:45:17
The scorching summer will have played out for long periods of time, but this time, we’re here for good: it’s autumn. Whether we like it or not, the time has come to bring out the range of this shoulder season: boots, umbrella… and the option of grimace and morale in the socks for those who are hit by seasonal depression when fall is rearing its ugly head, that the time change deprives us of an hour of sunshine and that the thermometer inexorably drops.
But if autumn is not everyone’s cup of tea, it nevertheless has many virtues (yes, yes, we promise!). For our physical and mental health. Here they are.
Benefits on our plate
If we are what we eat, for a healthy body and mind, we must ensure our intake of good nutrients. An ancestral precept, since Hippocrates, considered the father of medicine, himself said in the 5th century BC: “Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food”. And that’s good, autumn enriches our menus with seasonal fruits and vegetables. “It marks the start of the citrus season, particularly clementines, but also kiwis,” explains Raphaël Gruman, nutritionist. Fruits very rich in vitamin C, which promotes better morale and helps strengthen the immune system. In practice, a kiwi and two clementines each day provide the daily vitamin C requirement.” Another seasonal fruit: grapes, “very rich in antioxidants,” continues the nutritionist. It notably contains resveratrol, which strengthens immunity by fighting free radicals which can cause fatigue, and which also fights against aging.
Without forgetting the star vegetables of the season, in autumn colors. “Orange vegetables, like squash, such as butternut and pumpkin,” adds Raphaël Gruman. They are rich in beta-carotene, which will give you a healthy glow, and are very interesting for their vitamin and fiber content. They have the advantage of being easy to prepare, low in calories and rich in taste, perfect in comforting soups.
And for a complete healthy plate, “black radish is interesting for liver detox,” he prescribes. Green leafy vegetables such as broccoli and spinach are good for eye health: they prevent AMD (age-related macular degeneration).”
A chronobiologically more adapted season
This will not have escaped your attention: this Sunday, at 3 o’clock, it will be 2 o’clock. We will thus move to winter time, with night falling around 5 p.m. If it were up to us, many of us would only want to live in summer, when the sun stretches out until mid-evening. A desire illustrated by the results of the European consultation on the end of the time change launched in 2019. In France alone, more than 2.1 million people responded. And if 84% were in favor of removing the time change, 59% voted for summer time, compared to 37% for winter time. “They interpreted this question as ‘do you prefer winter or summer.’ And obviously, everyone prefers summer, then indicated to 20 Minutes Dr Claude Gronfier, neurobiologist, research director at Inserm Lyon and president of the French-speaking Society of Chronobiology. But people have forgotten that the natural photoperiod means that, in any case, the sun will set five hours earlier in winter and five hours later in summer.
However, “both animal and plant life developed in connection with solar luminosity. So the ideal time, from a chronobiological point of view, is solar time, which is already not the time we live at, since we live at GMT + 1 [GMT correspondant à l’heure du soleil au méridien de Greenwich], and even at GMT + 2 in summer, two hours later than solar time. This schedule creates a two-hour social jet-lag: our biological schedules and our activity schedules are staggered,” he recalled. A shift that “disrupts the circadian rhythm”. Clearly, winter time corresponds more to our biological clock. With the sun setting earlier, we go to bed earlier: the drop in light promotes the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Where summer time, by delaying our biological clock, delays the time we fall asleep and deepens our sleep debt a little further. For our health, winter time is the most beneficial.
The soothing virtues of autumn colors
Another asset of autumn: the trees which are adorned with a palette of ochre, red, orange or brown. Warm and comforting colors. A simple walk on a carpet of autumn leaves will have the same calming effects as a meditation session.
“There are archaic mechanisms in our reactions to colors, and those of autumn influence us,” indicates Florence Servan-Schreiber, specialist in positive psychology and author of the book 3 kifs per day (ed. Marabout). We are therefore very sensitive to the color of the sky, its azure blue brings joy. The green of nature is calming and a sign of abundance. And the autumn palette marks the change of season and the transition to a calmer and more interior period.”
The right season to cope with your laziness and refocus on yourself
Calm and interiority: these are the key words of autumn, where we take more responsibility for our laziness and where we refocus on ourselves. “It’s a period when we allow ourselves to slow down without guilt,” explains Florence Servan-Schreiber. During the spring and summer, we combine activities and meetings until late in the day. But the darkness of autumn makes our rhythm change, we refocus on inner, more soothing things. When the days are shorter, there is a lot less “FOMO” [fear of missing out], this fear of missing the slightest event. We rather want to come home and relax in the warmth.”
At this time of year, “we choose more of what brings us satisfaction, whether that’s taking the time to read, cooking good food or going to the cinema more often,” she continues. This does not mean that we go into hibernation and isolate ourselves! It’s a season where we take the time to take care of our soul, to do what we want, and to see people who bring comfort and friendship.”
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