Episode 67 - Seasonal Eating & Your Body Clock: Why Food is Information

What if food is more than just fuel? After diving deep into applied quantum biology, I've discovered what feels like the missing link in my decade of hormone health work. Food isn't just calories or macros, it's information that tells your body where you are on the planet, what time of day it is, & what season you're in.

This perspective requires opening your mind to see food as light, time, & seasonal information encoded into matter. When you understand this, what you eat, when you eat, & where you eat become powerful ways to sync your inner rhythms with the earth's natural cycles.

Topics covered

In this episode, we discussed

Applied quantum biology as the missing link in hormone health
Food as information, light, and time rather than just calories or macros
How your body reads the light, season, and environment stored in food
Syncing your inner rhythms with the outer rhythms of Earth through food
Why eating tropical fruit in the European winter creates a biological mismatch
Each organ has its own clock, and how meal timing affects them
Why your gut goes to sleep before you do
Food is stored light - photosynthesis creates slowed down light in matter
How your mitochondria decode light information from food
The difference between eating the same food in different environments
Summer eating - handling more carbs with increased UV and melanin
Winter eating - body asking for more fats, proteins, and grounding foods
Why there's no one perfect diet - everything is cyclical and location-dependent
Practical steps: breakfast with sunrise, local seasonal foods, stop eating after sunset

Listen to the Episode

Timestamps

[00:01:58] Applied quantum biology and how the body deals with light, water, and earth

[00:02:37] Food as information rather than just calories or macros

[00:03:06] Food carries the light, season, and environment it grew in

[00:05:48] Food tells your body where you are and what season you're in

[00:06:14] Eating apples in season vs tropical fruit in winter

[00:07:13] Why timing matters - every cell and organ has its own clock

[00:08:12] Your gut goes to sleep before you do

[00:08:40] Eating in sync strengthens all body clocks

[00:11:38] Food is stored light through photosynthesis

[00:12:13] Mitochondria decode light information from food

[00:13:15] Problems from eating imported foods and light mismatches

[00:14:23] Environment you eat in matters - croissant example

[00:15:58] Food is never just food - includes light, environment, mindset

[00:17:52] Summer eating - solar powered, less food needed

[00:18:25] Winter eating - more fats and proteins

[00:19:16] Personal experience with seasonal shifts in Portugal

[00:20:49] No one perfect diet - everything is cyclical

[00:21:51] Practical invitations for getting started

Your Body's Many Clocks Don't Like Surprises

Every cell & organ in your body runs on its own internal clock. Your gut, liver, mitochondria, reproductive system, & insulin response all have distinct rhythms that prefer predictability over chaos.

The Evening Shutdown

Your gut goes to sleep before you do, by sunset, your pancreas & digestive system are winding down
Eating a big meal at 10 PM is like waking up a sleeping child, everything gets thrown off
Late eating disrupts: digestion, blood sugar regulation, inflammation levels, & sleep quality

Optimal Meal Timing

Breakfast near sunrise anchors your hormones, lowers morning cortisol, & sets leptin for the day
Lunch flexibility varies by season; strong summer sunlight may reduce appetite as you're "charging from the sun"
Dinner before sunset (or 3-4 hours before bed) allows your body to focus on nighttime tasks: detox, repair, & rest

"Your biology prefers clear meal times. It wants to predict what is next."

Food as Stored Light: A Quantum Perspective

Plants grow through photosynthesis, literally weaving sunlight into matter. From this perspective, food is slowed-down light formed into matter that your mitochondria can read & convert into energy.

Light Signatures in Food

Different foods carry distinct environmental information:

Apples: Late summer sunlight
Potatoes: Earth's grounding energy
Tropical fruits: Equatorial UV light signatures

When you eat, your body decodes this light information. It either matches or clashes with your current environment, which explains why eating seasonally & locally matters for your cellular health.

The Mismatch Problem

Eating pineapples in dark European winter creates an information mismatch,your biology senses this disconnect between the tropical light encoded in the fruit & your current low-light environment.

Environment Shapes How Your Body Processes Food

Food is never just food. The context in which you eat dramatically affects how your body responds to the same meal.

The Croissant Experiment

Imagine two people eating identical croissants:

Person A: Eats outdoors at sunrise with friends, laughter, warm sunlight on skin, relaxed & joyful

Person B: Eats alone at midnight under fluorescent lights, stressed & scrolling their phone

Same food, completely different biological responses. Your body processes food through the lens of your environment, emotional state, & light exposure.

Factors That Matter

Light environment: Natural sunlight vs. artificial light
Emotional state: Joy & community vs. stress & isolation
Timing: Aligned with body clocks vs. fighting natural rhythms
Setting: Peaceful & present vs. distracted & rushed

"Eating with joy outdoors in community literally expands your electromagnetic field, while fear of food or guilt eating in artificial light shrinks it."

Seasonal Shifts: Your Body's Natural Wisdom

Your hormones actually change with the seasons, including thyroid, sex, & stress hormones. This means your nutritional needs naturally shift throughout the year.

Summer Patterns

More natural UV light increases melanin production
Higher carbohydrate tolerance when light matches seasonal fruit
Reduced appetite overall because you're "solar powered"
Natural draw toward local summer fruits & lighter foods

Winter Patterns

Less light availability shifts metabolic needs
Increased desire for fats, proteins, & grounding foods
Mitochondria may thrive on ketosis during this season
Possible appetite changes, including some people naturally skipping dinner

Personal Example from Portugal

"In summer, I naturally crave the many fruits that grow here. In winter, I barely eat fruits because it feels like a mismatch ,cold & off. Instead, warm fats, proteins, & stews feel nourishing without needing large portions."

There's No Perfect Diet Because Life is Cyclical

Your diet should naturally shift & change just as it did for our ancestors before the industrial revolution. What worked for human beings throughout history was eating what grew where they lived, when it naturally ripened.

Location Matters

Different climates require different nutritional approaches
Travel gradually shifts your body's adaptation to local foods
Imported foods can create light & seasonal mismatches
Local seasonal foods provide coherent information that your body recognizes

Avoiding Food Fundamentalism

Rather than rigid rules, consider food choices as information that either supports or confuses your body's natural rhythms. The goal isn't perfection, it's awareness & gentle alignment.

Practical Steps to Start Eating with Your Rhythms

Ready to experiment with seasonal, rhythmic eating? Start small with these foundational practices:

Daily Rhythm Basics

Eat breakfast with sunrise to anchor your circadian rhythms
Choose local, seasonal foods when possible
Stop eating after sunset to support natural body clock transitions
Create joyful eating environments with natural light & community when possible

Seasonal Awareness

Notice what grows in your area during different seasons
Pay attention to natural appetite shifts throughout the year
Experiment with eating lighter in summer, heartier in winter
Trust your body's wisdom rather than forcing rigid dietary rules

Mindful Approach

Observe how different foods make you feel in different seasons
Notice your energy levels with various meal timings
Experiment gradually rather than making dramatic changes
Remember that individual needs vary based on location, health status, & life circumstances

The Bottom Line

Your body is designed to read information from food, not just extract calories. When you eat tropical fruits in winter or late-night meals under artificial light, you're sending mixed signals to the intricate biological systems that govern your health & energy.

This isn't about perfect eating, it's about awareness. Notice how your body responds to different foods in different seasons. Pay attention to your natural appetite shifts. Trust that your body has wisdom about what it needs when, especially when you provide it with coherent seasonal information.

"Stop thinking of food as just nutrients. See it as information ,light, time, rhythm, & season encoded into matter. Your body will respond to that."

Key Takeaways

Food carries information about light, season, & environment beyond just nutrients
Every organ has its own clock that prefers predictable meal timing
Eating late disrupts multiple body systems & natural repair processes
Seasonal foods provide coherent information that your body recognizes
The environment matters as much as food choice for biological response
Summer & winter needs naturally shift with light availability
No perfect diet exists because optimal nutrition is cyclical & location-dependent
Start small with sunrise breakfast, seasonal choices, & sunset dinner cutoff

Resources for Cyclical Eating

Join the waitlist for Iris's upcoming course "Cyclical" for deeper quantum biology insights: https://www.cycleseeds.com/cyclical-waitlist
Get my free Circadian Morning Guide https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNviuz42EO7/?igsh=MTE1aWZ2cnQwZ3kxdA==

Transcript

[00:00:00] Iris Josephina: You are listening to the podcast of Iris Josephina. If you are passionate about exploring the menstrual cycle, cyclical living, body wisdom, personal growth, spirituality, and running a business in alignment with your natural cycles, you're in the right place. I'm Iris. I'm an entrepreneur, functional hormone specialist, trainer and coach, and I am on a mission to share insights, fun facts, and inspiration I discover along the way as I run my business and walk my own path on earth. Here you'll hear my personal stories, guest interviews, and vulnerable shares from clients and students. Most people know me from Instagram where you can find me under at cycle seeds, or they have been a coaching client or student in one of my courses.

[00:00:52] Iris Josephina: I'm so grateful you're here. Let's dive into today's episode. Hey loves. Welcome back to the Inner Rhythms Podcast. It's Iris here, and today we're diving into a topic that I absolutely love. It is about seasonal eating and our body clock. And as some of you may know, I recently started studying applied quantum biology and it really feels like it's the missing link in all of my work, all of the work that I have been doing in the past 10 years, and I really feel that, you know, there is a lot of rootedness in when we look at the functional approach to hormone health, but I do feel in that approach sometimes we miss nature because it's all about optimizing. It's all about, you know, supplementation, lifestyle, all these things. But there was a part that missed, and I didn't know what that part was.

[00:01:58] Iris Josephina: I just knew it was there. And that part was applied quantum biology and how the body deals with light with water and the earth. And today I wanna talk about seasonal eating and your body clock and how we can perceive food as light time and information. And I know that this perspective may require your mind to open a little bit because this is really not a perspective that is often taken.

[00:02:37] Iris Josephina: But there is a lot of research that has been done about this that I was completely unaware of. And so, you know, when we talk about food. We often are taught to think of it as calories or maybe as macros, and maybe if you dive a little bit deeper nutrients, but from a cyclical quantum perspective, food is so much more than fuel for the body.

[00:03:06] Iris Josephina: It is information. And I find this so super interesting because food actually carries. The light, the season and the environment it grew in. And your body can read that information almost like a book. And so when you understand this, suddenly what you eat, when you eat and where you eat, all become ways of sinking your inner rhythms of your body.

[00:03:41] Iris Josephina: And I'm not just talking about the menstrual cycle, but every single rhythm that the body is on with the outer rhythms of the earth. And I feel that this is such a profound way to reconnect with ourselves as human beings, reconnect with our menstrual cycles, reconnect with our day-to-day cycles, our circadian rhythm, and even through that, connecting to the earth around us, the people around us or communities.

[00:04:11] Iris Josephina: And for me, one very interesting thing that happened when I started to perceive my food in this way is that I feel so much more purpose in my life and I managed to see so much more magic around me. And it's wild how much my perception of food has shifted and changed. And today I just want to share the wisdom that I gathered over the past few months with you because I feel there is so much crap out there.

[00:04:48] Iris Josephina: And you know, when we look at food just as fuel or as calories or just as macros, we take away a lot of the magic and it can really become a chore to interact with our food. And a lot of people have a like distorted relationship with food. And I feel after learning all of this, that that is because we have lost the concept and the importance of seasonal eating and how.

[00:05:18] Iris Josephina: Food is information for our body. So let's start there. Food is information. It's not just fuel. And so your body was really not designed for aesthetics or performance. If you look at it from a very plain biologic perspective, your body is designed for survival. And so from a biological perspective, food basically tells your body where you are on the planet.

[00:05:48] Iris Josephina: What time of the day it is and what season you're in. So think about it. If apples ripen in late summer, your body and your ancestors learn to expect apples in late summer when you eat them in season. Your body clock matches with this food. Your body clock relaxes. It feels that this food came on time.

[00:06:14] Iris Josephina: And when you eat tropical fruit like pineapples in the middle of dark European winter, that information absolutely does not match your environment and your biology senses that mismatch. And this can lead to a whole host of. Issues and problems, and I will share more about this in my upcoming course, cyclical, where I will dive super deep into this.

[00:06:40] Iris Josephina: If you're interested in learning more, put yourself in on the wait list. So I just wanna reiterate that seasonal local food is very, very powerful because it gives your body coherent, reliable information that matches your light environment. So the, these foods have grown in a light environment that your body recognizes at that specific time of the year and that specific time of the day.

[00:07:13] Iris Josephina: Now let's talk a little bit more about timing. And with timing, I specifically want to talk about why it matters when you eat and which timeframes of eating we choose. So maybe you've heard me talk about how every cell in the body, every organ has its own clock. So your gut has its own clock, and with the gut it's actually extra special because the gut actually.

[00:07:44] Iris Josephina: In the evening goes to sleep earlier than you do. Your liver has its own clock. Your mitochondria has their own clock. Your reproductive system has its own clock, your insulin at its own clock, and they all run on their own rhythms. And the thing is they don't really like surprises. So your gut, for example, like I mentioned, goes to bed before you do so by sunset, your pancreas and your digestive system are already winding down.

[00:08:12] Iris Josephina: If you eat a big meal at 10:00 PM it's like waking up a sleeping child, everything gets thrown off like that. Digestion slows your blood sugar regulation falters, inflammation rises, and your sleep is disrupted. Now. On the other hand, if you're eating in sync with the day, this actually strengthens all the body clocks and your sense of rhythm within your body.

[00:08:40] Iris Josephina: So when we have breakfast near sunrise, this really anchors your hormones. It lowers morning cortisol. It sets leptin your hormone that regulates satiation for the day. Lunch is a little bit more flexible in summer with strong sunlight, sometimes your body prefers less food because you're literally charging from the sun.

[00:09:06] Iris Josephina: In winter lunch may feel grounding and necessary because your body creates more density and warmth because it's not receiving that from the outside environment. Dinner from a biological perspective should end before sunset or at least three to four hours before bed so that your body just has to focus on the main tasks.

[00:09:33] Iris Josephina: It's primed for at night. So that is detox, that is repair, that is rest. Now. If you're someone who is snacking all day, this can, for example, confuse your liver clock. And when we just look at it like very plain from a biological perspective, your biology prefers clear meal times, it wants to predict what is next.

[00:10:03] Iris Josephina: And I know that there is a lot of ideas about, you know, food and food timing and fasting and all, you know, all the, all the things that are hip and fancy and whatever these days. But I really have taken it upon myself to really see like, how do these organs work? In relation to the place and the light and the time of day and season, and how, how does our body respond when it comes to food?

[00:10:38] Iris Josephina: And the truth is that this shifts and changes with the seasons. So we're not supposed to be eating in the exact same way in every single earth season. And actually our hormones change with seasons. This was also not something that I knew, but your thyroid hormones can change with the season and even your sex and your stress hormones can shift with the seasons of the earth. So in each season, your biology prefers clarity on when it receives food and when it receives light. Now, when we're talking about light, I want to reframe for you what food actually is, specifically if we're looking at plants. So I want to reframe how you see food and look at food for a minute as stored light.

[00:11:38] Iris Josephina: Here's where it gets fascinating. So as most of you know, plants grow through photosynthesis, and this literally, if you look at what that is, it's literally weaving sunlight into matter and food. How you can look at it from a quantum biological perspective is slowed down, light formed into matter that your mitochondria can read.

[00:12:13] Iris Josephina: Your mitochondria very, very simply explained, are the energy centers of the cell where food gets converted and light gets converted into energy. When you eat, your body isn't just counting carbs or. Fat. It's literally decoding the light information stored in that food. And to give you a few examples, apples carry late summer sunlight, potatoes carry the earth's grounding energy.

[00:12:49] Iris Josephina: Tropical fruits carry the signature of equatorial UV light. So when your body takes in that information, it either matches or clashes with your environment. And that's why eating with the seasons and your location matter so much. And I personally believe that so many people these days have so many problems because we eat so.

[00:13:15] Iris Josephina: Much imported foods and we just expect everything to be available all the time, which then leads to us eating food that is a light mismatch compared to where we environmentally are or where on the planet we are. So this is one of the reasons why it's so, so, so important to match your food with your location and the season that you're in.

[00:13:50] Iris Josephina: And I will share more about this in my upcoming course because there is a lot to say about deuterium in food and how there is like a deuterium mismatch when we eat a lot of imported foods. But if you wanna learn more about that, I'll talk about that in my course. Cyclical. So with that, it's also important to match the environment you eat in with what your body needs in that moment.

[00:14:23] Iris Josephina: So it's not only what you eat, but also where and how you eat. Let me give you an example. Two people eat the exact same croissants. One person eats it outdoors at sunrise with friends, laughter, warm sunlight on their skin, the sun helping them, you know, support all the processes in their body. And the other person eats it alone at midnight in fluorescent lights.

[00:15:00] Iris Josephina: They're stressed. They're scrolling the way that their body is going to digest that food because the clocks don't match because we're not supposed to be eating at midnight. The way that the body will be dealing with that food is very, very different than this first person that I described. It's the same food, but it's a completely different biological response.

[00:15:27] Iris Josephina: Your body processes food through the lens of your environment, but also your emotional state, like fear of food or guilt or eating an artificial light literally shrinks your electromagnetic field while eating with joy outdoors and community literally expands it. So what I want you to remember here is that food is never just food.

[00:15:58] Iris Josephina: It is when we eat something, the food is important for our body. The light is important for our body, so the light environment that we're in, but also the light under which that food grew, the environment that we're in, and also the mindset with which we are eating. I know this is probably a little bit farfetched for some people, but there, there has been

[00:16:22] Iris Josephina: research about this that just really, really blow my mind. And I am really, really excited to, uh, to teach more about this in my course cyclical because I feel this is really the missing link in how people are, you know, consuming food. And I feel this is also one of the reasons why, you know, some people can have the exact same perfect quote unquote, diet, and they don't drink alcohol.

[00:16:53] Iris Josephina: They don't eat sugar, la la, la, but still the problems that they want to have solved. Don't get solved because, for example, they're eating stressed, they're working out on their fluorescent lights, they're they're eating too late at night, et cetera. So do not underestimate the environment that you eat in and how we can create a biological mismatch with that.

[00:17:17] Iris Josephina: So now let's bring this all together with the seasons. In summer, we have more natural UV light outside of us, which means that there is more melanin present in your body, and with that, your system can handle more carbohydrates because the light matches the fruit that grows in that time. Most people need less food overall in summer because we are literally solar powered.

[00:17:52] Iris Josephina: We are solar powered species, and this is why in summer I often tell my clients It's okay if you're not that hungry. Just try to eat with the light outside. And so in winter there is less light. There is more cold and the body will naturally ask more for fats and proteins and grounding food. And your mitochondria may actually thrive on ketosis in this season.

[00:18:25] Iris Josephina: And we may not need loads of food. It is the type of food that we may eat more of compared to summer, like fats and proteins. And for some people it may feel good in winter that we, for example, skip dinner. Because we have so much fats and proteins that we eat for other people, this may not be the case at all.

[00:18:52] Iris Josephina: So for me, because I live in a country where there is quite some light during the day, still in winter, and there is quite a lot of sunshine, I do feel that I experience like a mild milder shift in what my body needs when it comes to macros. But in summer, I definitely feel that I want to eat more fruits that grow here.

[00:19:16] Iris Josephina: Like here in Portugal, there is so many different types of fruits that grow in summer and I naturally am more drawn towards fruits. And in winter I barely ever eat fruits 'cause I just, it's a mismatch. I just feel in my body when I eat loads of fruit in winter, it feels cold. It's a mismatch. Whereas. Warm fats and proteins, a lot of like stews.

[00:19:44] Iris Josephina: It just feels really good to eat that. I don't need gigantic portions. But it just feels better to eat this type of food because there is a little bit less light. Sometimes we'll have a lot of rain, usually on rainy, gray days. I crave like a lot of fats, proteins, grounding foods in wintertime and. Ottoman Spring are times throughout the year where your body naturally shifts appetite with the daylight changes.

[00:20:15] Iris Josephina: So we may experience shifts in how long the days are, and in Ottoman spring we see a lot of like transitional foods. Some people will rely more on stored foods, roots, squashes. But it really depends on where you are on the planet. Like this is what's true for me where I live, and I want to say there is no one perfect diet because it's all cyclical.

[00:20:49] Iris Josephina: Our diet naturally shifted. If we look at our ancestors and the entire human timeline before we had the industrial Revolution, it shifted and changed with the season. And it also shifts and changes with your location. So when you travel, you may see that there is different foods available, and your body will naturally, slowly, slowly adapt to that.

[00:21:19] Iris Josephina: So with this episode, my big, big invitation for you is to stop thinking of food as just nutrients. See it as information. It is light, it is time, it is rhythm, or season encoded into matter and your body will respond to that. And my invitation is to really start small. And the first thing is eat breakfast with sunrise.

[00:21:51] Iris Josephina: Choose local seasonal foods when you can stop eating after sunset and try to eat in a place and an environment of joy, maybe community when possible. And if you want to. Learn more about this. I definitely would recommend for you to sign up for the wait list for my upcoming course, cyclical, and if you want to get started with my morning routine, my circadian morning routine to get started with, you know, getting acquainted with, okay, what is this light thing?

[00:22:35] Iris Josephina: How do I. Adjust my body to the light that is out there and how does it work and what's an easy way to do that. I've pasted my free guide in the show notes and you can download it and I would love to hear from you how it feels in your body when you start bringing these very, very small changes and. If this episode resonated with you, shared with someone who's curious about cycles, about light, about food, and remember that your body is always cyclical and it's deeply connected to the seasons on so many different levels, and that you can be gentle with it.

[00:23:23] Iris Josephina: I hope this episode brought you new inspiration and new perspectives on how we can perceive and interact with food. I can't wait to see you in the next episode, and I wish you a beautiful rest of your day or your evening, and I'll see you in the next one. Okay, this wraps up today's episode. Thank you so much for listening.

[00:23:48] Iris Josephina: Want to know more about me? The best way to reach me is via at Cycle Seeds on Instagram, and if you heard something today and you think, oh my God, wow, I learned something new. Feel free to share the podcast on your social media and tag me or leave a review of rating. In this way, you help me reach more people like you.

[00:24:07] Iris Josephina: Thank you so much.

[00:24:08] Iris Josephina:

About the Host

I’m Iris Josephina, a functional hormone specialist, orthomolecular hormone coach, and entrepreneur. Through Cycle Seeds and The Inner Rhythms Podcast, I support people in reconnecting with their cyclical nature, deepening body literacy, and reclaiming hormonal harmony from a place of sovereignty and embodied knowledge. Most people know me from Instagram, where I share stories, tools, and inspiration on cyclical living, menstrual cycles, fertility, hormones and more.

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