Winter Flow 9: Why You're Always Hungry in Winter

In our last blog, you discovered that food is light, captured by plants and read by your body as information.

You met Amy, who transformed her sleep, energy, and hormones by aligning her light environment and her food with winter.

Today, we're going to answer the question Amy asked me after her transformation.

On March 2024, two months after Amy's results, she writes:

"Roudy, I need to understand something.I've been eating 'clean' for years. Organic everything. Lean proteins. Whole grains. Smoothie bowls with berries. All the things health experts say to eat.And I felt terrible. Then I switched to eating squash, root vegetables, butter, beef, eggs, foods I was always told would make me gain weight and clog my arteries. And I lost 8 pounds. My hot flashes stopped. I'm sleeping through the night. My energy is steady all day.I don't understand. WHY did this work?What's actually happening in my body?"

I smiled when I read her email.

Because I'd asked myself the exact same question a few years earlier back at the farm…

The Discovery That Changed Everything

Winter 2018 , I'm at the farm in Canada.

I'm sitting at the kitchen table reading research papers, trying to understand something that's been puzzling me for months.

Why do I feel so different eating the same foods in different seasons?

That summer, when I ate berries and fresh vegetables from the garden, I felt energized, light and active.

But when winter came and I tried eating the same way, buying berries shipped from Chile, eating tropical fruits. I felt... off.

Not sick. Just... Something in my system felt off

I would feel tired shortly after I eat and I would feel hungry an hour after meals.

I thought: "Maybe it's the quality. Maybe imported fruit isn't as fresh."

But that didn't fully explain it. Because the squash and root vegetables I ate in winter, stored for months, made me feel better than the "fresh" berries flown in from summer climates.

Something else was happening.

Then I found it. A 2021 study in Frontiers in Physiology. The title captured my attention:

"Light-Sensing Proteins in the Gut."

I read the first paragraph, then I read it again and again. Scientists had discovered a photoreceptor AKA a light sensor in the intestinal wall.

Not in the eyes. In the gut… and they called it Opsin 3.

And when they shone light on gut tissue in the lab, it responded. The gut was literally "seeing" light.

I sat back in my chair thinking: WOW! My gut has light sensors.

Another study found these light sensors aren't just in the gut. They're in your heart. Your liver. Your kidneys. Essentially, all over your body.

Your entire system is wired to detect light information.

But here's the questions that kept me wondering:

How do these sensors "see" light when they're inside your body, away from sunlight?

We know that most frequencies don't penetrate deep enough except for red and infrared light.

As I kept thinking about this question over and over again, the answer came through as I vividly recalled my conversation with Hunt:

"That tomato is full of light. You're not just eating nutrients. You're eating sunlight and nature's love packaged in a bite."

It's the light from food that is hitting those opsin!

Bingo!

From a quantum biophysics lens, we know that when you eat food, it gets broken down into electrons and protons.

Those electrons carry the light frequencies from the sunlight that grew that food.

Those electrons travel through your digestive system and your gut's light sensors read them.

They detect:

Your gut is literally reading the light barcode of every bite you take and using that information to tell your body what season it is.

Suddenly, everything made sense.

Why berries in winter felt wrong. They carried summer light codes. My gut read "summer." But my eyes, looking out at snow and short days, read "winter."

Why squash in winter felt right. It carried autumn/winter light codes. My gut read "cool season." My eyes read "cool season." The signals matched.

When the light my eyes saw and the light my gut read told the same story, my body knew exactly what to do. But when they contradicted each other? It led to metabolic confusion.

The Email I Sent Amy

I wrote her back that same day.

"Amy, here's what I believe is happening: Your gut has light sensors. They're called opsins. When you eat food, it breaks down into electrons that carry the light signature of where that food grew.

Your gut's sensors read those electrons and they detect the electromagnetic pattern, the intensity, the wavelength. 

When you were eating mangoes and berries in January, your gut read: 'High UV. Summer. Abundance. Burn fast. Eat often.

But when you looked outside at Michigan snow and short February days, your eyes read: 'Low UV. Winter. Scarcity. Conserve. Rest.

Your body was getting two completely different messages.

Your eyes said 'winter.' Your gut said 'summer.' And your metabolism didn't know which program to run." So it tried to run both. Or neither. Or switched back and forth.

That's why you felt exhausted, inflamed, constantly hungry, even though you were eating 'clean.' When you switched to winter foods, your eyes AND your gut were saying the same thing: 'Winter and your body finally knew which program to run."

Amy wrote back again:

Wait. You said my EYES were reading winter. But I was under artificial lights at night, watching TV and on my phone before bed.Were my eyes even reading ''winter?"

Perfect question.I explained:

"In winter, your body expects long, dark nights." That darkness triggers extended melatonin production, a clear signal that it's winter, time to rest deeply and run the winter program." But when you're under bright LEDs at 9 PM, watching TV after sunset, scrolling your phone at 11 PM, your eyes are getting summer signals too.

So you had:

Three conflicting signals and maybe more. Your body was trying to run summer mode, winter mode, and everything in between, all at once.

Amy's response:

"Oh my God. This is why getting morning sunlight and wearing the evening and nighttime lenses helped so much. This all makes so much sense right now!!! And when I removed the tropical fruits, my gut started reading 'winter' too. WAW! This is much simpler than I thought and it makes so much sense. It's like every cell in my body knows this! Thank you''

Amy's Next Question: What About Ketosis?

Three weeks later, Amy wrote again.

"Roudy, something weird is happening. I'm eating and craving a lot more fat than I used to and more calories probably. But I'm going longer between meals without even thinking about it.

''Yesterday I ate dinner at 4:30 PM. Didn't eat again until 9 AM this morning. 16.5 hours and I wasn't even hungry.

"Before, I was snacking every 2-3 hours and still felt starving."

"My friend told me I'm probably in 'ketosis' and that it's dangerous long-term. Is that true?"

Ketosis: Nature's Winter Mode

I sent her a long email that night.

"Amy, ketosis isn't a 'diet.' It's what your body naturally does in winter."

"For years, I'd heard about keto diets. Low-carb eating. Fat-burning mode. People debating whether it's healthy or not."

"But I never understood why my body seemed to crave it in winter and hate it in summer."

"Why meat, butter, eggs, fish, and bone broth were everything I wanted during winter, and why I stopped craving berries and fruits during that time."

"Also, why I could NOT function properly when I tried to eat the same winter diet in summer. My body was craving fruits all the time."

"Now it makes sense. I was able to see that Ketosis is not a willpower game. It's not meant to be a dogmatic diet . I's meant to be a natural, seasonal and purposeful process that we experience naturally in the winter

"When the signals align: short days, low UV, winter foods—your body shifts into fat-burning mode automatically."

"Not because you're making an effort to restrict carbs and using willpower and discipline to fast''

"Because you're naturally eating what's actually available in winter. And carbs are NOT very available."

"Also, naturally when you follow the sunrise and sunset time as your eating rhythm, you'll be fasting for longer hours and entering ketosis."

"Think about it: In nature, what food is naturally accessible in the winter?"

Mostly animal based fats and proteins

"Your body evolved to run on this fuel in winter."

"To burn stored fat for heat. To go longer between meals without crashing."

"This is ketosis."

I continued:

"Here's what happens when you eat fat in winter:"

"This is why your winter meals like beef, root vegetables, butter, bone broth, kept you satisfied for so long."

"Your body was running the program it's designed to run in winter."

Getting Practical: What to Eat This Winter

I sent Amy a list.

Here's what your metabolism is expecting this season:

Where Your Food Comes From Matters

Amy wrote back:

"Okay, but here's my problem. I live in the suburbs. I can't hunt. I don't have chickens. I shop at the grocery store.How do I know if the food I'm buying has the right 'light code'?"

Another great question.

I wrote back:

"Amy, here's something critical most people miss:"

"That 'organic' label in the supermarket? It might be meaningless."

"Big corporations have learned to game the system. They grow food in warehouses under artificial lights. Ship it across the world. Let it sit in storage for weeks."

"Then slap 'organic' on it."

"But food grown under artificial light doesn't carry the same information as food grown under real sun."

"The light code is different. Or absent entirely."

"The real solution? Know your farmer."

"Go to farmers' markets. Find people growing food outdoors, in real soil, under real sun. Ask them questions. Visit their farms if you can."

"Food from a farmer you trust, grown 20 miles away, is infinitely better than 'certified organic' food shipped from another continent."

"The light information is fresher. The connection is real. And you're supporting people who actually care."

Amy responded:

"There's a farmers' market in my town every Saturday. I always drove past it thinking it was more expensive."

"I'm going this weekend."

5 Practical Actions to Align With Winter

Start Small

You don't need to overhaul everything tonight .You've already made huge progress. Just pick one more shift.. Maybe it's switching from grocery store eggs to farmers' market eggs." Maybe it's adding bone broth to your routine. Maybe it's moving dinner an hour earlier. Just one thing."

The Deeper Truth

When we eat seasonally, we're not following a diet. We're participating in an ancient conversation.

Between our bodies and the cosmos.

Between our cells and the sun.

Between what we eat and the rhythm of light that governs all life.

Every meal becomes an opportunity to tell your body what season it is.

To align your internal rhythms with the external world.

To work with nature instead of against it.

This winter, see your plate differently.

Not as calories.

Not as macros.

Not as something to stress over.

See it as information.

See it as light, captured and stored.

Ready to communicate with every cell in your body.

No more confusion.

No more conflicting advice.

Just clarity.

The same wisdom that guided your great-grandmother.

The same knowing that guides bears through hibernation.

The same intelligence that's been keeping humans alive for hundreds of thousands of years.

You already know what to eat.

Your body has always known.

You just need to listen again.

The Science Behind This Blog

Continue Your Winter Flow Journey