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Brussels sprouts contain sulfur-containing compounds called glucosinolates, which your body uses to make isothiocyanates. These activate cancer-fighting enzyme systems in your body.

There are many good reasons to choose your foods seasonally, and contrary to popular belief, there are many foods in-season during the fall.

Seasonal foods will taste fresher and their nutrition will be at its peak level, as opposed to foods picked prior to ripeness, which are then chilled and put into storage for days or weeks. As they sit, both their flavor and nutrient levels diminish.

Meanwhile, in-season foods will typically be available in abundance, which means prices tend to go down, making seasonal eating easier on your wallet. It’s good for the environment, too, because in-season foods are often locally grown and available from farmer’s markets or other direct-to-you venues (like community-supported agriculture programs).

And in the grand scheme of living, eating seasonally allows you to be a part of the natural ebb and flow of nature. According to the ancient science of Ayurveda, for instance, seasonal eating helps with digestion, because it favors easier-to-digest foods in the winter when your body is hard at work burning energy to keep you warm (and therefore theoretically has less energy to devote to digestion).

If you eat seasonally year-round, it will even automatically create a varied diet that provides your body with a diverse palate of nutrients to keep you going strong. Still, just because a food is in-season doesn’t make it healthy, which is why I’ve featured 15 of the best in-season foods for fall.1

15 Top Fall Superfoods

1. Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts contain sulfur-containing compounds called glucosinolates, which your body uses to make isothiocyanates. These activate cancer-fighting enzyme systems in your body. Brussels sprouts have been linked to the prevention of a number of cancers, including colon cancer,2 ovarian cancer,3 and others.

One study even found that compounds in Brussels sprouts may trigger pre-cancerous cells to commit suicide, which suggests adding more of this superfood to your diet could be a powerful anti-cancer strategy.4

Brussels sprouts also have potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, useful for fighting both chronic oxidative stress and inflammation.

They help to support your body’s natural detoxification system and are an excellent source of vitamins K and C, and good source of fiber, manganese, potassium, choline, and B vitamins. Brussels sprouts are in season from September to March.

2. Apples

Compared to other commonly consumed fruits in the US, apples ranked second for highest antioxidant activity. However, they ranked highest for the proportion of free phenolic compounds, which means they are not bound to other compounds in the fruit and therefore may be more easily absorbed into your bloodstream.5

Notably, much of apples’ antioxidant power is contained in the peel, where you’ll find antioxidants like catechin, procyanidins, chlorogenic acid, ploridizin, and more. Eating apples has been linked to a lower risk of chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and dementia.

It’s best to eat apples in their whole form, as this will give you the synergistic blend of nutrients and fiber the way nature intended, yielding greater health benefits than apple juice. Apples are in season from August to November.

Also, four in five of us are insulin resistant and you now are if you are overweight, diabetic, have high pressure, or taking a statin drug. If you have insulin resistance, then it is best to limit apples to one small one a day or even avoid them until you resolve your insulin resistance.