Summer has set in. The hot, blistering heat isn’t solely exhausting, however, drains your energy levels too.

Therefore, it is necessary to keep you healthy selecting suitable foods in keeping with the climate.

Nature has provided us with enough foods that are specific to seasons and are healthy, and this is how you can adapt your body to the seasonal changes. For summers, the secret is to eat light. This helps your heart and digestive system to stay healthy and perform well.

The next step is to choose the foods that have a cooling effect on your body

Here are some:

1. Water is the best choice to quench thirst: It’s the key ingredient to keep the body cool; with high humidness level sweat won’t evaporate quickly, for this reason, it is necessary to hydrate and drink water even when you are not thirsty.
2. Avoid Caffeinated/carbonated beverages: All these drinks contain preservatives, colors and sugars. They are acidic in nature and act as diuretics (loss of fluid from the body).
3. Include lots of fruits & vegetables which have a cooling effect on the body such as list include for fruit:

• • Blackberries/Blueberries/Strawberries
  • Peach
  • Apricot
  • Watermelon / Musk melon
  • Apple

And Vegetables include:

• • Bitter gourd/ summer squash
  • Greens- Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Cucumber, Eggplant, Iceberg, Mint leaves
  • Sprouted Moong, beans & lentils

Now the question arises, that how do they help??

• Fresh Fruits & Vegetables are high in vitamins and minerals. They have an expansive effect on our bodies that draw heat from our central organs and, thereby, cool the body.
  4. Fresh veggies & fruits also contain a lot of water that boosts the cooling impact on the body.
  5. Do not drink very Chilled Liquids: they don’t help to keep your body cool down, in fact drinking cool liquids when you feel hot may cause a small constriction of the blood vessels within the skin and decrease the heat loss, which is not advisable when trying to cool down your body.
  6. Drink Lemon juice & Coconut water to replenish the fluids that are lost in sweat
  7. Minimize the intake of hot, spicy and salty foods
  8. Cut the intake of fried foods like Samosa, vadas, Chips etc, as fats have thermal effect.
  9. Maintain good Hygiene levels. We can Beat the Heat this summer, by nourishing ourselves with natural & healthy foods & stay hydrated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ms. Javeria Maheen Qureshi
Dietitian – Clinical Nutrition