During the summer, due to high body temperature, the cardiovascular, digestive, excretory, and nervous systems experience increased load, the metabolic rate rises, and the consumption of nutrients increases. Sweating alone carries away a significant amount of nutrients, such as B vitamins, vitamin C, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, copper, molybdenum, selenium, and more. Therefore, supplementing nutrients in the summer is especially important.
If you have a poor appetite, you should pay special attention to the following aspects: Do not overindulge in cold food
Although ice pops, ice cream, and cold drinks can relieve heat and thirst, and refresh the mind, excessive consumption can cause the blood vessels of the gastric mucosa to constrict, reduce gastric juice secretion, and lead to decreased appetite and indigestion, affecting your desire to eat. For those with acute or chronic gastrointestinal diseases, it is even more advisable to eat less or not at all.
Consuming large amounts of cold drinks after strenuous exercise can also lead to gastrointestinal dysfunction, and in severe cases, it may even cause vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Moreover, eating too many cold drinks will definitely affect your intake of regular meals. In addition, cold drinks contain a large number of food additives, which someone has described as: "Pigments are their outer garments, and essences are their souls." Especially for children and adolescents in their growth and development stage, cold drinks should not be eaten excessively. Eat light and palatable food
Sliced cucumber with sauce, cold tomatoes with sugar, sweet and sour "xinli" radish, old vinegar peanuts, cold radish peel, cold asparagus lettuce, and eggplant with garlic sauce are all good cold dishes to accompany a meal. Light food is appetizing, palatable, and can also help relieve summer heat. For example, mung bean porridge, lotus leaf porridge, mint porridge, and noodle soup. Vary your recipes frequently
This season is rich in ingredients, so changing the variety and combinations, and learning some new cooking methods, can stimulate our taste buds and whet our appetite. Appropriately increase sour and spicy flavors
Both sour and spicy are typical appetite stimulants. A moderate amount of sour and spicy food can aid digestion, increase appetite, and help prevent the common reduction in digestive juice secretion and weakened gastrointestinal motility that occurs in high-temperature, high-humidity conditions. Eat more fruit
Fruits are sweet and sour, appetizing, and refreshing, and they can replenish water, vitamin C, dietary fiber, minerals, carbohydrates, and bioactive substances, which are very beneficial to the body.
Making fruit and vegetable salads at home as snacks is also a great way to supplement nutrients in the summer. For those who don't like salad dressing, yogurt can be used as a substitute for a unique flavor. Liquid foods are good for the stomach
Milk, yogurt, soy milk, and fresh fruit juices are all nutrient-rich liquid foods. Consuming them in hot weather will not decrease our appetite, but can also quench thirst, relieve summer heat, and provide the body with many essential nutrients.