Continuous rainfall has enveloped the entire country in a low-pressure system, making it difficult to breathe outdoors. Indoors, air conditioners blast out cold air. In this fluctuating temperature, even healthy people may experience dizziness, irritability, loss of appetite, and gastrointestinal dysfunction. Therefore, special attention should be paid to your diet...
Don't Eat Cold Food for Breakfast
Many people crave coolness on hot days and replace hot congee or hot milk with vegetable juice, iced coffee, iced juice, mung bean soup, or iced milk for breakfast. This practice may not have an immediate effect on the body, but over the long term, it can harm digestive function and cause symptoms like bloating and loss of appetite. What time is healthier for urban office workers to eat breakfast?
Even on muggy days, breakfast should start with hot foods like hot congee, hot soy milk, or hot milk, followed by foods like noodles and eggs. Fruit is best eaten around nine or ten o'clock.Don't Overindulge in Cold Drinks and Salads
Because of the heat, some people make cold drinks and salads their main daily food; some drink large amounts of iced beer with their meals; and others have very small main meals but consume large quantities of frozen watermelon, peaches, melons, grapes, and other fruits before or after. A large intake of these cold foods causes the blood vessels in the gastrointestinal mucosa to constrict sharply, leading to gastrointestinal spasms and affecting normal digestion; moreover, relying primarily on such foods will inevitably lead to deficiencies in nutrients like amino acids and essential fatty acids, resulting in decreased physical strength and resistance.
In addition, beverages and water-rich fruits can increase urination frequency. Consuming large amounts of these foods, especially at dinner or after dinner, can cause frequent nighttime urination, disrupting sleep quality. People who are generally weak and often feel cold in their limbs are particularly unsuited to excessive consumption of cold drinks and frozen mung bean soup.Spicy Foods Should Be Consumed in Moderation
The heat can suppress appetite, and while chili and Sichuan pepper can help stimulate it, excessive consumption can irritate the gastric mucosa, leading to gastritis, gastric ulcers, and other diseases.
Reduce Consumption of Warming Foods
Food has properties of being "warm" or "cool," and the body has its own "hot" or "cold" constitution. People with a constitution that leans "hot" should pay special attention to consuming fewer "warm" and "hot" foods during the dog days of summer. These foods mainly include: lamb, dog meat, grass carp, silver carp, hairtail, eel, as well as walnuts, apricots, cherries, longans, bayberries, and coconuts.
Warm Tea is an Excellent Drink for Beating the Heat
Drinking warm tea can cause sweat glands to dilate and perspire, releasing heat from the body and thus lowering body temperature, which helps to relieve summer heat. Tea is also rich in the trace element potassium, which can compensate for the potassium ions lost through sweating and help alleviate fatigue and loss of appetite.