Continuous rain has enveloped the entire country in a low-pressure system, making the outdoors suffocatingly stuffy and the indoors drafty from air conditioning. In this fluctuating temperature, even healthy people may experience dizziness, irritability, loss of appetite, and gastrointestinal disorders. Therefore, special attention should be paid to your diet...
Avoid cold food for breakfast
Many people, seeking coolness on hot days, replace hot congee or hot milk with vegetable juice, iced coffee, iced juice, mung bean soup, or iced milk for breakfast. While this practice may not affect the body in the short term, long-term consumption can harm digestive function and lead to symptoms like bloating and loss of appetite. 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. It's best to eat fruit around nine or ten o'clock.
Don't overindulge in cold drinks and dishes
Due to the heat, some people rely on cold drinks and dishes as their main daily food; others drink large quantities of iced beer with their meals; still others have very small main meals but consume large amounts of frozen watermelon, peaches, melons, grapes, and other fruits before or after. The large intake of these cold foods causes the blood vessels in the gastrointestinal mucosa to constrict sharply, leading to gastrointestinal cramps and affecting normal digestion. Furthermore, a diet consisting mainly of such foods inevitably leads to deficiencies in nutrients like amino acids and essential fatty acids, resulting in a decline in physical strength and resistance.
In addition, beverages and water-rich fruits can increase urination. Consuming large amounts of these foods, especially at dinner or after dinner, can cause frequent nighttime urination, disrupting sleep quality. People with generally weak constitutions who 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 the appetite, but excessive consumption of chili and Sichuan pepper can irritate the gastric mucosa, leading to conditions like gastritis and gastric ulcers.
Reduce consumption of warm and hot foods
Food is classified by its nature (warming or cooling), and the body has its own tendencies (heat or cold). Individuals with a 'heat' constitution should pay special attention to consuming less warming and hot foods during the "Sanfu" days (the hottest period 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 cooling down
Drinking warm tea can dilate sweat glands, promoting perspiration to release body heat, thereby lowering body temperature and helping to beat the heat. Tea is also rich in the trace element potassium, which can compensate for the potassium ions lost through sweating, helping to alleviate fatigue and loss of appetite.