Best 10 Diets for the Hot Summer
Summer diet: During the hot season, many people have poor appetites, reduced digestive function, and are prone to symptoms like fatigue, listlessness, and stomach discomfort. Some may even develop gastrointestinal diseases. Therefore, a summer diet must be carefully regulated with appropriate measures. The principle of a summer diet is to be light, nourishing, strengthening the spleen, and eliminating summer heat and dampness.
Best Condiment—Vinegar
Vinegar is essential in cooking, and adding it to summer dishes is particularly beneficial. Firstly, vinegar has antibacterial properties. In summer, bacteria multiply rapidly, and intestinal infectious diseases increase. At this time, vinegar has a strong killing effect on various germs. Secondly, vinegar regulates gastrointestinal function. Vinegar has a sour, slightly sweet taste with a fragrant aroma. When you smell the scent of vinegar and taste its flavor, digestive juices are naturally secreted, ensuring you have a robust appetite.
Best Vegetable—Bitter Vegetables
As the saying goes: "Eating bitter foods in hot weather is better than taking supplements." Bitter foods contain amino acids, bitter principles, alkaloids, and other substances, offering multiple benefits such as antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, reducing fever and eliminating summer heat, refreshing the mind, and alleviating fatigue.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, summer is characterized by abundant heat and dampness, which can harm kidney energy and burden the spleen and stomach. Bitter foods can achieve a balance in the body's functions through their effects of replenishing qi, securing the kidneys, strengthening the spleen, and drying dampness. Common "bitter" foods include bitter melon, bitter greens, and kale. It should be noted that eating too many bitter foods at once can easily cause discomfort such as nausea and vomiting.
Best Meat—Duck
Duck meat is sweet, salty, and cool-natured. From the perspective of the TCM principle "treat heat with cold," it is especially suitable for people with internal heat, such as those with low-grade fever, weakness, poor appetite, or dry stools. Furthermore, duck stewed with ham and sea cucumber is excellent for nourishing the yin of the five organs. Duck congee cooked with glutinous rice has the effects of nourishing the stomach, replenishing blood, and promoting fluid production. Duck stewed with kelp can soften blood vessels, lower blood pressure, and help prevent and treat arteriosclerosis, hypertension, and heart disease.
Best Drink—Hot Tea
Summer is inseparable from drinks, but the first choice is not various cold drinks, beer, or coffee, but the very common hot tea. Tea is rich in potassium (the average potassium content per 100g of tea is 10.7 mg for green tea and 24.1 mg for black tea), which quenches thirst and relieves fatigue. A U.S. study indicates that drinking green tea can reduce by one-third the risk of sunburn, skin sagging, and roughness caused by sun exposure. According to experiments by British experts, the cooling power of hot tea far exceeds that of cold drinks, making it the best among beverages for dispelling summer heat.
Best Fruit—Watermelon
Watermelon is sweet and cold-natured, also known as "cold melon" in folk tradition, and is the top choice for clearing summer heat and quenching thirst. Watermelon is extremely nutritious, containing many nutrients the human body needs. With its 96.6% water content, it can replenish the large amount of water lost by the human body in summer. Therefore, there is a saying, "Half a melon a day makes the scorching heat no big deal." When suffering from heatstroke, fever, vexation, thirst, or other acute febrile diseases in summer, watermelon can be used as an adjunctive treatment. Watermelon rind can also be eaten cold or stir-fried.
Best Congee—Mung Bean Congee
Eating more congee in summer is a traditional health-preserving method in China and is very beneficial to the body. The best congee to drink is mung bean congee, as mung beans are cool-natured and have the effect of clearing heat and dispelling summer heat. Other congees suitable for preventing heatstroke include lotus leaf congee, fresh lotus root congee, and raw reed rhizome congee.
Best Anti-Fatigue Food—Fruit and Vegetable Juice
When feeling lethargic in summer, drinking more fruit and vegetable juice is a good choice. Fresh fruit and vegetable juice can effectively replenish the body with vitamins and minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium. It can enhance cell vitality and gastrointestinal function, promote digestive juice secretion, and eliminate fatigue. It should be noted that when making fruit and vegetable juice, it is best to use two or three different fruits and vegetables, changing the combination daily to ensure balanced absorption of different nutrients. The pulp of the fruits and vegetables should not be missed; it is best to mix it well and eat it with honey.
Best Sun Protection Food—Tomatoes
Research results from scientists in Germany and the Netherlands show that eating more tomatoes can protect against the sun. If 40 grams of tomato sauce are consumed daily, the risk of sunburn can be reduced by 40%. Scientists believe that lycopene may play a major role in this effect.
Best Cooling Tool—Fan
Although a fan may seem ancient, the gentle breeze and coolness it provides are exactly what people need. Fanning a fan is also a form of exercise that can exercise our arms, activate our right brain, and has a fitness effect.
Best Health Measure—Regular Sleep Schedule
At noon in summer, the ambient temperature is very high. The body's surface blood vessels often dilate, concentrating a large amount of blood in the skin, which causes an imbalance in the body's blood distribution. This is especially true for the brain, where blood flow decreases. After a morning of study, work, or labor, a person feels listless and drowsy. Secondly, summer days are long and nights are short, and the weather is muggy, leading to poor sleep at night. People often go to bed late and wake up early, resulting in insufficient sleep, so they feel mentally fatigued by noon. A nap is like a buffer during exercise. After a nap, people's fatigue is eliminated, which is beneficial for maintaining energy for work in the afternoon. Therefore, sleeping late, waking up early, and taking a nap can ensure we have enough energy for the day and that various physiological functions can proceed in an orderly manner.