Food for thought
With the perspiration dripping with your head feeling as heavy as
your legs, you search for the magic elixir that will provide cooling
relief to your overheated body.
Water helps, but what you crave is a salvo for the body. Something
that alleviates hunger and quench the thirst and provides a longer
relief to body's heat!Did you know that solid foods can soothe and cool
a body as well as hydrating fluids help keep our body's temperature
down?
Here are some food for thought... never leaving the best nutrient,
"H2O" far behind.So, choose wisely and enjoy a deep chill when the sun's
glowing so hot!
Red watermelons
 The name conjures up a satisfying and thirst quenching feeling of
coolness as you feel a drop in your body temperature. It contains high
level of water (96 per cent). What's even better is that it is very low
in calories. One cup of the cut fruit (approximately 150g) gives you a
mere 52 calories.
The satisfying cantaloupe is another melon that has been
unappreciated despite its nutrient benefits by most of us. This melon
also contains a lot of water (Almost 95 per cent) and is equally low in
calories as the watermelon.
Colourful veggies
 The best summer diet would be to include large portions of salads. (A
word of caution: Take care while eating raw food outside during rainy
seasons. At home, wash the veggies well before making your salads.)
Onions are a great option; people of tropical countries include onion in
their diets due to its ability to beat the heat and provide relief from
summer ailments.
Ideally your salads can contain onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.
with a dash of fresh lemon juice to add the zing. Cucumbers require a
special mention because of their high water content (96 per cent),
making it a natural hydrant - a must for glowing skin! You can also
include some mild spices like sesame, mint and green coriander to the
salads to enhance the cooling effect.
Citrus fruits
 Almost all citrus foods like oranges, sweet lime, and lemon are
cooling.These are as juicy within, as they look from outside. You can
have them whole or extract their juices and even, store it for a day
without any preservatives. Be creative and make mock tails of a
combination of citrus fruits and have them with a dash of lime.
Lemon contains high level of Vitamin C (makes you stronger to ward
off infections) and also due to its detoxifying properties (makes
expulsion of toxins from the body more efficient).
Meat
Consume more sea-food as it is considered to be cooling. But
remember, that's high in cholesterol.So keep the portion sizes in mind.
Keep poultry and meat to a minimum.
NutritionVista.com
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