Tips Of The Day

Dietician Sheela Sherawat

Five Things You Should Add To Your Daily Diet To Stay Healthy In Summers

Summers are the time for abundance of fresh, delicious and healthy foods and also the time to beat the heat. Saying it, as the days of the summer gets longer and warmer, it might seem impossible to keep cool and bear the heat. The scorching summer heat not only inflates our electricity bills but are also hazardous to our bodies.

Gear up for the rise in mercury levels. Eat the right foods that helps in keeping hydrated and healthy in the summer heat. Luckily, from ripe and juicy plums to watery melons, the season is a blessing in terms of fresh and delighted yields. Many of these seasonal foods are a boon towards helping us stay cool and good health.

Here are certain foods that we should add to our diets and are particularly good during summers:

Cucumbers:
Cool cucumbers – as in the name is a valued addition that we all should make in our list of daily summer foods. It’s highly hydrating and lets your body never run out of fluids. Have it as snacks or mix it up in a smooth juice mixture along with some lemon and mint, either way it going to help. It’s made up of 85% of water and soothes and nourishes the skin during summers.

A nutritionally enriched food filled with the goodness of Vitamin K, Vitamin C, Magnesium, Riboflavin, B-6, Folate, and Pantothenic acid, Calcium, Iron, Phosphorus, Zinc and Silica and is also naturally low in calories, fats and cholesterol. The lignans found in cucumber have been known for its immune boosting capabilities.

Tomatoes:
Eating tomatoes could provide you with an extra line of defence against the blazing sun apart from your sunscreen. The lycopene—the carotenoid that makes tomatoes red, protects the skin from the sunrays. Tomatoes have been long known and used for the prevention and support against heart diseases, bone health and cancers.
Its anti-oxidant properties help flush out free radicals and toxins from the body. It is said that although almost all vegetables lose a lot of their qualities with cooking, but it’s just the opposite with tomatoes. They actually develop more lycopene with cooking and even more cooking with fats like olive oil. It helps keeping blood sugar under control, improves vision, makes the bones stronger, and reduces chances or gall and kidney stones.

Watermelons:
Staying hydrated is of top priority during the summers, as it helps in keeping the mood stable and memory sharp. Keeping properly hydrated also helps keeping the body cool through sweating. Enriched with the goodness of skin protecting lycopene is 92% water as its name.

Loaded with the goodness of anti-oxidants prevents inflammation and damages caused by free radicals. It constantly keeps you energized during the summer months along with keeping you hydrated. It helps in many ways to battle back against heart diseases, arthritis, and asthma and as well as several types of cancers.

Mangoes:
Known as the king of fruits, many of us wait for the summers to arrive to enjoy this delicious and hearty juice, golden fruit. Mangoes are rich in vitamin A, which is helpful fighting night blindness, dry eyes and other eye ailments. During the summers it keeps your skin moisturized, improves its health and takes care of our hairs. Vitamin A, plays an all vital role in the development of health tissues.

Rich in micronutrients and antioxidants, mangoes helps fight cancer and helps in cancer protection. Beta-carotene present in the fruit are responsible for protecting the body against breast cancer, leukemia, colon and prostate cancer.

Leafy greens:
They have a bounty of benefits. Packed with numerous nutrients and fibers, low on calories and glycemic index is the healthiest treat we could give to our bodies. The summers might be very hot and humid but these summer vegetables are perfect to help you fight the heat and stay fit and fine.

Green foods are great sources of phytonutrients and also have great healing powers. The power of green helps revitalize your health as green foods are very easy on glucose levels. They are also very low in sugars and since they're packed with fibers and water, they actually help regulating your blood sugar levels all through the day.