It’s summertime! Blazing up the heat, sweating people and dehydration means the summer has arrived. With the temperature rising day by day, it’s necessary to pay attention to our health else one may undergo serious side effects.
It’s time to cool down the body in summer, which means hitting the health club swimming pools, beaches, or lakes or just lingering in the shade, under AC on, or the fans running all the time. But what about the thirst quenchers? We generally get motivated or look for something cool to drink.
However, remember that all thirst quenchers are not always healthy; some may even cause harm to the body. For instance, sugar-laden juices or soda pops are unhealthy thirst quenchers. There are many natural fruits and vegetables that can help to remain fresh and nourished during this harsh season.
Ayurveda Diets to Beat Summer Heat
Ayurveda describes summertime as a pitta season, it is a season when Pitta gets aggravated and affects metabolism, creates heat in the mind, and effective digestion and other such body conditions. In summer Pitta becomes aggravated, overheated, and forms instability in the body.
These metabolism changes in our body can also affect our emotions such as, we feel anger and impatience; it also affects our body and we feel ruddy, sweaty, etc. as well as we feel behavior changes such as prompt to perfectionism.
According to Ayurveda, our body is governed by three functionaries known as doshas Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. The basic principle to be healthy and fit is to keep in control and balance doshas. In summer keeping Pitta in balance is necessary, for cooling the body. Below are some of the ayurvedic cooling foods list that can help you to balance pitta.
- Sweet
- Bitter
- Astringent
- Milk
- Butter
- Ghee
- Melons
- Cherries
- Grapes
- Pears
- Mangoes
Note: The juicy fruits must be fully-ripe
- Cucumber
- Broccoli
- Zucchini
- Asparagus
- Food such as hot spicy, sour and salty must be avoided
- Minimize the food such as sour cream, yogurt, citrus fruits, and spicy foods like cayenne.
- The vegetables which have healing properties such as hot peppers, radishes, tomatoes, onions, spinach, and garlic must be avoided.
Summer is a time when our body heats up from the outside, so we need to calm the body for better health. Therefore we must find different ways to cool down physically, mentally as well as emotionally. Below are mentioned some cooling foods to eat in the summer to calm the body.
1. Mango
This delicacy Indian fruit mango is also known as the “king of fruits”, its nature gift to the Indian subcontinent. Mango is known as nature’s gift as it mainly ripens in the summer season and is a perfect fruit to eat due to its cooling properties.
Besides this, it is also known for its unique flavor and smell. It also contains immunity-strengthening properties which are necessary to get through this season. Moreover, mango contains several vitamins and nutrients such as Vitamins A, C, D, potassium, calcium, and iron that give more strength to the body.
Mango – Summer Drink Recipe
Ingredients
- Fresh juice or frozen mango, diced: 1/2 cup
- Skim milk or soy milk: 2/3 cup
- Sugar or teaspoon honey for taste: 1/2 teaspoon
Directions
- Combine frozen mango or juice in a blender with sugar and milk.
- Swirl until the mixture is smooth, if needed you can add a bit more milk.
- Serve and enjoy a glass of mango cooler recipe
2. Cucumber
A crunchy fruit, rich in fiber and water content can be another best solution to beat the summer heat. In Ayurveda, cucumber is known as ‘Susheetala’, which means ‘naturally cool’, it is generally advised to patients who complain of urination troubles and unnecessary thirst.
Eating cucumber can help to fight against heat, both from inside and out, it not only gets us relief from heartburn but also gets relief from sunburn and itchy skin. Besides this, it also has nourishing vitamins like A, B, and C, which can boost immunity and give you energy as well as keep you radiant.
Cucumber – Summer Drink Recipe
Ingredients:
- Peeled, seeded, and chopped cucumbers: 2 Nos
- Fresh lime juice: 3/8 cup
- White sugar: 1/3 cup
- Water: 2/3 cup
Directions
- Wash and peel cucumbers
- Cut cucumbers into small pieces
- Add lime juice and sugar and put in a food processor and puree
- Serve Chill
4. Watermelon
It is another healing fruit that can be useful for dehydration, particularly during the summer season. It can be useful as it has a range of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients in it. Besides this, watermelon has 92 percent water content, which makes it a naturally low-fat food.
Moreover, it also has Vitamins “C” which is believed to be the best vitamin to boost the immune system. Additionally, it has Vitamin “E” which is known to be a powerful antioxidant that helps the body fight off infection. So both these vitamins “c” and “E” play an important role to defend against extreme heat.
Watermelon – Summer Drink Recipes
Ingredients
- Watermelon cubes deseeded: 3 cups
Optional
- Ginger: a 1 Small piece
- Lemon juice as needed
- Sabja seeds or chia seeds or sweet basil seeds: 1/2 tsp
- Cubes: 4 to 5 few pieces of ice
- Mint leaves: 4 to 5 Nos
Directions
- First of all, if you are using sabja seeds clean them properly and wash them in a large bowl and strain it. Let it be soaking in water for at least 30 mins to a few hours.
- Wash watermelon under running water, cut it into 2 cubes and remove the seeds.
- Put watermelon cubes in a blender jar and blend till smooth.
- Now add sabja seeds with ice cubes and serve watermelon juice.
5. Lemons
When uttering the word lemon! It reminds all of us about lemonades and summer. Lemon is a perfect fruit for summer as to have natural diaphoretic property that helps your skin to eliminate sweat easily and thereby cooling the body. In addition to that, lemons are rich in vitamin “C” and a powerhouse of antioxidant properties.
It is an essential element that is needed for a strong immune system that can fight against free radicals and inflammation in summer. Lemon juices are also useful to people whose bodies are too acidic as it raises disease and degeneration.
In Ayurveda, it is known for its ability to boost digestion, reduce Ama as well as bring freshness to the oral cavity.
Lemons – Summer Drink Recipes
Ingredients:
- White sugar: 2 tablespoons
- Hot water: 1/4 cup
- Fresh-squeezed lemon juice: 3 tablespoons
- Cold water: 3/4 cup
- Ice
Directions:
- Take a vessel put sugar and hot water stir until the sugar is dissolved.
- Take lemon juice and cold water and mix them well.
- Put the mixture in a glass and add a few ice cubes and serve.
4. Mint
The herb mint can also be a powerful remedy to beat the summer heat. It is so due to its amazing properties in it such as Niacin, Thiamine, Phosphorus, Vitamin B6, Zinc, and dietary fiber like Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Folate, Riboflavin, Iron, Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, Manganese, and Copper.
Due to its amazing properties, it is used in Ayurvedic formulations for the relief of nausea, respiratory problems, digestive problems, headaches, etc. It has a natural cooling property, which balances Pitta Dosha, which makes one of the well-known summer drinks. In Ayurveda mint, tea is suggested for body detoxification.
Mint – Summer Drink Recipes
Ingredients
- Mint leaves: 50 gm
- Lemon juice: 1 lemon nos
- Ice Cubes: 50 gm
- Sugar to taste
- Soda: 50 ml
For garnish (optional)
- Mint leaves: 4-5 nos
- Lemon slice: 1-2 nos
Directions
- Take mint leaves and ice cubes, and blend to make a fine mixture.
- Strain the mint mixture and put it in the pitcher.
- Add lemon juice, and powdered sugar and mix well.
- When ready to serve, add soda, stir well and garnish it with lemon and mint leaves.