Page 17 - Seniorstoday May 2022 Issue
P. 17
Diet
Our Top 10 foods and
drinks to keep you cool
What you eat and drink in summer can have a significant bearing on how
you cope with the heat, so choose well. By the Seniors Today team
Drinking warm chai, slurping hot curry (as in chilli) food and drinks, the sweat
or getting that kick of spicy salsa will response is triggered from thermoreceptors
surely make you sweat during summer. in and around the stomach that notice the
While you might rather opt for a chilled additional heat; an increase of your deep-
lassi or aam panna come summer, eating body temperature between 0.2-0.5°C is all
hot or spicy foods can actually cool you that is required.
down on a warm day — if the conditions “The main thing is that our bodies shut
are right. Don’t freak out just yet! This is sweating down when drinking a cold drink
what research and many studies say — It’s – so you are actually no better off with a
all about keeping the balance. Our body 1.5°C drink than you are with a 37°C drink,”
is well-equipped to balance the heat. We says the Australian study. However, if you
create heat by metabolic processes (eating) can’t stomach spicy and steaming drinks
with mechanisms which keep us cool if we or foods this summer, studies suggest you
are in a hot environment, or it will retain avoid ice-cold drinks on a hot day or when
that heat if we feel relatively cold. exercising intensely and instead, drinking
fluid at a palatable temperature will likely
The logic of eating hot food during cool you down.
summer:
Spikes in temperature, whether internally The verdict
or in the external environment, make us It does make sense that a lot of us get a
sweat rapidly. When you consume hot cold in summer because of over doing
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #35 | MAY 2022 17
