With our brief winter season leaving us, it’s time to prepare for the inevitable: the summer season in which the intense heat makes us wonder if this is practice for hell.
In any case, our Ammis make sure we know that to stay cool we need to drink a lot of water, and consume light things such as fresh yogurt. But there are also some heavy foods you should avoid to make sure you don’t end up passing out.
Chai
You should avoid any caffeinated beverages, whether it’s chai, coffee or energy drinks. Okay, yes, we all adore chai. And we cannot go a day without it. But caffeine increases your body’s water excretion and dehydration is the last thing you need when you’re battling heat.
2. Spicy Foods
Haan maloom hai, we love chatpata mirchidar food too. And as desis, it’s a tough habit to let go off. But the sun is already giving you all the heat you need and then some. You do NOT need that spice increasing all the heat you are already experiencing!
Related: 5 Refreshing Summer Salads You Should Really Try!
3. High Protein Foods
Your body needs to perform a lot of work to break down complex proteins so you can digest them. And this process (called thermogenesis) creates a ton of heat. And your body doesn’t need any of that.
4. Cold Things
Okay so we know this doesn’t make a lot of sense. Shouldn’t ice cream and other cold stuff be the things that cool you down on a hot humid day? Turns out, nope. Our body does some pretty interesting stuff in an attempt to maintain an appropriate temperature. So, when you eat or drink extremely cold things during the heat, it tries to bring your body’s temperature back to normal, raising your temperature in response to all the internal cold. Yikes!
5. Mangoes
Haye, this list is just breaking my poor brown heart.
But mangoes are in the group of foods that increase your body’s water loss. This group of foods is called diuretic foods. And if you’re drinking a lot of water to stay cool, you’re nullifying that by consuming stuff from this group.
Related: 5 Refreshing Drinks To Make This Summer
So, yeah, this list is pretty sad. But you can have fun foods like a watermelon and pineapple fruit salad… you know what, ‘fun foods’ and ‘salad’ don’t come in a sentence together. So, I give up.