With the onset of summer, we need to be extra cautious for our well being. The best part of summer is that it comes with a variety of fruits and food options. Make sure you do not fight the summer, but enjoy the season to ‘Beat the Heat’. Following are a few tricks:

1. Eat light, small & frequent meals – Start the day with a sweet & juicy fruit at breakfast. Ripe summer fruits such as Peaches, Plums, Melons, Citrus fruits and Pears are exactly what your skin craves for in summers. Eat whole fruits or extract juice, store in refrigerator and sip often throughout the day.

2. Include salads in your diet – Consuming leafy lettuce, summer greens, corn on cob or cucumber in salad are delicious ways to stay cool. These foods contain a significant amount of water and can actually thin in the blood, which has a cooling effect. Onions too are great in the summers because of their ability to provide relief from summer ailments. So throw in some washed onion slices onto a sandwich or in your salad.

3. Relief from Sun Burns – If you get burnt (sun burn or heat stroke), seek relief by sipping on green tea or take a spoon of onion juice. They have potent antioxidants that can neutralize cellular damage caused by the sun rays.

4. Add small amount of hot spices to food while cooking – Hot peppers, fresh ginger and black pepper are all great spices to make it really hot for you to sweat and then to cool you down.

5. Hydrate your Body – Drink at least 8-10 glasses of water a day. Water is the best drink as it doesn’t contain any sugars and calories.

6. Appropriate Clothing – Wear loose, full sleeved cotton clothes and a hat to protect the body from sun and to aid sweat evaporation.

7. Stay indoors – Restrict outdoor activities to cooler parts of the day before 10:30 am and after 5:30 pm.