When the summer arrives and, above all, the heat, you must pay attention to your diet. Lots of water and more fresh vegetables and fruit. In order not to run out of essential elements such as vitamins and mineral salts.
Talking about diet in summer for many means only one thing: lose weight. Intent in itself not reprehensible if the extra pounds are actually there.
And especially if you do it in a reasonable and balanced way, facilitated by the tendency to lack of appetite induced by the heat and taking advantage of the greater free time granted by the holidays to practice physical activity too often postponed.
However, it must be remembered that a low-calorie diet can be low in sugar and fat, but it must not be low in essential micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals of which, in summer, even those who do not follow restrictive diets are likely to remain short.
Due to the heat and the consequent increase in sweating, important minerals dissolved in sweat such as sodium, chlorine, magnesium and potassium can be lost.
This is especially true if you engage in challenging sports that promote massive fluid loss, especially if you practice them on the beach or in the sun. In addition, when practicing sports, the production of free radicals and oxidative processes greatly increase.
How to ensure an adequate supply of all the indispensable elements? Simple. First of all, by making appropriate choices on the food front. And, when necessary, resorting to calibrated supplements able to provide all the useful substances in balanced proportions.
Blessed vegetables
In a Mediterranean country like Italy, there is really no better opportunity than summer to fill up on vitamins and minerals.
Just zigzag through the supermarket counters or walk through the noisy crowd of a local market to be conquered by the colors and aromas of turgid fruits and crunchy vegetables, a very healthy and privileged source of precious mix of essential micronutrients.
All types of vegetables are suitable for enriching the diet. In the choice you can, therefore, freely follow your tastes and the inspiration of the moment, having the only foresight to vary constantly so as not to bore the diners and get “supplies” complete with all the elements necessary to support full metabolic efficiency.
Seasonal, but above all fresh
Another warning to be respected is not to overdo the stocks, but to buy fresh fruit and vegetables every one to two days, to prevent them from being spontaneously impoverished while waiting to be used. And preferably consume them “raw” or after a very quick and “dry” cooking (baked, grilled, steamed, baked), so as not to destroy the vitamins with heat, nor disperse them in the water, together with mineral salts.
If you practice sports with a certain vigor and if you allow yourself long sunbaths, you should pay particular attention to take sufficient amounts of antioxidant elements, essential to neutralize the overproduction of harmful free radicals, promoted by physical activity and / or exposure to ultraviolet rays.
Similar advice applies (not only in summer, but in all months of the year) for those suffering from venous insufficiency because antioxidants exert a specific protective action against the vascular endothelium, helping to alleviate the discomfort of the disorder and prevent worsening.
Antioxidants, water and minerals
The most valuable compounds in this regard are above all vitamins C and E and flavonoids such as carotenoids and anthocyanins. The first is mainly contained in citrus fruits, strawberries, currants, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, watercress and potatoes.
Vitamin E is rich in vegetable oils of any kind (olive, corn, soy, peanuts, various seeds, etc.) and dried fruit (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, etc.).
To fill up on carotenoids (and, in particular, beta-carotene, precursor of vitamin A) you must focus above all on yellow-orange or red fruits, such as pumpkin, tomatoes, peppers, carrots and oranges, but also on parsley, radicchio, chicory, chard and egg yolk.
Flavonoids such as anthocyanins, on the other hand, are found in abundance in blue-violet or dark red vegetables, such as berries (in particular, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and currants), grapes, plums, black cabbage, Tropea onions, beetroot and eggplant.
In addition to vitamins, fruits and vegetables provide significant amounts of water and mineral salts, helping to effectively compensate for losses due to sweating. Watermelons, melons, cucumbers, zucchini, salads, tomatoes, peaches are ideal for rehydrating the body naturally.
Those who tend to have low blood pressure or suffer from tingling or slight muscle cramps due to the heat should also consume dark green leafy vegetables, apricots, bananas, tomatoes and citrus fruits every day: all foods rich in potassium, a mineral lost abundantly with sweat and very important to ensure good cardiac, nervous and muscle function.
If you need more help
When the diet is poor or unbalanced or there are food intolerances or other diseases that prevent the assimilation of adequate amounts of micronutrients or when the demands increase to such an extent that they cannot be satisfied only with food (as happens, for example, in those who practice competitive sports, in those who smoke a lot or in the presence of infections and related antibiotic therapies or other diseases) it is important to support the body with targeted products.
In addition, an unpleasant and quite frequent circumstance in summer in which a multivitamin supplementation can help is linked to travel, especially those abroad, in exotic places, where you can easily experience gastrointestinal disorders of various kinds, starting from the well-known “traveler’s diarrhea“.
In these cases, in addition to rehydrating (drinking as much as possible and reintegrating mineral salts) and taking probiotics or if necessary antidiarrheal drugs or intestinal disinfectants, the use of the vitamin supplement allows to support the spontaneous recovery of the body, avoiding excessive debilitation.
Joycelyn Elders is the author and creator of EmpowerEssence, a health and wellness blog. Elders is a respected public health advocate and pediatrician dedicated to promoting general health and well-being.
The blog covers a wide range of topics related to health and wellness, with articles organized into several categories.