Whether its summer or winter, it’s important to feed and treat your body accordingly to stay healthy. Now that the summer season has arrived, the chances of a heat-related illness like dehydration, heat stroke, cramps and heat exhaustion have increased. During this time, the body tends to lose extra fluids in an attempt to keep the body temperature cool. This loss of fluids leads to dehydration, which is a state in which the amount of fluid present in the body is not enough as required to function properly. When this happens, you’ll encounter the following things:

• Dry mouth
• Not urinating or having dark urine
• Headaches
• Lethargy
• Dizziness
• Sunken eyes
• Lack of sweating
• Dry skin
• Low blood pressure etc.

Dehydration can also lead to serious illnesses or even death, which is why it’s important to stay hydrated. Fortunately, it’s not very difficult to escape such serious situations. For example, take a look at the following ways to stay hydrated this summer:

1. Drink Plenty of Water

Water is the most easily available and inexpensive way to keep your body’s fluids just right. Our bodies are mostly made up of water, which contributes more than half of our body weight. Thus, we need water and a lot of it. In fact, an adult man requires 3.7 liters of water every day to stay hydrated and an adult woman requires 2.7 liters. It’s as easy as carrying a water bottle wherever you go, so make sure to do so whenever it’s hot outside.

2. Stock up on Juices

Fresh fruit juice is filled with essential vitamins, minerals, and enzymes, and is one of the best ways to stay hydrated and beat the heat while on-the-go. They provide a cooling effect along with plenty of nutrition. The best part is that nature has gifted us with seasonal fruits that are high in water content, and whose consumption in raw or juice form can help ease dehydration from the body.

To get the best of nutrition, though, it’s important to stay aware and informed of the juice you’re consuming; you have to know if it’s healthy or not. The two most popular techniques of juice extraction are centrifugal and cold-pressed techniques. Though both techniques provide you with fruit juice, there is a huge difference in terms of nutritional value:

 Centrifugal Juice

Centrifugal juice is extracted with the centrifugal technique. It’s an old and traditional technique used by most juice vendors across the country that uses high-speed, sharp blades to grind and break the fruit pulp into juice. This sudden grinding generates a lot of heat that further breaks down the nutrients and kills the living fruit enzymes, which also allows the juice to oxidize, meaning that it can’t be stored for more than a few hours.

Cold Pressed Juice

Cold Pressed juice is made with the cold pressed technique that involves juicing without generating any heat. It treats the fruit gently by crushing and pressing it with a pressure of up to 2000 pounds; a technique that prevents oxidation and the breaking up of nutrients. It’s also an efficient way of taking out every drop of juice and nutrient from the fruit, but because it’s comparatively new and expensive, it is not widely available.

Click and know the difference between cold-pressed and centrifugal juices in detail.

3. Wear Lightweight and Breathable Clothes

Lightweight, breathable clothes are the best for the summer. They prevent excessive sweating and loss of fluids, and light colored clothes even absorb less heat to make you feel cooler.

4. Avoid Caffeinated and Aerated Drinks

Drinking a cup of tea, coffee or soda on a hot summer day can worsen dehydration because they act as mild diuretics that lead you to urinate more, thereby flushing out more water from your body. The thing is, any drink with a high concentration of sugar or caffeine can dehydrate the body and create many other health complications. So if you can’t completely stop the drinking these things, at least limit them to only one per day.

5. Eat Fresh, Watery Fruits and Vegetables

There’s nothing better than consuming fresh, seasonal watery fruits and vegetables that come packed with a good amount of water with all the nutrients intact. If you’re planning a day out in summer, make sure to stock up on these in advance so you can cover up the loss of fluids you’ll inevitably experience.

6. Set a Timer

One of the biggest reasons staying hydrated nowadays is hard because of the busy schedules we keep and the work pressure we feel. As such, we often forget some very important things like drinking enough fluids throughout the day. The best solution for this problem is to set a timer that reminds you to drink water at set periods throughout the day.

7. Avoid Alcohol

Drinking a lot of alcohol can be a big contributor of dehydration. Alcohol makes your body lose more fluids by affecting its ability to produce antidiuretic hormones used to absorb water. Therefore, avoiding alcohol or minimizing its consumption is necessary to stay hydrated, especially during hot summer days.

These are some of the easiest and quickest ways to increase your body’s fluid content so it can always feel hydrated. If you’re curious to know whether you’re hydrated or not, you can do the following things.

Simple Ways to Know That You are Hydrated

Here’s what you can do to know if you’re hydrated:

Check Your Urine

The simplest way to keep your hydration level in check is to monitor the status of urine. The color, odor, and quantity of urine will often let you know what’s happening in your body. For example, while a dark colored (dark yellow, orange) and strongly odored urine indicates that your body lacks the necessary amount of fluids, a pale colored and odorless urine indicates that your body is well hydrated.

Check for Dry Mouth or Thirst

Finally, having a dry mouth or feeling thirsty is the very first indicator that your body needs fluid. Our bodies tend to feel thirstier in hot weather because of the increased loss of fluids, and if any of these symptoms arise, understand that it is a sign of dehydration.

Final Thoughts

We covered a lot on dehydration today, so please don’t let it happen to you. Whether it’s by drinking water or some nutritious and delicious cold-pressed juice, remember to consume what is necessary and healthy and do your best to stay hydrated this summer.