Amazing Pics

Revise your eating habits to prevent food-related diseases in the hot season.

Canned lemonades and sodas do nothing to keep you hydrated during summer. Processed drinks can, in fact, add to your fluid intake. But they also come loaded with calories. Pick up a can only if you can't get fresh lemonade or are not sure of the quality of water. While the sodas are not recommended, emptying a can is better than staying thirsty and dehydrated.

Eight glasses of water are not enough

During summer, you are bound to feel the burn at some point in the day. To beat this burn, you have to drink a lot of water as sunburns are very dehydrating. That universal advice "drink at least eight glasses of water a day" will not suffice. You have to drink much more than that. So, carry a bottle of water everywhere you go and keep sipping from it. By the time people feel thirsty, they are already dehydrated. Also avoid beverages with alcohol, caffeine or lots of sugar because they will further dehydrate you.

Drinking ice-cold water uses up more calories and helps you lose weight

When you drink ice-cold water, your body uses some extra energy (calories) to raise the liquid's temperature to the level of body temperature. But this calorie burn is minimal, so minimal that it's negligible. Let us get the equation straight. To lose just 250g of body weight through this method, you'd have to drink almost 435 glasses of ice cold water. Consuming large quantities of ice-cold water can have serious side effects. It can lower your body temperature abnormally decreasing the efficiency of your digestive system and in extreme cases, lead to anaemia. Drinking far too much water can also lead to hyperhydration, a state of electrolyte imbalance that can affect your brain.

Avoid cut fruits from vendors during summer

Fruits and peeled vegetables kept uncovered are a potential source of infection, but if the vendor's cart is parked in a clean area and if he cuts the fruit in front of you, this is not a bad snack, says Dr Ashutosh Shukla, head of internal medicine at the Artemis Institute, Gurgaon. And it's not necessary that food-borne infection comes only from a vendor's cart.

At home, too, you must take care not to leave food out in the open. If you eat just half a mango, put the other half back in the fridge immediately. And it is best to avoid eating leftover cut fruits unless you finish them off quickly. "Fruit left for long hours after cutting loses essential vitamins. Exposure to sunlight also reduces its nutritional value," says Chennai-based sports nutritionist Shiny Chandran.

Diet sodas can make you gain weight

Many people see diet soda as a convenient way to cut calories. But hold on, guys! A recent study at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio revealed that diet soda drinkers are more likely to become overweight than those who choose full calorie beverages! Why's that? Complacency. People who choose diet soda feel that they've done enough to cut calories, so they don't have to watch what they eat.