What can be consumed in summer to effectively relieve heat and quench thirst?
Common beverages for cooling and quenching thirst in summer generally include watermelon juice, plum juice, mung bean soup, mint tea, and coconut water. Detailed analysis is as follows:
1. Watermelon Juice: Watermelon is rich in water, glucose, vitamins, and other nutrients, and is sweet and juicy. Drinking watermelon juice can rapidly replenish fluids lost through perspiration in high temperatures. The various nutrients it contains can also effectively restore the body's energy, achieving both cooling and quenching thirst and nutritional supplementation.
2. Plum Juice: Made by stewing ingredients such as black plums, hawthorn, and licorice, it has a sweet and sour taste. Its unique flavor stimulates saliva and gastric juice secretion, enhances appetite, accelerates digestion, and promotes metabolism, helping to remove heat from the body, thus achieving the effect of cooling and quenching thirst.
3. Mung Bean Soup: Mung beans are naturally cool in nature and have long been considered an excellent food for beating the heat. When cooked into a soup, it not only replenishes body fluids but the proteins, B vitamins, and other components in mung beans help restore energy depleted by hot weather, relieve feelings of heat, and help clear internal heat and soothe irritability.
4. Mint Tea: Brewed from fresh or dried mint leaves, it has a refreshing, cool aroma. Mint contains volatile oils that stimulate cold receptors in nerve endings to produce a cooling sensation and also promote sweat gland secretion, accelerating heat dissipation.
5. Coconut Water: A natural electrolyte beverage, coconut water is rich in minerals such as potassium, sodium, and calcium, with a composition similar to human sweat. Drinking coconut water rapidly replenishes electrolytes lost through perspiration, maintains the body's electrolyte balance, effectively relieves thirst, and provides essential nutrients, achieving good cooling and hydration effects.
During hot summer days, individuals can choose from the above beverages according to personal taste and needs. It is recommended to drink in small amounts frequently to avoid excessive intake at one time.