Green tea, water with lemon, beetroot or grape juice, banana and apple smoothies, fruit and vegetable extracts, watermelon juice. To quench your thirst during these days of intense heat, go for DIY drinks, which can reconcile the need to hydrate and recover mineral salts with the taste of drinks that also satisfy the palate. Promoted by Ciro Vestita, nutritionist, phytotherapist and author of several books on nutrition. “Drinking water in good quantities is very important these days. But a little help can also be useful to recover the nutrients lost through perspiration. In particular, it is important to ‘restore’ potassium and magnesium and, in this, fruit and vegetables are essential”.
And science confirms it. “A 2-year-old English study on cyclists – he continues – has shown that red beetroot juice is a powerful supplement, so much so that it increases the performance of these athletes and speeds up recovery. When you sweat a lot, therefore, a smoothie like this certainly helps recovery”. A particularly useful fruit in this period is “the banana. In tennis, when the match reaches the fifth set, everyone, even the greatest tennis players, have practically exhausted their energy reserves. And what do they do? They don’t drink strange things, they simply take some pieces of banana knowing full well that even a small quantity can provide potassium, magnesium and other minerals. Useful elements in the great heat. A smoothie of the first apples (or another fruit) to which banana is added is therefore a good choice to recharge”.
Also excellent is “tomato juice, rich in mineral salts”. Grapes, now on the way, “are perfect for ampelotherapy (from ampelos, vine) grape juice, in fact, has some peculiarities that make it similar to breast milk, it is energizing and safe: drinking a glass in the morning and in the afternoon means having energy, quenching your thirst and taking lots of mineral salts and even natural antibiotics. Grape juice in fact has disinfectant properties”. Lemon is another ally. “Putting half a lemon in pieces in a carafe of water, as is customary in some southern regions, in addition to giving flavor to the water also gives mineral salts that are released thanks to the citrus juice”. Flavor aside, it is useless to put pieces of ginger, beetroot or various fruits in the water, as is increasingly used. “In cold water, days of maceration would be necessary to release the active ingredients. It is good for the taste but, for the rest, it is just a fad”.
Homemade iced tea is also promoted, “especially the green one which has also been studied for its anti-cancer properties. By adding lemon juice we make it even healthier. And if we want it sweeter, no problem: even small quantities of sugar should not be demonized”.
Another healthy and pleasant drink can be obtained “by juicing the watermelon, not only the red part, but also the white part, the one under the pulp which is called albedo and which contains sterols that lower cholesterol. Melon juice is also rich in mineral salts”. Even in the case of drinks, however, “the secret to health, as for nutrition in general, is to continually change, because only variety helps to maintain the balance of nutrients and provides all the elements necessary for well-being”, concludes Vestita.
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