Two Tips For A Healthier, Happier Summer

Clients come to my functional/integrative medicine practice seeking to improve their overall health, prevent disease, and increase vitality. While I employ many sophisticated strategies to optimize health, and balance nutrients and hormones, often the first step I take is to pay close attention to two very basic human needs: hydration and nutrition.

Hydration is critical to health and well-being. Good water intake is important for our kidneys and our skin, but it’s also important for our heart health. Keeping the body hydrated helps the heart pump blood more easily and helps the muscles work more efficiently. If you’re well-hydrated, your heart doesn’t have to work as hard. And aesthetically, it’s important for your skin and preventing wrinkles: Dry skin is less able to repair itself and generate new cells, which causes signs of aging to worsen.

To calculate the daily amount of water you need, take your body weight in pounds and divide in half to get your recommended total daily water intake in ounces. A 100-pound person needs 50 ounces of water. This amount gets adjusted slightly based on factors like climate, exercise intensity and duration. People with certain medical conditions like diabetes or those taking medications like diuretics might need to drink even more. Add 10 ounces for every hour you spend in the sun or in a hot environment like a yoga room.

If you’re thirsty and your mouth is dry, you’re likely already dehydrated. The best way to measure your hydration status is to pay attention to the color of your urine. If it’s dark, drink more until it’s pale and clear.

For those of us who engage in high-intensity exercise, it can be helpful to weigh in and weigh out before and after a workout. For every pound of sweat lost, a pint of water is needed to replace it.

Some people love drinking water more than others. Mix things up by throwing in a few slices of limes, lemons, or oranges. Now you’ve added both flavor and vitamin C.

Hydration is not all about drinking water; actually, 20% of our daily water comes from food. Try replacing pasta noodles for zucchini noodles, which are 95% water. Pair it with tomato sauce, which is 90% water, and now you have a hydrating meal.

Consider oatmeal to start off a hydrating day. When oats cook, they expand and absorb the water or milk they’re paired with. Overnight oats can be served cold with the same benefits. As an added boost, sprinkle in some chia seeds, which soak up 10 times their weight in extra liquid. It’s a great breakfast before heading to the beach.

Freeze fruit as popsicles for a vitamin-packed hydrating snack after the beach. Did you know that milk is more hydrating than water or sports drinks? A Canadian study showed that milk is superior to water because it is a better source of protein, carbs, calcium and electrolytes. Milk replaces sodium lost in sweat and helps the body retain fluid. Broth-based soups or gazpacho can be a nice hydrating lunch during these summer months. Increase your intake of smoothies and salads to prevent dehydration.

For those who want to take it up a notch, my local practice offers customized IV vitamin infusions. It’s a great solution for people who feel dehydrated after spending an active day at the beach in the sun. It helps not only for dehydration, but also for athletic performance and hangovers! My clients have an IV placed and relax while receiving an infusion of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and occasionally medications. The entire process takes less than an hour, and is a great way to get back to feeling your 100% best before Monday rolls around. These treatments can even be done in the comfort of your own home. Just make sure you’re under the care of a board-certified physician with specialized training in the art of IV vitamin therapy.

Let’s talk about how we should eat this summer for optimal health.

Cut out the processed foods. With too much added sugar, salt, and inflammatory oils, processed foods are addictive and bad for health. We might be tempted by mouth-watering aromas from fast-food joints and inviting packaging on store shelves, but just say no. This includes frozen meals, packaged potato chips, the bread baskets, and fast-food items like pizza.

Seven Mile Beach is a gorgeous place to spend these beautiful summer months. Take advantage of the extra time you have on vacation to make healthy meals. It’s a perfect time to abandon the heavily processed convenience foods that have become part of our fast-paced work week, and focus on cooking with whole, natural, minimally processed foods. Remember, if it doesn’t grow on a tree or come out of the earth, you’re probably eating something that was created in a laboratory.

What is a whole-foods diet? Shop on the perimeter of the grocery store and fill your cart with fruits, vegetables, unsweetened dairy, wild fish, and grass-fed meats. Stop in the middle for whole wheat pasta, whole grains, nuts, seeds, brown rice and natural sweeteners like maple syrup and honey. Moving to a diet based mostly on whole foods means your family will eat less sugar, salt, preservatives, and artificial colors and flavors. This will have an unbelievably positive impact on risk for future disease. Even little changes you make now will have a great impact down the road. You’re also going to wake up with more energy and you’re going to lose weight without trying! Just try it for a few weeks, and you’ll see how your body thanks you!

Some changes that we have made in our own family involve switching out microwave popcorn for stovetop popcorn, and switching out sugar-laden processed cereals for homemade granola full of nuts and seeds and sweetened with a little maple syrup. We have become accustomed to having fruits as our snacks and eating salads most days before dinner. We don’t eat white breads. When making cookies or cakes, we mix the individual ingredients together instead of using boxed cake mixes. Did you know that baked macaroni and cheese made from scratch is so much tastier than the instant stuff? We are not completely can-free, but we try to avoid canned foods that are high in sodium and preservatives.

Two summers ago, here in Avalon, a family friend visiting from New York brought two jars of homemade granola. It was delicious and after trying the recipe, I haven’t bought another bag of granola since. Check out the label on a bag of granola, even from a “healthy” store like Whole Foods. You’ll see several ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup, fructose, vegetable oils and other preservatives that I don’t use in the home recipe. Give it a try: www.LiveLongInPhilly.com/granola.

It can take months or even years to make meaningful changes. Aim for improvement, not perfection. If you steer your family toward the best choices by being consistent at home, you can relax when eating out.

When embracing a whole-foods diet, you tend to cook and eat more at home, which is less expensive than eating out or on the go, and it’s also a lot more fun! When you’re down here with the family, take turns making meals, or do it together as a family activity.

The same strategy applies if you’re looking to maintain your weight or even lose weight. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last February showed that counting calories to lose weight is not always an effective strategy. People who cut back on added sugar, refined grains and highly processed foods while concentrating on eating plenty of vegetables and whole foods experienced significant weight loss without a reduction in overall calories. The success applied to people across the board and was not limited to groups with specific DNA types.

Whole foods are great for our bodies, but did you know that they also make you happier? An Australian study took people with almost no fruits and vegetables in their diets and introduced eight daily portions of fruits and vegetables. The subjects experienced an increase in life satisfaction equivalent to what an unemployed person feels after finding a job! Whole foods don’t just make us healthier, they make us happier, too!

Incorporate these tips in your day-to-day living and you will end your summer healthier and happier than you were on Memorial Day!