The Hindu Business Line : Cool it, this summer!

I cannot seem to take the heat of the summer. Year after year, my skin erupts into a rash; I feel excessively thirsty, become irritable because my entire body feels like it is on fire inside. I want to enjoy the summer season.

What food do you recommend? How do I avoid feeling hot, sticky and sick while exercising?

Shaku Phadnis

A hot body welcomes cool foods — that's common sense. But what is less known is that a hot body also appreciates a dash of bitter and astringent foods and abhors salty, oily, spicy, and sour foods. Plan your meals accordingly. Some guidelines:

Eat plenty of salads. They have the requisite bitter and astringent qualities. Include cucumber, French beans, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, moong sprouts, bottle gourd, mushrooms, lady's finger, peas, potatoes and sweet potatoes in your meals. Exclude beetroot, carrot, brinjal, garlic, capsicum, onion, radish, tomato and spinach.

Avoid sour add-ons such as pickle, yoghurt, cheese and vinegar, as also sour fruits such as cherries, cranberries, grapefruit, peaches and papaya. Fermented stuff such as alcohol, bread, and idlis are also not for you.

Stick to sweet watery fruits such as apple, grapes, mango, melon, pear, plum and pineapple. Go for egg white, and cut out egg yolk. Opt for milk and ice cream over their sour dairy cousins.

Favour white rice, oats, whole-wheat rotis and barley over brown rice, millet, corn and rye. Iced barley water makes a great soother. Add two teaspoons of soaked sabja to it. Sabja — those black little floaters on Faloodas — cool the system.

Avoid steaming hot tea/coffee and upma for breakfast. Cold cereals, cold rava kheer and sweet apple juice are better choices.

If a diehard non-vegetarian, have small amounts of chicken if you must. Forget all red meats and seafood. You will feel cooler, calmer and more satisfied with milk, whole grains and vegetables.

If into Chinese food, have a cool salad instead of hot soup as your first course. In Mexican cuisine, stick to the guacamole salad.

Eliminate salty cocktail snacks and crunch on cool cucumber sticks. Salty food aggravates your thirst and heats your body by inflaming your stomach lining.

There are no such things as cool spices, but if bland bores your buds, go for sprinkles of bitter/astringent spices such as cardamom, turmeric, mint and coriander leaves and cinnamon. Avoid mustard and sour dressings.

Coming to feeling sticky and sick during exercise, the best bet is to have a cool shower before and after exercise. Make sure it's a head bath. A sticky scalp makes you feel sick.

Swimming as a cardio-exercise would suit you beautifully. Or a brisk walk amidst greenery. Avoid the noon sun. If you can't, dunk your head in water as soon as you're back home.

Finally, change your clothes thrice a day. Even cotton clothes tend to keep the heat trapped. A change of attire cools immediately.

I am keen on buying a vibrating massaging machine that I can strap around my abs. I see it as a two-in-one exercise — I get a massage and lose fat on my stomach. Is it effective? Would you recommend it as an ab-reducer?

M. Raina

Vibrating or massaging machines only help to relieve sore muscles. They do not help fat melt from any part of the body. Years ago, Dr Arthur Steinhaus conducted a study on 13 men. He strapped a vibrating belt around their abdomen and subjected them to vigorous vibrations for 15 continuous minutes.

Then he measured their blood fat levels and found there was no increase in fat floating around their bloodstream, which meant no fat had been burnt.

On calculating the calories they burnt, he concluded that they would lose 0.45 kg or 1 lb of fat in one year on using the vibrating machine for 15 minutes for 365 days! That doesn't seem worth it, does it?

If you want effective indoor exercises to reduce the flab from your abs, I recommend:

Spot-jogging or stationary cycling at 80 steps/pedals per minute for 20 continuous minutes daily. This burns fat all over the body including your abs.

Abdominal crunches: Lie on your back, lower back flat against the floor, knees bent. Move your head and shoulders upward and consciously crunch your stomach muscles as you do so. Now return to supine position. Repeat 20 times.

Tips: Keep your neck straight while moving your shoulders upward. Fix your eyes on the ceiling. Don't let your chin drop down to your upper chest. These three tips ensure that your abdomen muscles make you move upward. Also, eat plenty of fibre — raw salads, and drink 10-12 glasses of water. This ensures waste elimination and keeps your stomach flat.

(The writer is co-author of the book `Fitness for Life'. )

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