Summer appetites can destroy diets (pjstar - Healthy Diet)

It not only affects eaters. Cooks, too, have trouble facing a hot kitchen on a hot day. The result is we often eat out without any thought of our diets, i.e. Big Macs and ice cream.

GM Diet

Guess what happens? In summer’s heat, your body’s digestive system turns down its power. Our capacity to digest decreases. This is the opposite of cold seasons, where our systems need more carbohydrates and turn up our appetite for heavy foods.

General Motors Diet

Ever feel bloated after a light summer meal? That’s the digestive effect.

Lemon Detox Diet

Nutritionists notice we eat less in summer. That means what we eat should be rich in nutrients. We don’t need the calories, but we do need the protein and vitamins. Shop carefully.

You would think we’d lose weight easily in summer, but no. Heat causes us to nap a lot more, especially after meals. Exercising outdoors gets harder, and indeed dangerous, on very hot days. That’s bad news, as any fats we consume then go straight to places we don’t want them. Summer can be the season when many of us gain the most weight.  

And then we have air conditioning, in businesses, vehicles and at home. We crave comfort, but when we must go out in the heat, it’s like hitting a wall. This kills appetites faster than raw liver. (How did our ancestors survive without air conditioning? Their bodies became accustomed to the heat, and it didn’t bother them.)

On the plus side, sales of salads and other “light” foods explode every summer. The problem comes when they do not provide enough protein. That’s needed in summer as your body fights the effects of hot weather.

The best salad would be one with cold shrimp or a chicken breast on top. Watch the creamy dressings. They can have more fat calories than the rest of the bowl.