By Brandon Lee, D.O.M
- Make your own bbq sauce to avoid additives like high fructose corn syrup and modified corn starch. See this month’s Father’s Day recipe!
- Sweeten salads by squeezing an orange over them. Summer is the time to mix a little fruit into your salad. You can squeeze fresh orange over a freshly made salad which contrasts nicely with simple oil and vinegar mixes to give it a sweet and tangy zip and adds an extra nutrient kick to it!
- Drink flavored sparkling water beverages to avoid extra calories. If you have been paying attention at the grocery store lately there is an invasion of sugar and calorie free flavored sparkling waters hitting the shelves. This a great way to get the excitement of fresh fizzy drinks while avoiding the sugar overload that typically accompanies it. You can also mix in a splash of fresh juices to give them a nutrient kick!
- Use sandwich thin buns on your burgers. Summer is about staying slim during bathing suit season and there are few greater calorie contributors to your diet than bread. It is also the season for burgers. So when you are enjoying a sizzling burger this summer (we both know you will) choose a sandwich thin bun to save yourself the calories!
- Make healthy mimosas with kambucha. No need to fight off the hangover by prolonging it with more alcohol. Go ahead and give your body a kick in the right direction by mixing in fizzy kambucha with your Sunday OJ. Kambucha and other fermented foods feed your healthy gut bacteria which is the new frontier of medical research. A healthy gut microsystem has been linked to everything from digestive improvement to treating multiple sclerosis!
- More filler, less tortilla on your Mexican dishes. In the spirit of making every calorie count, why have more tacos when you could just have more taco? There is no need to put down another tortilla, which is typicallya load of empty calories, when you could fill each taco with more filling. The filling in Mexican dishes is typically composed of very nutritional food such as grilled chicken, peppers, onions, avocado, tomato, etc…To avoid having a fatter belly, make yourself a fatter taco.
- Practice mindful eating to avoid over-stuffing yourself. Summer is the time when being full is the most uncomfortable. Who wants to be stuffed and hot at the same time? This is the perfect season to practice mindful eating, eating at a slower, more intentional pace, in order to avoid that hot and bloaty feeling.
- Its time for tea. Well, if you are in the south it is always time for tea…but especially in the summer. During those long summer days a tall sweaty glass of sweet tea is just what you need to cool off. Black tea (the kind typically used to make sweet tea in the south) is full flavonoids which are an antioxidant that have been shown especially effective in preventing artery disease. Try and keep the sugar level down a bit as there is no need to drink the syrup that is sometimes served south of the Mason-Dixon line. You can also use honey or agave to sweeten as a way to throw in some extra nutrients but don’t tell grandma or you’ll be sleeping on the porch!
- Everything is in season! Drink a variety of Juices! The mix of sun and rain in the summer is the perfect combo to bring nature to life. Everything is growing in the summer and now is the time to really experiment with fresh juices and pack your body full of nutrients and antioxidants. Don’t be afraid to get weird. The more colors you add, the more wondrous the variety of health benefits will be!
- Coconut Water or sports drink? In nutrition as in life, everything is relative. Sports drinks and the hot fad coconut water both have their benefits. Studies show that both rehydrate about the same however, when you sweat, more is lost that just water. Coconut water and sports drinks both contain sodium but sports drinks contain far more. But they also contain more sugar and calories. So if you are going for a longer workout the sports drink would be the better choice because you need to replace the lost sodium and you likely have the calories to spare. For workouts less than an hour coconut water would be the best bet.
