The season of picnics, fruits and vegetables is in full swing. Berries eaten from a bush, cold drinks, and spoiled foods can affect our health adversely. Compliance with a few simple rules will help to avoid the dangers associated with nutrition in the heat.
How Long Can You Store Foods in the heat?
On hot days, the shelf life of any food is reduced. Fermented foods get spoiled after 3 hours of staying at room temperature, raw meat and fish – after 4 hours, while prepared salads cannot be eaten after just one hour of being in a warm place.
A common mistake is to keep a dish with berries and fruit on the table. They not only spoil in the heat, but also collect larvae of various insects. Do not forget to put all the sweets in your refrigerator (cakes, sponge cake, chocolate candies, etc.).
Hazardous cooling
We should admit that we always keep a bottle of ice water in the refrigerator during the hot season. As a result, we get hypothermia of the throat and upper respiratory tract, sore throat and tonsillitis. Of course, it is necessary to drink plenty of water in the heat. This may be mineral water or common clean water, green and herbal teas. It is proved that warm or even hot drinks quench thirst better. In addition, it is inconvenient to quaff them. Namely, in the hot weather, it is recommended to sip drinks little by little, so that the entire liquid had time to digest, and the excess would not be removed through the skin in the form of copious sweat. During the hot season you could give up coffee (it increases sweating) and carbonated drinks (they are harder to digest and can cause heartburn). As for the ice cream, you should not restrain yourself; just eat it slowly in small pieces.
What can/cannot be eaten in summer?
It is not always a good thing to eat plenty of fruits, vegetables and herbs. In some cases of indigestion, excessive fruit acids can be dangerous.
If you have any problems with your stomach, do not eat sour currant, plums, sour apples and citrus.
If you have a disease of the esophagus, dill, garlic, and hot peppers are contraindicated.
People with a high level of gastric juice acidity are contraindicated to eat garlic, parsley, and cilantro.
On the contrary, melons and eggplants are well absorbed because they contain a large amount of enzymes that are similar in composition to those found in the intestines.
Getting ready for a picnic
Can you imagine summer without picnics? If you want to arrange a picnic with grilling, remember the following rule: when packaging provisions, put raw and cooked products separately from each other. Do not use the same chopping board or knife for cutting, for example, bread and raw meat. Do not cook a lot of sophisticated dishes. Salads with mayonnaise and multi-component starters can be left for another time.
How to prevent food spoilage?
Use spices. Grilled meat or vegetables can be generously seasoned with mustard, red and black pepper, cloves, turmeric, coriander and saffron. These spices have unique disinfectant properties.
When you reach the place of the planned picnic, immediately start cooking food so that it did not have time to spoil.
A cooler bag
If you are going to have a long trip in the car or by train, be sure to buy a cooler bag. This thing will come in handy more than once, helping to keep the food fresh and saving health. Before the trip, keep the cold accumulators (plastic containers filled with brine) in the freezer and then put them in your cooler bag.
There are special car cooler bags, which are powered by the car battery. They are used as conventional refrigerators.
