Summer is beach, sun, holidays and all the other little pleasures that make it such a sweet and pleasant time of year. But, summer also rhymes with barbecues, aperitifs, picnics and idleness. So, how can you enjoy these little pleasures without feeling "tired" from your holidays and keeping all your vitality for the start of the school year? Here are all my tips and tricks to guide you.
1/ Make the right food choices in all circumstances
• Barbecue: a barbecue with friends is always a good time. Too bad the Maillard reaction (chemical reaction of glycation due to high temperature cooking) is invited every time 😅. It is very toxic to the body, and yet, it is what gives this special taste to barbecue cooking. So, to limit the damage, it is necessary to boost the antioxidant barrier.
First, don't forget that sausages and merguez are not the only food you can cook on the barbecue: everything is good on the barbecue, including chicken or turkey breast, fish, shellfish, and even vegetables!
Second, to give flavor to food, prepare marinades rich in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory spices. For example :
- olive oil + ginger + turmeric
- olive oil + lemon juice + garlic + parsley
Finally, share the plate in 4 parts: 1/4 to satisfy your brain in "barbecue" mode with what makes you happy, 1/4 for grilled vegetables and 2/4 for a salad of raw vegetables with dressing based on oil rich in omega 3 (rapeseed, flax or walnut oils) and apple vinegar.
• Aperitifs: Difficult to escape! It's so nice to be with friends over a good drink, enjoying the gentle heat of summer on the terrace.
On the drink side, prefer organic red wines that are rich in resveratrol (antioxidant polyphenol) and make sure to drink at least one glass of water for each glass of alcohol.
On the food side, here are some ideas to combine pleasure and health:
- Raw vegetables with hummous, tzatzíki, or white cheese with fine herbs
- Artichoke dips with flaxseed crackers (Cf. post “Artichoke dips”, 10/20/22)
- Roasted chickpeas or soybeans
- Verrines of vegetables (Cf. post “My nutri-New year's Eve menu”, Verrines of beets with goat cheese, 29/12/22)
- Sardine rillettes (see post “How to consume omega 3 when you don’t like small fatty fish”, 31/10/22)
- Sourdough wholemeal bread toast with mashed avocado
- Tomato or cucumber gazpacho
- Vegetable patties (Cf. post “Cauliflower patties”, 11/24/22)
Picnics on the edge of the highway: although it is a very good childhood memory, I completely advise against slices of triangular white sandwich bread with chips bought on the highway rest area 😜. The best is obviously to plan the picnic instead of buying it on the side of the highway. If this is not possible, opt for a salad of raw vegetables with an animal protein (meat, fish, shellfish, egg) or vegetable protein (chickpeas, lentils, tofu) and buy a bread with wholemeal flour. Complete if necessary with a natural full fat yoghurt or a fruit. Wraps are also an option but beware of the dressing that accompanies it. And if really, the impasse on chips is impossible, opt for vegetable chips 😉.
2/ Stay hydrated properly:
The best advice I can give is to drink water regularly in small amounts as this allows the cells to absorb water better. Be careful, coffee, tea and alcohol dehydrate. And if you are not a big consumer of water, here are some tips for getting a supply through food:
Consume fruits and vegetables rich in water such as cucumber, lettuce, zucchini, eggplant, tomato, watermelon and melon.
Yoghurts, kefir, cottage cheese and vegetable milks are also foods rich in water. For example, replacing afternoon ice cream with frozen fruit mixed with yogurt.
In case of hot weather or excessive sweating, it is advisable to eat slightly more salty… advice that I always hesitate to give because the majority of the population has a much higher than average salt consumption. But, there is a loss of minerals and in particular potassium and magnesium that must be filled. Foods rich in potassium are seaweed, legumes, dried bananas, dried apricots, pistachios, and dried tomatoes. As for magnesium, it is found in quantity in dried fruits, seafood, bananas, chocolate, legumes and certain mineral waters.
Favor raw foods that keep their water content, and prefer steam cooking.
3/ Take care of your gut :
Drink kefirs, kombucha, miso soups and fermented vegetables which, in addition to being rich in water, are rich in probiotics and enzymes beneficial to the intestinal microbiota.
Make vegetable salads with chilled starches: the structure of the starch changes when it cools. This decreases the glycemic index of the dish and stimulates the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) by intestinal bacteria. SCFAs are very important in maintaining and protecting the intestinal barrier. In addition, their anti-inflammatory role has been demonstrated in particular by their action on the synthesis of T lymphocytes (LTreg). These funds are essential in maintaining the balance of the immune system: they allow it to be neither too strong (as is the case in particular in autoimmune diseases and allergies), nor too weak (repeated infections for example).
Consume a whole milk yoghurt a day (if no intolerance): dairy products contain SCFAs including butyrate.
Regularly consume leeks, asparagus, artichokes, garlic, and Jerusalem artichokes which contain fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), food appreciated by intestinal bacteria that produce butyrate.
Abuse anti-inflammatory spices: turmeric, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, garlic and onion.
4/ Support the liver :
Drinking coffee the day after a drunken night out is not a good idea. Indeed, it overloads the liver which is already very busy to manage the differences. Better is a lemon juice with hot or cold water when you wake up. And to replace coffee, prefer green tea, rich in ECGC, a polyphenol which has shown antioxidant properties and beneficial effects on weight control.
Here are other simple reflexes to adopt to protect and support the activity of the liver:
Prepare your vinaigrettes with cider vinegar or lemon juice with olive, rapeseed, linseed or walnut oil.
Add turmeric or rosemary in your culinary preparations.
Regularly eat broccoli, artichokes, beets, and carrots.
Drink green tea, milk thistle, fumitory or dandelion herbal teas.
5/ Move !
Not only does moving allow you to sweat and therefore eliminate toxins, but it also stimulates the metabolism. So, entire afternoons of tanning, in addition to being bad for your skin (see blog July 2023), are bad for your body shape! There are so many fun ways to move in the summer, even when you don't like sports!!! : walks along the beach, beach volleyball, badminton, rollerblading, table tennis, swimming in the sea, playing ball with your children… (pétanque and darts do not count especially since they are generally accompanied by glasses of alcohol 😜).
And above all, enjoy good times with friends, laugh, sing, dance, breathe in nature and meditate: this will allow you to stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system and regain nervous balance in the face of an over-stimulated sympathetic nervous system during the rest of your week. the year by the stress of everyday life 😎.
