Welcome Summer Right With These Healthy Hot-Weather Eating Tips

We embrace slow-cooking, and we even have 50 amazing slow-cooker recipes that we'd love for you to try, but we suggest trying alternative cooking methods when it's warmer out. Slow-cooking, deep-frying, and baking have an unavoidable connection with comfort foods, and in an effort to remain light and fit in the summer we suggest steaming and stir-frying your meals instead. Look to nutritious raw food recipes as well if you want your meals to yield the highest amount of vitamins and minerals possible.

Dining outdoors is a delightful perk of summer, but the warmer weather is also a key ingredient for the proliferation of dangerous pathogens and bacteria. There are plenty of grilling mistakes (with nasty results) that people repeatedly fall victim to. Wash your hands, utensils, and produce before cooking, chill marinating meat, keep things that have touched raw meat away from cooked food (we know it's tempting to put those burgers right back onto the plate that you carried the raw patties to the grill on, but please resist the urge), and be sure to cook everything to a proper temperature in order to avoid food poisoning.

The world of seafood is one that is currently in limbo. Plenty of people (doctors included) believe some fish is intolerably unhealthy, and yet there are companies putting time and effort into producing healthy, sustainable, organic fish. Fish, according to Chinese medicine, are cool in nature. What this means is that fish, even after being cooked, can help to lower your body temperature. Even better, shellfish are traditionally viewed as cold (even cooler than cool) and can do wonders in helping you maintain a chill body temperature. If you choose to cool via fish this summer, it would behoove you to do a little research regarding your dinner's sustainability status and sourcing.

There are nerves on our tongues that have special molecules called receptors. When you eat or drink something hot, these receptors send a signal to the brain, causing us to sweat and cool ourselves down. These receptors also respond to chile peppers and spicy foods. It's not a coincidence that spicy cuisine is found in hot and tropical regions of the world. These chile peppers activate sweat, thus lowering our body temperature and cooling us down, so don't hesitate to drown your next summer meal in hot sauce if you want to keep cool.

There's no way to deny the fact that many Americans love to eat meat, especially burgers, throughout the year. In summer, the temptation to throw some animal muscle onto the grill is even more tempting, but meat does take quite a bit of effort to digest. Your body will benefit from eating less meat and more anti-inflammatory fruits and vegetables during summer; these can allow your cells to focus on hydrating and functioning properly. You'll also want to be wary of drinking too much alcohol while avoiding other unhealthy things like processed sugar (bye, candies and soda) as well as cigarettes in order to keep your body ready to combat the heat and tackle summer with as much energy as possible.