Food: The Surprising Way to Stay Cool as a Cucumber

Maybe you live, like I do, in a bustling metropolis that heats up in the summer. Maybe the asphalt sticks, the buildings block out any breeze, and the heat does not dissipate in the nighttime. Maybe you also suffer living in an old building with no air conditioning to speak of. Maybe you spend your days in your bathing suit, hunkered down next to a big box fan, overdosing on popsicles. Well, I’m actually going to tell you something strange and awesome: what you eat can actually help you keep cool in the hottest months. Ayurvedic and Chinese doctors have been prescribing cooling foods for thousands of years; why not give it a try?

In both of these ancient traditions, “heaty” and “cooling” foods must be consumed in relation to one another as they have to balance each other out; Chinese doctors suggest equal balancing proportions of cooling (Yin) and hot (Yang) foods to help the body remain neutral. The terms “heaty” and “cooling” don’t refer to the state of the food (physically hot or cool), but rather to its effect on the body of the person who consumes it.

The following foods have a cooling effect on the body, and are especially good for the summer months when the body tends to be hot on the outside:

Bamboo shoots, banana, bitter gourd, clam, crab, grapefruit, lettuce, persimmon, salt, seaweed, star fruit, sugar cane, water chestnut, watermelon, lotus root, cucumber, barley, bean curd, egg white, marjoram, oyster, pear, peppermint, radish, strawberry, tangerine, yogurt, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, corn, tomatoes, pineapple, turmeric.

Notice how many of these belong in a salad or fruit salad? Not only do you not have to heat up the kitchen by turning on the stove, but you’re also helping your body cool off from the inside. Try a cucumber tomato salad with mint, or a corn salsa. You can also try cucumber slices on your forehead or eyes.

Avoid the following foods in the summertime, as they tend to have a heating effect:

Cinnamon, ginger, soybean oil, red and green pepper, chicken, apricot seed, brown sugar, cherry, chestnut, chive, cinnamon twig, clove, coconut, coffee, coriander (Chinese parsley), date, dillseed, eel, fried food, garlic, grapefruit peel, green onion, guava, ham, leaf mustard, leek, longan, mutton, nutmeg, peach, raspberry, rosemary, shrimp, spearmint, sweet basil, tobacco, vinegar, walnut, jackfruit, durian, leek, shallots, spring onion, apricots, blackberries, black currant, mangoes, peaches, cherry, mandarin orange, grape.

And finally, even though it may seem paradoxical, it’s actually good to eat spicy food in hot weather (after all that’s what South Asian cultures do). Spicy food induces a sweat, and the function of sweating is to actually cool the body down. If the water you produce by sweating is allowed to dry off naturally, it will actually take the heat away from your body. So don’t wipe off the sweat – instead, sit down by a fan and let your body cool itself down.