Personally I love summer – hot, humid, long sunny days – but summer has its own set of beauty risks. Increased heat can bring an imbalance of Pitta dosha, the mind-body operator that governs hormones, digestion and other metabolic processes in the body. It’s important to stay cool and hydrated to help prevent summer breakouts and rashes.
Here are a few tips for keeping your skin looking great in summer, and recipes for two of my favourite hydrating and beauty-building beverages!
Drink cooling water. You’ve probably heard that drinking 6-8 glasses of water a day is important for flushing out toxins, and in summer it’s even more important to keep replacing fluids that may be lost to perspiration. Tip: cilantro, cucumber, and mint are great additions to water for a refreshing beverage that will cool you down.
Reduce drinks that dry out your skin. Both caffeine and alcohol are the worst and are also toxic to the liver. When the liver becomes overloaded, it can no longer do its job of screening out toxins from the nutritive fluid. That’s the point when ama (digestive toxins) and more harmful impurities, start to circulate to the tissues and organs of the body. And one of the first signs of toxins in the liver is dull, dry, lifeless skin.
Even non-caffeinated carbonated drinks disrupt the digestion and are a major cause of toxins. And ice-cold drinks are also to be avoided, as icy foods and drinks completely douse the digestive fire, again leading to toxins that detract from healthy skin.
Eat foods that hydrate your skin:
- Cooling, sweet, bitter and astringent foods (coconut, cucumber, watermelon, all the fresh fruit in season, steamed greens, multicolored salads, watercress, endives, mung beans, basmati rice)
- Sweet fruits, such as grapes, cherries, melons, avocados, coconuts, pomegranates, mangoes, and sweet, fully-ripened oranges, pineapples and plums.
Reduce foods that dry out your skin. Spicy and fried foods are particularly bad and reduce sour fruits such as grapefruits, olives, papayas, and unripe pineapples and plums as much as possible in the hot summer weather
Both of these recipes below are from The Balanced Plate by Renée Loux
Lemon Cucumber Spa Hydrator
Made with a blender, yields 4 servings.
- 2 medium cucumbers, peeled and roughly chopped (about 4 cups)
- 1 lemon, peeled and seeded
- 1-2 tbsp raw agave nectar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 cups filtered water
Blend all ingredients at high speed until smooth. Pour through a fine strainer or sieve. Serve chilled.
Green Lemon Ginger Beauty Tonic
Made with a juicer, yields 4 servings.
- 1 head romaine lettuce
- 1 cucumber
- 2 organic green apples
- 6 ribs celery
- 1/2 bunch parsley
- 1 lemon
- 1″ fresh ginger
Cut up all veggies so they will fit through your vegetable juicer. Juice the romaine, cucumber, apples, celery, parsley, lemon and ginger, alternating for easy processing. Drink as fresh as possible.
