Cold drinks
Four healthy cold drinks you can easily make at home – refreshing in the summer heat, without the sugar and calories.
With the summer months and the heat, we all reach for cold drinks more often. But cold drinks consumed in large amounts add calories to your diet through the sugar they contain – and they seriously reduce how much water we drink. A single glass of a fizzy drink gives us 8–10 sugar cubes, and a glass of ready-made iced tea about 6, in a form that is digested very quickly.
Nutrition experts are not big fans of cold drinks: they raise our blood sugar quickly, we drink them instead of water and they are high in calories. The good news is that you can make healthy, much lower-calorie versions at home.
So what are the low-calorie, nutritious alternatives that will refresh us in the summer?
1. Iced mint ayran
Ayran (a salted yoghurt drink) is very nutritious thanks to its protein and calcium. A glass of iced mint ayran cools us down on hot summer days – and it has only 80 calories.
2. Homemade lemonade
Lemonades with added sugar syrup or lots of sugar make you take in far too many calories. Instead, make your own low-sugar lemonade, packed with vitamin C, at home. The vitamin C from the lemons will also help you keep your energy up throughout the day.
Freeze 2 lemons and 5 strawberries, then blend them. Mix the blended fruit with 1 tablespoon of honey dissolved in a glass of warm water and leave it for about 3 hours. Then press and strain it through a muslin cloth so that the flavours come out. Serve with a few mint leaves.
3. Homemade iced teas against water retention
We all love teas that warm us up in winter, but in summer we need drinks that cool us down. Brew 1 bag of jasmine green tea in ½ cup of hot water for 3 minutes, then add plenty of ice, cold water and a few lemon slices. This drink has almost zero calories, is rich in antioxidants, helps against water retention and contains vitamin C.
4. Cold basil sherbet
Here is a low-sugar, bright pink drink that children especially love. Put 1.5 bunches of basil, 2 cinnamon sticks, the juice of half a lemon, 1.5 litres of hot water and 4 tablespoons of sugar in a jug and leave for 30 minutes. Strain it and put it in the fridge. Once cool, serve with mint leaves and plenty of ice.
Cold drinks often seem innocent, but fizzy and cold drinks consumed throughout the day are a serious source of calories and sugar. The best thing you can do is drink plenty of water instead of packaged drinks, to replace what you lose through sweating – and enjoy the healthy alternatives above. See you in the next article – stay healthy…