Don't want to just drink water in the summer? Are green tea, soy milk, oatmeal, and cocoa healthy? Understand the "nutritional truth" before drinking beverages
After summer, the temperature rises steadily. High temperature environment can easily lead to lack of energy, loss of appetite and even drowsiness all day long. Extremely hot weather can cause the body to sweat profusely, causing mild dehydration, which may affect the health of the brain, heart, gastrointestinal tract, endocrine system and even the urinary tract. If you choose to “drink” at this time, it will make your mouth dry more easily, and too much sugar will also increase the risk of obesity. The best advice to quench your thirst is to drink enough water every day. If you find drinking water boring, you can choose the following drinks containing relatively healthy ingredients to help replenish your water.
1. Green tea
Research shows that green tea has many benefits for the body. Catechins can resist oxidation, prevent body aging, and even help lower blood pressure. A paper by the British Medical Association showed that catechins can reduce triglycerides, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein. Therefore, the next time you have the idea of buying a handheld drink, you may wish to replace the milk with sugar-free green tea, which can also help avoid the health crisis caused by sugar addiction.
2. Soy milk
The main ingredient of soy milk comes from soybeans. Soybeans themselves have low saturated fat content. Using soy milk to replace creamer, fresh cream or milk caps can reduce excessive animal fat intake and help lower or control cholesterol levels. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends consuming 25 grams of soy protein a day as a daily dietary source to help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
3. Oatmeal drinks
Speaking of the most popular health food in recent years, oatmeal is definitely the most popular. There is a trend of replacing milk with oat milk in various countries. Oatmeal itself has high nutritional value and contains “β-glucan” that can help strengthen immunity. It can produce a gel-like substance in the intestines, interact with bile, and reduce the body’s absorption of cholesterol. The Royal Society of Chemistry has published research showing that liquid oat products such as oat milk may be more effective in regulating cholesterol in the body than solid oat foods.
4. Cocoa drinks
Cocoa, the main ingredient in dark chocolate, contains antioxidants called flavanols, which regulate cholesterol levels in the body. A study by Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in Germany showed that if subjects drank a drink containing 450 mg of cocoa twice a day, they found that the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in the body decreased and increased high-density lipoprotein (LDL) after one month. Lipoprotein (HDL) value. However, processed cocoa chocolate drinks usually contain a lot of saturated fat, and drinking too much can easily make you fat. When health is your priority, it is better to choose pure cocoa.
5. Alcohol
The harmful effects of alcohol on health are well known. Alcohol abuse is more likely to cause systemic problems and increase the risk of cancer. However, all foods are “too much, too little”. A study published by the University of Barcelona in Spain pointed out that moderate alcohol consumption may increase the body’s high-density lipoprotein (HDL) content, similar to the effect of drinking cocoa. But overall, alcohol increases cholesterol, depletes vitamins, and may lead to nutritional deficiencies in addition to increasing the risk of cancer.
According to the standards of the World Health Organization’s international collaborative research, under normal circumstances, men should not consume more than 25 grams of alcohol per day, and women should not consume more than 15 grams. Converted to the amount of pure alcohol liquid, the daily limit for men is 30CC, which is approximately equal to 600CC of beer; the daily limit for women is 20CC of pure alcohol, which is approximately 400CC of beer. However, due to congenital genetic defects, Taiwanese people are ranked last in the world in their ability to metabolize alcohol. It is recommended to reduce the above-mentioned amount by half to avoid burdening the body.
In fact, no matter what kind of drink it is, excessive intake of its ingredients may cause problems. For example, drinking too much cocoa and alcohol will definitely increase your cholesterol. Excessive intake of green tea can cause caffeine problems and may also cause gastrointestinal discomfort. What’s more important to note is that any drink with added sugar or high sugar content will increase the burden on the body and is definitely not a good choice for hydration in summer. If you want to help your body quench your thirst, remember to drink water every day. This is the unbeatable way to maintain health.
Source:
Which drinks can help lower or control cholesterol levels?
The Effect of Alcohol on Cardiovascular Risk Factors: Is There New Information?
