Dr. Thomas Stearns Lee

As the summer weather heats up, you get more thirsty.  Don’t get yourselves into a sugar crash from those sodas and juices this year.  Did you know that these sweets could cause more colds and flus, fatigue, depressions, or even aches and pains?  Even “natural” or fruit sugars can be a problem.

Synthetic sweeteners like Aspartame or NutraSweet could add some strange nervous system complaints to anyone’s life, with allergies and headaches being very common.  Try some refreshing beverages that will help you avoid these problems through the hot weather months.

First, open your mind to new tastes.  Try some herbal teas as recipes or create your own.  My suggestion is to buy small amounts of bulk Lemon Balm, Hibiscus, Spearmint, Chamomile, and Red Clover.  Also pick some herbal sweeteners like Stevia or Licorice.  Make a family project of deciding which of the top two or three are the winners for taste.

Then make a dilute tea or combination of teas as a “sun tea” and keep it available in your fridge.  Get used to a more dilute, watery taste, and don’t drink a lot of it icy cold, because with a high-volume thirst, a lot of cold liquid at once would weaken your digestion and immune system.

If you are active, you’ll find these home coolers work better than most sport drink routines, and they are a whole lot more affordable.  Be creative and make these drinks into popsickles, ice cubes, or use them to stretch other juices and sodas.

Here is a delicious recipe, and it is much cheaper than  commercial copies.  Make a strong sun tea with a gallon of spring water and 4 tea bags of Red Zinger for a few hours in the sun.  Have some grapefruit juice in the fridge with that gallon of “Zinger.”  Put 1/3 glass of juice and 1/3 Zinger over ice and fill with fresh water.  Sip it over a long period of time, after you first drink all you want of plain fresh water.