The first cherries arrived this week and nothing says “SUMMER” to me like sitting on our patio with a little bowl of cherries, and a little bowl to spit the pits in the afternoon when it feels too hot to do anything else. That arrived this week too.
Another thing that screams SUMMER to heading out for a ride, a run, an errand, and coming home feeling like my brain is actually melting. I’m sure you can relate. The way I mitigate this feeling is by drinking electrolytes every day, all season long. This is particularly important for those of us with high pitta or vata constitutions. Balancing and cooling is key for us, and this Tart Cherry Ade hits the spot.
Think of pitta dosha a bit like the thermostat in your house, turn it up, it gets hotter, turn it down and things chill out. Things like exercise, stress, doing passionate projects and focused work all turn that pitta thermostat up. And then, we enter the summer when the thermostat gets turned WAAAAY up. Which leaves most of us feeling super burnt because we’re still turning up the heat in our daily lives, not to mention the hot pressure from the natural world. To make matters worse, we often do things like spend all day outside in the sun, drink alcohol, consume fatty meats and foods that are often too heavy for our constitutions or digestion, and we end up with a thermostat that’s through the roof. We start to have headaches, we feel fatigued, we have a hard time sleeping, maybe we start missing marks in our workouts and more.
What we need to do is start turning down the thermostat. Because changing our work and favorite pastimes isn’t possible (don’t you dare take running and riding away from me in the summer!) it’s much more important that we use food as a medicine; foods that thermogenically cool the body down, reduce inflammation and are easy to digest for our already taxed digestive systems. And electrolytes are one of the building blocks of a solid summer fueling strategy.
Electrolytes are the group of minerals that help our bodies to stay hydrated. Effectively, these minerals “hang on” to moisture so that it gets absorbed by our cells and stay on board so that we can use it to stay cool, reduce inflammation, prevent dehydration and stay vital.
When we say “electrolytes,” we’re generally speaking about magnesium, calcium, potassium and sodium. Our bodies need all of these to survive and thrive. We absorb electrolytes through foods and drinks and even swimming in the ocean, but having a glucose molecule present (ie: having a bit of sugar with your salt,) dramatically increases our uptake. In your small intestine, there’s a mechanism called the sodium-glucose co-transporter (SGLT1).
Here’s how it works:
Sodium and glucose enter the intestinal cells together through this transporter.
This draws water and other electrolytes (like potassium and chloride) into the bloodstream more efficiently.
Basically: glucose acts like a VIP escort, pulling sodium (and water) into your system faster.
…this is why drinking water alone won’t sufficiently hydrate you when you’re replacing electrolytes lost from sweat. Because there’s no sodium, and no glucose.
Coconut water does have some electrolytes in it, but not in a balance that works for athletes or heavy sweaters. Your average effective electrolyte replacement drink contains about 380mg of sodium per serving (12 oz of liquid give or take.) But coconut water only has 90mg of sodium per 12oz serving which is painfully low. Sodium is NOT optional! This specific electrolyte is the electrical currency of the body! It pulls water into the blood stream, helps us to deliver nutrients to working muscles, cool our bodies effectively through sweat, maintains blood pressure, triggers muscle contractions, transmits electrical impulses, prevents spasms, cramps and fatigue, helps us hold onto the water we drink, and maintain blood volume. Without any of these functions, not only are you going to stop feeling good on your workout, you’re going to stop surviving as a human.
Coconut water, and regular water alone are NOT sufficient for electrolyte replacement for active bodies any time of year, particularly in the summer.
Yes, it is! But before you rush out to shoot tart cherry directly into your veins know this. Tart cherry just isn’t that special.
From an Ayurvedic perspective, tart cherry is anti-inflammatory NOT because it’s tart cherry, but because it’s both sour and sweet in flavor. Foods with sour flavors stimulate digestive fire, move stagnation and tone the liver and the blood, while sweet flavor foods hydrate, nourish, cool and support ojas. Together, these two flavors have an anti-inflammatory quality that modern athletes are freaking out about. From a modern Western medical perspective, tart cherry is shown to reduce uric acid, lower c-reactive protein, improve melatonin production, reduce inflammation, decrease muscle soreness and joint pain, and this speaks directly to the way that Ayurveda would qualify cherries as a substance: sour and sweet flavored foods calm heat and cool the blood, nourish joints and tissues, and enhance sleep.
Tart cherry is DELICIOUS, particularly in this Tart Cherry Ade. And yet, to be very honest, if you’re eating pomegranates, amla (Indian gooseberries,) wild blueberries, blackberries, red grapes, plums, tamarind or rose petals you’ll get all the same benefits.
Tart cherry (and the other fruits above) will have properties that help to balance pitta and vata (especially helpful for athletes!) reduce inflammation, repair post-exertion, and support the moon cycle and synching the menstrual cycle. So drink up!
You do you, but I highly recommend that you don’t if you want this to still be an electrolyte drink! Our bodies have both passive and active transporters for magnesium, calcium, potassium and sodium…but absorption is slower and less efficient, especially when you’re sweating hard, losing fluids, or dealing with GI upset. Glucose speeds up the process and improves fluid retention. If you’re looking to actually rehydrate, help your body to thrive and perform well through the summer, leave the sweetner IN!
I suppose you could! If you do, however, you’ll want to add a bit more sodium. The amount of sodium in the recipe below is 520g (for 1 tsp Maldon salt) but if you’re sweating hard, as in a workout, you’re going to want closer to 360-380g. Add another pinch of salt and call it a day. BUT, if you don’t finish all of your electrolyte drink, and it’s been sitting out in the sun, you’ll need to toss it out. The cherry, lime and lemon juices will start to turn and you don’t want them turning your guts inside out.
I recommend drinking this Tart Cherry Ade as a rehydration treat when you’re out of the sun and recovering from the heat.
Is SO good. Tart, bright, sweet, salty and literally ALIVE with refreshment. It’s such a welcome treat on a hot afternoon, and it will only take you a few moments to make it yourself. I highly recommend using in-season cherries (instead of bottled cherry juice that is NOT alive) and taste the difference for yourself!
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