Hydrated for health

Things are heating up and the heat waves we’ve been experiencing can impact us all. Even healthy people can feel the brunt of the kind of triple-digit weather Sonoma residents experienced earlier this month. We spoke with a local registered dietician about ways to take care of our bodies on these super-hot days. The best bet - drink water and take a trip to the farmers market!

Joyce Giammattei has been working at Sonoma Valley Community Health Center for 21 years. She has a doctorate in public health, is a metabolic nutrition registered dietitian, a certified diabetes educator and teaches nutrition at Santa Rosa Junior College. We asked her to give us some tips on how to stay healthy during heat waves.

Giammattei said the most important thing is to stay well-hydrated during the extreme temperatures like those we’ve experienced recently. That's because we're more likely to become dehydrated when the body has to work harder to keep cool. “You know, we keep our body cool by sweating, and sweating requires extra fluid and so when we're especially hot, or we're exercising a lot, we need to increase our fluid intake because we're losing more fluid,” she said.

Hydration is key and how we get that hydration is also important. Old habits can die hard but when it comes to our health during triple-digit heat waves, healthier choices can be found in a bottle of water and a trip to the farmers market.

Heading to the convenience store for a sports drink isn’t the best option. Although they do supply electrolytes, they often contain lots of sugar. “Those drinks were created for athletes, like football players who are wearing heavy equipment and running in extreme heat for hours,” Giammattei said. “They weren't really meant for people to consume on a regular basis.”

Many people are used to choosing sports drinks as well as things like sodas and lemonade when the temperature climbs. All of those drinks tend to have a lot of extra sugar and Giammattei pointed out that added sugar isn't healthy for us. So if you're looking for a beverage, she suggests looking for something that doesn't have any added sugar.

Plain old water is best. Giammattei suggests getting fresh fruit like strawberries and watermelon from the farmers market and infusing your water with it. “One of my favorites is cucumber and mint,” she said. “You don't have to soak anything over night, the flavors leach out of the fruit or vegetables into the water and it's really refreshing.”

There are other options too like coconut water as long as it’s unsweetened. Giammattei said that sparkling mineral water is good for preventing dehydration as long as there's no added sugar. “You’ve got to be careful with the sparkling water because if you consume too much it can damage your tooth enamel,” she said. “Skim milk is another way to get fluid and even yogurt and cottage cheese has some water content. Soups and broths are good for high water content.”

Some of us really like our coffee and we may wonder if that is an OK choice for staying hydrated. Giammattei said we can count maybe a cup of it. “We have to be careful because caffeine can be dehydrating and so we don't want to drink too much, especially during hot weather when we might already be dehydrated or on the verge of being dehydrated,” she said.

We always hear about our five-a-day - eating five fruits or vegetables a day. The good news is that maintaining that practice can help us stay hydrated, too. “Getting two fruits and three veggies or three fruits and two veggies, however you add it up to five can boost your water intake,” Giammattei said.

“Any fruit and vegetable is going to have some water content, but there are some that have a really high water content like watermelon, celery, cucumbers, peaches, apples, zucchini, tomatoes,” Giammattei said. “Lettuces are like 96% water. So we want to be consuming these fresh fruits and vegetables, which, of course, you can get at the farmers markets, especially nowadays with a lot of the tomatoes coming in.”

Giammattei said she doesn’t encourage people to consume canned foods because there tends to be a higher sodium content and many people have high blood pressure. But for many people, that's the only option that's available to them.

Here in Sonoma County we have lots of options for fresh food, but not always year round, and Giammattei said that frozen would be the next best option. “A lot of frozen foods are picked at their peak and flash frozen so the nutritional value is maintained,” she said. “Frozen fruits and frozen vegetables would be just as good as having the fresh as far as the water content. Dried foods on the other hand lose all the water content.”

Ever wonder if you need to choose a drink that will replace the sodium and potassium you’re losing from sweating? “The fact of the matter is we replace all those electrolytes that are lost through our food,” Giammattei said. “So as long as you're eating healthy foods, it's going to naturally contain sodium and potassium and those electrolytes that we lose.”

She said that even if you're one of those people that’s working outside when it’s 100 degrees you don’t need to go run out and drink a gallon of these energy drinks to replace electrolytes. You'll get all that from food.

Some people don’t like to drink much water when it's cold out. Giammattei said having soups or broths, chili or things that have a lot of vegetables incorporated into their meals will help supply fluids.

“If we establish a healthy fluid intake all year round then we don't have to worry during summer heat waves,” she said. “We should be drinking enough water all the time. It's just a habit that we should get into the whole year and stay well hydrated.”

Some people don't like to drink a lot of water because they don't want to have to get up a million times during the night. Giammattei said, “The thing about it is, yeah, your kidneys are going to be like, ‘Oh, my God, you’re drinking all this water?’ But over time, the kidneys will get used to the high water intake, and you won't be going to the bathroom five times during the night. So it's letting your kidneys get used to the higher fluid intake, and the kidneys will adjust so you're not going to the bathroom all the time.”

A tool that you can use to see how much water you need is based on your weight. You want to drink half your weight in ounces. So if you weigh 140 pounds then you should be aiming for 70 ounces of water a day.

“A fun tip is if you take a gulp of water, that's about an ounce, give or take,” Giammattei said. “So if you're sipping water throughout the day and you're taking not just like a tiny sip but a pretty big sip, then that's about an ounce.”

Giammattei encourages people to pay attention to signs of dehydration because when our body tells us that we're thirsty, we may already be dehydrated. “So prevent that,” she said. “You don't want to feel thirsty because it means you've gone too long.”

Deep dark colored urine could indicate that you're dehydrated. “Of course, there could be other things that affect the color, like medications,” Giammattei said. “If you've noticed that there's been a decrease in the frequency of urination, that could be a sign that your body is experiencing dehydration. We want to watch out for that and really work on preventing it.”

If you're going to be out and it's hotter than usual prepare in advance by taking water along. While you’re at it, swing by the farmers market to get some fresh fruits and veggies to throw in.