Ramadan is in summer this year, in the warmest and –of course-longest days of year. Fasting in long days makes thirst and dehydration a very important problem for fasted people. They do not eat or drink anything from sunrise to breakfast, which means you should bear this situation for 16 hour, what you eat before sunrise and after breakfast has an important role in controlling thirst during the fasting time. So I guess it won’t hurt if you pay special attention to the notes below
Suggestions for what to eat so that we will not get thirsty during the fastingtime
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Don’t eat spicy foods, specially before sunrise: eating spicy foods makes you want to drink water
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Drink small amounts of water repeatedly in the time between breakfast and sunrise. This prevents flatulence and it will supply the amount of water body needs
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Eat greenery and vegetables in the time between breakfast and sunrise, after it; enjoy eating fruits. Fruits have a large amount of water in them and they will supply the amount of water body needs. The fiber in them also makes you feel stuffed longer, and it also prevents the fasted people from Constipation.
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It is better to use lemon juice instead of salt in your salad, so that you can have a more delicious salad and you can avoid disadvantages of salt too.
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Avoid eating highly-protein and fatty foods such as steak, fish etc. or salty foods. These foods need a lot of water to digest. That means no more pickles in breakfast or sunrise supper.
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Do not drink a lot of water at once, a mistake that most of the fasted people make is that they drink a lot of water right before sunrise, and they think it will prevent thirst during the day. Wrong! The only thing this method does is to make kidneys busy when they don’t have to be busy(you don’t actually need water that time) and so all that water in changed to urine(!), the better method is to drink water slowly.
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Drinking carbonated drinks and nectars (specially the carbonated ones) in the Ramadan will cause problems for the GI and for the absorption.
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You should better break your fast with warm water or tea (don’t eat hot tea or cold water), some break their fast with cold water because they are very thirsty, but because of vasoconstriction, there will be problems in the GI, drinking water or tea slowly is a better way to break your fast
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Don’t drink a lot of water while eating your food, some like to eat a lot of food with a lot of water, a mistake that causes problems for body, bite and chew first, then swallow the food, there is no need for that amount of water.
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Do not drink artificial juice in Ramadan; actually, do not drink artificial juice at all. These juices have a high amount of sugar and coloring materials that can make allergy for many people; you can make juice of the fruit by yourself and then drink it.
I hope you have a healthy Ramadan, without any kind of problems
Dr. A. Ebrahimy