Drink Yourself Healthy
To rediscover peak performance in your 40s, just add a few ingredients to some boiling water.
You are what you drink.
THE BRIEF
Time to read: 4 minutes
Time to action: 5 minutes
Mantra: Finding fluidity for fitness
Main message: Whatever your health goal, there’s a way to drink to get you there
Stat: 60% of an adult’s body is liquid. Make sure it’s the good stuff
We all like a drink. We are British. We are Gen X. When we grew up, booze was more socially acceptable than eating fruit or going for a run. Run? For fun? Weirdo.
Thankfully, following generations have seen more sense and made kale smoothies more desirable than crack. We are the last generation to see lunchtime boozing as a good thing. So in the spirit of intergenerational compromise, we’ve created a top shelf of drinks designed to get you going and see you through, without requiring an afternoon nap.
Whatever you want from your day, one of these drinks will help. Go crazy, try them at lunchtime, and hell, why not go large?
Endurance booster - beetroot soup
Beetroot increases blood flow to muscle fibres (by up to 38%), so it helps you workout harder and for longer. Chop up a beetroot, boil it in 300ml of water, then blend it with a handful of lemon grass, 400ml of creamed coconut, and lime juice, if you’re feeling particularly boujios.
Get up and go - coconut and lemon zinger
Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs) in coconut oil are broken down in your liver, producing ketones - like a catalyst for pushing brain and body function. As a nice health bonus, lemon juice has an alkalising effect and energises you.
Mix 200 ml of hot water, the juice of a freshly squeezed lemon, and a teaspoon of coconut oil into a mug.
Digestion protection - Indian chai masala tea
Rich in antioxidants, cardamom and cloves also help you extract the most from your food. If you want to absorb more nutrients from your lunch, this is a huge help.
Mix 2 teaspoons of black tea (or teabags) and a quality chai masala spice mix (available at all supermarkets) and boil. Add an extra cup of milk and some sweetener to taste (honey, not sugar), bring to the boil again, and then strain—the drink, not your digestion.
Immunity upgrade - ginger, honey lemon
Manuka honey helps kill bacteria so effectively that it can heal wounds when applied directly to them. Ginger is able to relieve post-workout muscle soreness, and the vitamin C in lemon juice provides antioxidant protection. A triple threat, to remove any threat.
How to make it: Slice 10g of root ginger, add a teaspoon of Manuka honey and lemon juice, then stir in 200ml of hot water in a mug.
Joint strengthener - chicken soup
Probably the oddest sentence I’ll write in a while, but everything you need for healthy connective tissue is found in a chicken. If you add more protein and soba noodles, voila, chicken noodle soup will help your bones.
Slow boil a complete chicken carcass (minimum of two hours) in some stock with other vegetables.
Greater guts - miso soup
Miso is a probiotic containing many beneficial bacteria that are helpful in improving digestion. For the best results use unpasteurised miso paste with the beneficial bacteria still alive, not destroyed by excessive heat.
Miso is fermented soybean paste that you can pick up in instant form from any supermarket.
Sleep easy - cherry juice
Better sleep can have a positive muscle-building effect as this is when you enter growth and recovery mode. Cherry juice naturally contains melatonin, the hormone that helps you sleep, and is also high in the proanthocyanidin family of antioxidants that have sleep-enhancing properties.
Mix 2-3 tablespoons of concentrated cherry juice with 200ml warm water.
DR DRAGON
A GP for an eclectic community, Dragon is a prolific author in the world of health. Award winning for his content creation and ability to answer the ‘actual’ questions asked of him, his theories are always worth listening to in looking for those little things that can make a real difference in our lives.
DR DOG
A cognitive psychologist specialising in those most 21st Century of issues, anxiety and depression. Dog is especially good at delivering actionable answers. Removing the rhetoric and hyperbole and focusing simply and directly on practical information that can be used to help mental health daily.
ANTHROPOLOGY ANTELOPE
Sociology might have been ‘that degree’ in the way back when, but can you honestly think of a time when we needed to understand our society more than we do today? Antelope is a respected and published author of numerous theses on the human condition and the nature of human interactions.
