7 invigorating drinks to cool you off this summer

There are some natural drinks that can be easily prepared at home and are delicious, but also provide energy and multiple health benefits.

With the heat of summer our body produces much more sweat, which favors dehydration and loss of vitamins and minerals.

Recovering all those nutrients and rehydrating the body is essential for well-being, but there is no reason to do it only based on water.

These seven invigorating, healthy and delicious drinks help your body recover and refresh after a long day.

BARLEY WATER

To prepare four servings of the drink:

1. Put 150 g of pearl barley in a strainer and wash it under a stream of cold water.
2. Boil over low heat with a liter of water for 45 minutes, until the grains are tender.
3. Strain the barley, add 100 g of sugar, a piece of cinnamon and the skin of a lemon. Let cool.

This drink is used to hydrate the body on very hot days, as it is very refreshing. It also has nutritional virtues due to the mineralizing value of barley.

OATMEAL AND FRUIT SMOOTHIE

To prepare this vitamin-packed drink:

1. Clean, peel, peel and cut a banana, half a papaya, an apple, a peach and a cup of strawberries.
2. Pour the fruits into a blender along with 300 ml of oatmeal drink and crush until you get a homogeneous liquid.

This shake is especially indicated for the health of the skin and nervous system, since to the antioxidant properties of the fruits are added the vitamins of the B group provided by oats.

It is both cool and energetic on hot days.

APPLE PUNCH

To prepare four servings of this punch:

1. Wash and squeeze a lemon. Macerate the lemon peel along with its juice, a tablespoon of honey and 50 g of Corinthian raisins for three hours.
2. Blend a kilo of apples with your skin and a slice of fresh ginger. Mix it with maceration and incorporate ice cubes.
3. Cut another apple and an orange diced, and add them to the punch along with some mint leaves.

Apple is used to treat digestive problems. For its part, ginger acts as an excellent circulatory and digestive tonic.

GREEN TEA

To prepare this cold infusion:

1. At the bottom of a teapot dispose green tea, the peels of a biological orange and lemon, a little nutmeg and a sprig of vanilla.
2. Add whole wheat sugar and pour a liter of boiling water on top. Cover to infuse and let cool.
3. At the time of serving add the juice of an orange and a few drops of lemon juice, as well as crushed ice if you want.

The antioxidants in green tea are very beneficial against certain types of cancer and reduce the effects of aging. In addition, spices enhance its energizing effect.

HOMEMADE HORCHATA

To prepare four servings of horchata:

1. Wash 200 g of tigernut. Soak for 12 hours or more, preferably in the refrigerator. When the time has passed, strain them and throw the water away. Soak again for 12 more hours.
2. Without straining them, crush with a blender and let macerate for two hours with a piece of cinnamon. Strain the paste and squeeze it by pressing hard, for example with gauze, to extract all its flavor.
3. Add a few tablespoons of sugar and add to the tigernut paste that remains a little more water to crush it again.

Tigernut is highly energetic, diuretic and galactogenic.

VEGETABLE JUICE

To prepare four servings of the drink:

1. Blanch for a few seconds three ripe tomatoes, put them in cold water and then peel them.
2. Put the tomatoes in the blender along with a seedless red pepper, four lettuce leaves and a stalk of broccoli.
3. To finish the pepper juice to taste, season with a splash of extra virgin olive oil and chop a clove of garlic and very thin basil and parsley leaves on top.

The nutrients in broccoli add to the lycopene in tomatoes and the beta-carotene and vitamin C in the pepper, so this juice can serve as a restorative first course.

MINT LASSI

Lassi is a drink from India, very suitable for refreshing the palate and settling food in the stomach. For four servings:

1. Mix well a vegetable yogurt, a cup of concentrated mint infusion, a peach and two plums claudias.
2. Add a crushed banana with a fork and a tablespoon of honey and mix again.
3. Serve with crushed ice or drink it very cold.

Yogurt provides calcium and intestinal lactobacilli very beneficial. Meanwhile, fruits provide the desired antioxidant vitamin effect.