Best Summer Herbs to Help You Keep Your Balance This Season

As the year turns a corner again and brings us the summer season, it’s time to enjoy the sunny outdoors. It means tonnes of beach days, outings in the parks, backyard barbecues, and summer camps. But while summer has its perks, the heat can also throw us off balance. It may cause dehydration, nausea, cramps, fever, and even impact our minds adversely.

While ice creams, air-conditioning, and cool drinks may seem appealing at this time, they only offer temporary relief. To balance your mind and body inside out, cooling herbs are your best allies this summer.

Read on to know more about the best Ayurvedic herbs to include in your routine, their evidence-backed benefits, and bonus recipes thrown in!

Which are the best herbs for summers and what are their benefits?

Using herbs to cool oneself down is not a new idea. It goes back thousands of years. Ayurveda, the world’s oldest holistic healing and medicinal system, says that your diet must change according to the seasons. It divides herbs into two categories- cooling and warming herbs.

The summer season has several physical and mental ramifications on the body and the mind. This is why it’s a good time to shift your focus on herbs that have naturally cooling properties.

These cooling properties have nothing to do with the outside temperature. It refers to the ‘nature’ of the herb that actually cools down your body tissues.

Here is an ayurvedic herbs list that will help you stay cool during the summer months:

Mint

According to the Ancient Science of Life Journal, mint is abundant in therapeutic and pharmacological effects. The main compounds of mint include pulegone, menthone, and menthol that are responsible for mint’s cooling effects on our bodies including:

· The rising heat often slows your digestive system. Mint aids digestion and prevents constipation and bloating.

· It is one of the best summer savory herbs that relax your mind and relieve you of heat-induced headaches.

· Mint has excellent cooling properties for the skin too. When applied topically, it soothes the skin and cures it of heat rashes and itching.

Chamomile

As verified by the Molecular Medicine Reports, chamomile has several curative and preventive properties, especially important to tackle the hot summer months. Let’s take a look at some of these important benefits:

· Is the heat not letting you enjoy a good night’s sleep? The caffeine-free chamomile helps you improve your quality of sleep and prevents stress and chronic fatigue in the long run.

· Chamomile is antispasmodic. It reduces stomach problems and helps better your digestion during the summer.

· It boosts the levels of glycine and hippurate in the urine, which in turn increases the antibacterial activity in your blood. This enhances your immunity.

Cilantro

As verified by the Alternative and Complementary Therapies Journal, cilantro’s health benefits include:

• It boosts your digestive system and helps it produce more enzymes. This eases your digestion and prevents constipation and bloating.
• Rich in chlorophyll, it helps expel excess bacteria from your body. This helps cleanse your body and prevent body odor.
• When applied topically, cilantro juice acts as a sunscreen and saves your skin from damage caused by heat and sun.

Fennel

• Oils like estragole, anethole, and fenchone in fennel help aid your digestion. It especially helps to prevent heat-induced diarrhoea and loss of appetite.
• According to Ayurveda, fennel seeds relieve your body of internal heat and help relax your mind.

Lemon Verbena

• It helps clear the internal heat and toxicity that’s often rampant in the summer months.
• Being a bitter ingredient, it helps cleans your body of contaminants through urinary or bowel movements.
• Adding lemon verbena to plain water is a great way to increase your hydration levels.
• When used as an essential oil in aromatherapy, it helps clear your skin off all the excess oil.

Basil

• Basil helps prevent and cure heat-induced body aches and fever.
• It is one of the best summer savory herbs to cool down the body during the summer heat.
• Summers often cause acidity and heartburn. Basil is one of the most effective herbs to help cure these.
• It helps minimize the risk of heat rash and itching on the skin.

Ways to use summer herbs

Now that you have ample summer herb information, let’s look at some easy ways to include these herbs in your routine.

These summer herbs can be easily used to balance the flavours of your summer dishes and even boost their taste. They can be included in your skincare routine and even as essential oils.

• Use herbs to flavour your summery salads. For instance, mint and basil can perk up your boiled chicken salad.
• Use summer savory herbs to give a zesty twist to your desserts. You can rustle up a lemon verbena and vanilla-flavoured cake. Or try a peaches and almond crumble topped with a hint of mint.
• If you are bored of sipping plain water, these herbs are an excellent way to add a delicious punch to your water. Add a squeeze of lemon verbena to your glass of water to stay hydrated throughout the gruelling summer months.
• To keep your skin healthy during the summer, you can easily include these herbs in your skincare routine. Add crushed mint leaves to your face scrub for that gorgeous bright glow. Or you can add lemon verbena to your face pack to remove excess oil.

The Bottom Line

These powerful summer-friendly herbs are a fantastic way to stay cool and refreshed during the summers. Include them in your diet, skincare, and as essential oils and breeze through all your days of fun under the sun.