Summer is finally here. Last week it arrived in grand style with a massive heatwave that seared the globe with record high temperatures.
My body always takes awhile to adjust to the heat. At the onset of the heatwave, I was lethargic like I was half sick with somethin’. I felt like cold molasses sliding out of a bottle. I had two speeds – slow and stop! And then one night, I woke up with a mouth so dry I thought it was stuffed full of cotton balls. How did that happen? I drink water throughout the day.
One afternoon, I slithered like a snail over to Ellie’s house and complained about my malaise. She thought I might be dehydrated and suggested that I chug a rehydration drink. Interestingly enough, she had just looked at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recipe for a low-cost rehydration formula and adapted it to make it palatable. After all, if a thing tastes super yucky it’s not likely to go down the hatch very often. According to the WHO, in order for the body to absorb the formula, it needs to contain glucose and salt in a specific proportion. Ellie adds Morton’s salt substitute because it contains potassium and that adds electrolytes. Cream of tartar has potassium too.
Ellie’s Rehydration Recipe
2 tablespoons honey
½ teaspoon sea salt (do not use table salt)
½ teaspoon potassium – Morton’s salt substitute or cream of tartar
1 liter water (4.25 cups)
Dissolve the salt and potassium in hot water and stir with a metal spoon. Then use the hot spoon to scoop the honey; that makes the honey slide off the spoon. Chill the drink. Ellie says she sometimes just adds the salt and potassium to lemonade. I had a bottle of raspberry extract on hand and added a couple of teaspoons for an extra layer of lovely flavor. If you haven’t consumed this within 24 hours, toss it out.
I drank a batch of this and was surprised how quickly my energy returned. I looked up the symptoms of dehydration and fatigue/lethargy is in the top three. This caught me by surprise. I drink a lot of water and it would have never occurred to me that my fatigue was due to dehydration. Even though this recipe is simple and low cost, don’t underestimate the effectiveness of this formula. The WHO developed this to save the lives of people, particularly children, suffering from dehydration in third world countries. It is medicine!
On these hot days, keep a pitcher of Ellie’s drink in your fridge and sip on it now and then. That will keep you from getting fried in this hot summer heat.