The heat of summer is on its way. And if you’re like me, you’ll be looking for plenty of air conditioning, shade, a nice swimming pool, and plenty of lemonade.
But what if there was something you could do to stay cool from the inside out? And what if it also kept you from getting dehydrated in the summer heat?
Well, a group of researchers and a chicken farmer from China found a weird trick that does both.
As you may or may not know, chickens are highly susceptible to heat stroke. It’s easy for them to overheat and die. This is especially true for bigger chickens.
And it happens a lot in China’s sweltering heat. So a group of Chinese researchers wanted to find out if there was an economical way to keep chickens alive in the heat of summer. These researchers worked with a chicken farmer and 360 of his young broiler chicks. (Broiler chickens are larger than other chickens and more prone to heat problems.)
The researchers randomly divided the chicks into three groups and raised them in extremely hot conditions. This exposed them to constant heat stress.
The first group of chicks was the control group. The researchers gave them a normal diet. They gave the second group a normal diet with basil seed (5 g/kg) added to their feed. And they gave the third group a normal diet with some supplemental vitamin C (200 mg/kg). Vitamin C is known to help keep you cool, which is one of the reasons we love lemonade in the summer.
Here’s What Happened
Both the chicks eating basil and the chicks taking vitamin C had better digestion, including a significant increase in the absorption of protein. Their energy levels were higher as well.
In addition, those chickens drank less water, they had lower body temperatures, and their mortality was lower
And the chicks eating the basil seeds also experienced additional positive effects. Their blood had significantly higher levels of hemoglobin, which transports oxygen to the cells. It had more white blood cells, which boosts immunity.
Why This Is Important
Summer heat doesn’t just kill chickens. It kills people. In fact, it kills more people every year than tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods. And it primarily affects people who are:
• 65 and older
• Overweight
• Ill, dealing with chronic health conditions, or on certain medications
What You Can Do
Fortunately, eating basil seeds during the summer doesn’t just help chickens stay cool and hydrated. It does the same thing for people.
In fact, desert dwellers in arid western Rajasthan, India have developed some interesting strategies to cope with the excessive heat. One of these includes using herbal plants to cool their body. And one of those herbs is basil seed. Here’s how they use it:
They add 2-3 teaspoons of the seeds to water and soak them for a few hours. Then they mix the seeds with sugar and eat them as a snack during the summer as a cooling agent. They also eat the seeds with buttermilk in summer for its cooling effect.
You can do the same thing (though I don’t recommend eating them with sugar). And you don’t have to soak them for hours. Just soak them in water (8 oz per tablespoon of seeds) for 15 minutes before you eat them. When they’re ready, they will have a white halo around the black seed (see picture at the top of this page).
You can add a couple of teaspoons a day of soaked seeds to smoothies, yogurt, salads, pancakes, muffins, soups, and many other foods. It really is that easy to stay cooler and hydrated on those hot summer days.
By the way, if you work out in the heat, basil seeds will help you recover faster. So add some to your post-workout smoothie and you’ll feel better, faster.
One final tip: Dogs can get overheated and dehydrated in the summer too. So feel free to add a few soaked basil seeds to their food. How much will depend on the size of your dog. But, as with any dietary change for dogs, start small and add a little over time.
You can find basil seeds at most grocery stores, health food stores, and online.