Eating well when temperatures rise is not a luxury or a comfort indulgence: it's a performance decision
SANTO DOMINGO – There's an analogy worth making before discussing fruits and proteins. A company operating under adverse conditions—a shrinking market, a changing regulatory environment, a peak season—needs to adjust its processes, optimize its resources, and eliminate unnecessary burdens.
The human body operates with precisely the same logic in the face of intense heat: it reduces appetite, redistributes energy, and prioritizes thermoregulation over any other function. Ignoring this signal and continuing to consume the same menu as in January in the middle of June is the corporate equivalent of insisting on the same fixed costs when revenues are falling. The result, in both cases, is collapse.
The World Health Organization has warned that heat can aggravate chronic diseases, especially in overweight or obese people, because the body tends to retain more heat and hinders its own cooling mechanism.
Therefore, consuming light, water-rich and easy-to-digest foods is not just a nutritional recommendation: it is a prevention strategy against extreme heat.
It matters what goes into and what comes out of the plate
The Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition has documented an effect that is surprising in its magnitude: a large meal can raise the body's internal temperature by up to 2°C, because digestion is a process that demands energy, and that energy is converted into heat.
Digesting beef or lamb requires considerably more effort from the digestive system than processing a piece of fish, which on hot days translates directly into increased fatigue, drowsiness, and a feeling of overheating. This organization recommends increasing fish consumption compared to meat during the hot season, prioritizing oily fish at least three times a week.
This has a perfectly applicable translation to the Dominican diet. Bupa Dominican Republic points out in its local nutrition guide that, in the context of the country's tropical climate, it is advisable to replace saturated fats with foods containing omega-3 fatty acids, found in avocados, seeds, and fresh fish from our coasts.
The same guide reminds us that a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables ensures a constant supply of minerals and vitamin C, essential for the body's defenses to function against any infection, especially in tropical climates, where temperature changes are frequent.
The power of what we already have
The good news for the Dominican consumer is that tropical nature has made available, practically in any corner store, tricycle or plantation in the country, the foods that science recommends for the heat.
Lizzy Davis, assistant professor and director of the dietary education program in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Alabama, argues that incorporating water-rich foods is key to maintaining a stable body temperature, and warns that heavy meals should be avoided because the digestive process generates additional heat in the body.
Translated to the tropics: watermelon, melon, pineapple, passion fruit, papaya and mango are, simultaneously, some of the most accessible products on the local market and some of the best thermoregulation tools that exist.
No imported supplement or sophisticated diet is needed. The island's fruit biodiversity, consumed fresh and in season, fulfills a function that no ultra-processed food can replicate.
Bupa RD also reminds us that to achieve Dominican flavor in a healthy meal, it is advisable to take advantage of root vegetables and tubers, such as cassava, plantain, and green banana, instead of refined flours, and to plan protein intake with chicken, fish, eggs, or lean cuts of beef, avoiding excessive consumption of low-quality processed meats.
What should be left out
If a company's nutrition is also measured by what is eliminated—unproductive costs, redundant processes, expenses that do not generate value—human nutrition in the face of heat operates with the same logic of subtraction.
Sugary drinks, alcohol, fried foods, and ultra-processed foods not only provide empty calories: they activate metabolic processes that generate additional internal heat and accelerate dehydration. Excessive alcohol and caffeine act as diuretics, worsening fluid loss at a time when the body is already losing fluids through sweat.
Bupa RD's guide is straightforward on this point: soft drinks and juices with added sugar should be replaced with drinking water, and fried foods, if consumed, should be moderated and preferably cooked with quality oil.
Eating light doesn't mean eating little
Perhaps the biggest misconception about eating in extreme heat is confusing lightness with deprivation. A complete salad with lean protein, avocado, fresh, colorful vegetables, and a piece of fruit for dessert is not a deprivation meal.
It is a dish with all the necessary macronutrients, designed so that the body spends the least amount of energy possible processing it and can allocate those resources to what it needs most in those conditions, to stay fresh, hydrated and functional.
Like any good business strategy, providing food during the hot season doesn't require huge investments or complicated formulas. It requires adjustment, sound judgment, and a willingness to listen to what the market is demanding.
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