I recall chatting with an elderly farmers lady on the Croatian island Cres who told us how they used to go working their fields at 3am in the days of mostly manual field labour and work until mid-morning... Starting early and going slow or sheltering at midday is always a good idea in southern countries. Sadly, this doesn't quite work nearer the equator with steady 12 daylight hours throughout the year....
What I learned from desert dwellers in (e.g. Afghanistan, Middle East etc) and living /working in South India for 2 decades is to avoid drinking from mid-morning till sundown (just tiny cups of strong supersweet tea or mint tea or wetting your gums with water) during hot seasons but drinking as much as one can in the evenings and early mornings to flush the kidneys. The more you drink when exposed to sun and high temps, the more you sweat (which is exhausting in itself and linked to "heat stroke"). Excessive sweating means loss of crucial base minerals ("electrolytes"). Dehydration is defined as a lack of electrolytes - not lack of water (a total lack of water only becomes dangerous after the first 48 hours). So the hotter it gets, the more important to minimise sweating, seek shade, early starts, rest (in shade) during peak hours and topping up with electrolytes when appropriate (obvious symptoms of dehydration are muscle fatigue, mental fatigue and muscle cramps)
Obviously "hot" is a matter of acclimatisation (most Europeans feel "hot" above 30 celsius, which is quite a pleasant temperature nearer the equator) but also air pressure which tends to be higher in northerns countries (frequent thunderstorms) and lower nearer the equator (where thunderstorms are very rare). Air pressure amplifies temperature so tropical and sub-tropical advise is useful even in northern locations on days when higher temps and high air pressure combine.
Need I say that overdosing on electrolytes is pretty harmful too....!
Loose dark (!!!!) clothing also helps - tents in the desert are black or dark blue for good reasons (white fabrics are a status symbol there)
"Loose dark (!!!!) clothing also helps - tents in the desert are black or dark blue for good reasons (white fabrics are a status symbol there)"
Hence my questioning as to whether it was a perception, rather than a reality that lighter coloured clothes are better in hot weather.
Certainly still operating on 80 % manual labour on this farm (and no aircon in the tractor beyond having taken one door off) means that staring early in hot weather is a necessity, although i was still out spreading compost at midday yesterday
derr -
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bke7_ifgKrr/?taken-by=vegetable_dalliance -
apologies for the flaunting but not getting the siestas in - must try harder ..
Some people were already up at five am today picking French Beans !!
One of my yogis told me that a guy she was walking with on Bodmin Moor (Yes Bodmin! I know!!
) this weekend suffered heatstroke only two miles in from the car ... Had to be physically helped back
Encephalopathy can also be a real hazard if you drink too much water.... You can actually kill yourself by drinking an excess
I am disinclined drink as much on trail, or in the field, as some folks might say i
should , maybe listening to ones own body, isn't such a hippy dippy, airy fairy bit of nonsense as some would paint it... But yes I do drink a lot of tea ( no sugar though) - straw coloured wee - is key indicator
I think having a nutritionally balanced diet comprising mainly 'real food' with natural , but not excessive salts and sugars is the way to go.
The average western diet (50% processed) is already well overladen with salt and sugar.
Yes and acclimatisation - there was a guy from Grenada who came and helped out here for a summer - he was quite happy working in the polytunels in the heat of the day, when the rest of us could barely approach the doors without melting .. Oh to be able to spend so much time 'getting used to hot weather'
All really useful info - and helpful food for thought
@tom