Traveling? Mind Your Climate

It doesn’t matter where you’re traveling, staying healthy makes for a better adventure anywhere you go. Adjusting to the climate isn’t just something for scuba divers and mountaineers: If you travel, you should know how to take care of your health in any climate.

If you find yourself traveling in areas affected by snow or heavy rains, blizzards and flooding are potential hazards. Keep a Premium Gear Kit from Live Prepared in your car, along with extra water and a blanket in case you find yourself stranded on the road.

If your journeys take you to places with very different climates, hydration is key to staying healthy. Often it’s the shock of going from colder to warmer environments that exposes your immune system to threats. Drinking enough water and eating the right types of food, however, keep your body in balance and arm it with the ability to cope more quickly with rapid temperature changes.

Emergency room doctors in Key West, Florida, which boasts the highest average temperatures in the U.S., see their highest number of patients during the winter. This is when Canadians, northern Europeans, and even travelers from northern states show up in droves and either drink or exercise in excess. Alcohol is a diuretic, which expedites the loss of body fluids. Similarly, sweating during exercise leads to fluid loss, which also can lead to dehydration.

Of course, everyone is different, so the amount of water you need to drink varies by individual and circumstance. If you have a high body mass index, exercise to extremes, and are very active when it’s hot outside, you’ll need to drink much more water than a sedentary person. Drinking eight, eight-ounce glasses is often recommended as a minimum for a healthy adult. Premium Gear Kits from Live Prepared come equipped with a water bottle with built-in filtration to ensure you have plenty of clean water wherever you are.

Food often gets less attention than water when talking about how to stay healthy while transitioning climates, but it shouldn’t. In fact, you likely get most of your water from the foods you eat. And the kind of food you ingest matters, too. For example, foods high in protein can keep your body warmer in colder months than those that are carbohydrate-heavy. And lighter meals can keep your body cooler and healthier in hotter climates. Food pouches from Live Prepared are easy to travel with and are crafted to include the nutrients you need to stay healthy while traveling.

Our diets are largely informed by the climates in which we live, so we can learn something from the people who are native to more extreme temperatures. For example, Inuit people usually ingest more fat in their diets to keep warm, while people who live in the tropics eat spicier foods to produce sweat, which cools the skin.

Cliché though it may be, there is wisdom in the old saying “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.” People’s diets are informed by their environments, so locals know which foods are best for their particular climate. Mimicking their habits is a great place to start.

When you’re an adventure tourist, diet and hydration are particularly important to observe. So when you’re planning your travels, don’t forget to plan for your hydration and dietary concerns as well as your plane tickets and travel itinerary.