We cannot deny the fact that water is a good source of energy essential for the human body. But we can’t keep aside the truth that plain water alone can provide us with the essential nutrients needed.
Simultaneously, flavored water does the job of quenching our thirst and adding the required nutrients to our bodies. Flavored water is a value-added form of plain water with additional nutrients added naturally or with additive and preservative substances added to it. Studies show that flavored waters were traded for $27.2B in the year 2022, with 170th place among the most traded products of the year. This shows that flavored water is getting more attention among consumers who are conscious about their health.
But is flavored water good for you? Well! It is good to consume flavored water based on the additives and the nutrients added to it. Scroll down to know more!
What is Flavored Water? – A Nutritional Kickstart
Flavored water is a type of water where the plain water is added with some fresh fruits or vegetables or the fruit essence along with the required nutrients. The intake of flavored water can be considered a good initiative because it contains more necessary nutrients than just basic minerals and other vital nutrients. Generally, these waters are available in the market, but it is always recommended to make your own to have fuller benefits and avoid any harmful added colors or preservatives.
Flavored waters are available generally and also they can be made at home with simple ingredients of our choice. It is indeed a very easy task and gives more fun to make them at home than to rely on the ones that may contain preservatives.
How To Make Healthy Flavored Drinks?
Any fruit or veggies added to the clean drinking water and are infused for a certain time period becomes flavored water made at home naturally. This is more of a fun activity as well as becomes a discipline or way of healthy lifestyle for kids in the long run.
Let us see what are such ingredients that can be added along with their benefits. We can make it according to our personal favorite choices or we can also consume these alternatively for getting fuller benefits.
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Citrus Fruits:
Adding citrus fruits like sliced lime, lemon, or oranges to fresh water and consuming them helps in gaining refreshment as well as instant energy. They also help calm the mind and change mood faster. These waters also provide fiber and other essential nutrients like Vitamin C. Along with these benefits, consuming citrus-infused water regularly helps reduce pimples and dark spots, and it also promotes the brightness of the skin.
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Vegetables:
Veggies like Cucumber slices can be added, and consuming that water is highly helpful in weight loss because the components of cucumber contain more water in itself along with fiber and other essential nutrients to fulfill hunger or food cravings. They are also more refreshing and provide many skin benefits.
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Herbs:
Leaves like mint, basil and Cilantro can be added to the plain water, and these infused water, when consumed on a regular basis, helps in purifying the blood along with providing nourishments to skin and hair. Also they help in controlling bad breath and improves digestion. Regular consumption also heals respiratory illness and boosts the overall immunity of the body.
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Spices:
Flavored water with spices like Cinnamon helps in treating many skin related issues and its major advantage is its properties to help in weight loss as well as blood purification. Apples are also recommended and are so frequently added to the cinnamon water that promotes good gut health and eventually helps in weight loss without affecting the energy level of the body.
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Berries:
Cherries and Berries like Blueberry, strawberries help boost the overall immunity of the body by providing essential vitamins that are required for good gut health.
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Ginger/Pineapple:
Additionally, adding ginger or pineapple to the water promotes the flavor of the water to the next level, and their regular intake helps in weight loss as well as they promotes good texture of skin and hair.
Adding any of the above mentioned natural substances or in a mixed combination to the plain water and leaving them for hours before intake might provide us with refreshing and fiber filled water. Other than these, fruits and vegetables that are of personal choice can be added accordingly.
So, Is Flavored Water Good For You?
Flavored waters are generally considered to be a friendly start for everyone as they promote the overall immune system in the long run. But how is flavored water good for you? They usually increase the properties of water by increasing the essential nutrients such as Vitamin C, copper, and other required minerals that help in promoting good gut health, purifying the blood, removing the toxins from the body as well, and helping in the promotion of good skin and hair health.
When these waters are taken continuously for a longer time, they also ensure the activeness of the body and act as a great immunity booster.
Benefits of Drinking Naturally Made Flavored Water:
We know that homemade flavored water is undoubtedly healthier than artificial ones. Let us see some of the benefits that we gain out of consuming this goodness.
- They provide immediate energy to the body and awaken the taste buds.
- These waters are helpful in changing the mood instantly.
- Each flavor added provides different benefits, like activating our minds and making them react with more alertness.
- For people who workout regularly, it helps in providing more energy to their muscles instantly, along with fulfilling the fiber requirements.
- It prevents the body from dehydration and keeps the body fuller.
- While consuming on a regular basis, these waters help in weight loss and a better lifestyle.
- Certain flavors like mint or cinnamon-infused waters will purify the blood and provide activeness to the body.
- Waters that are flavored when taken regularly give calmness and a relaxed state of mind.
- The water generally observes the added fruit or veggies on the whole, thus providing fiber benefits alongside.
Many people believe that there is no difference between the naturally made and the artificially made flavored water.
It is important to understand that anything that comes as a packaged food or drink contains at least minimal amounts of chemical preservatives in order to maintain the shelf life of the product and its expiry time. We must analyze the fact that the naturally homemade flavored water itself is not considered to be safe for drinking after three days even though it has been refrigerated.
Hence in case we tend to consume those that are artificially made, we must ensure that we carefully go through the ingredient list thoroughly to note the amount of natural and artificial ingredients present in the package.
Caution about the ready to drink Flavored Beverages:
- Flavored waters that are available in the market generally contain sucrose, intense sugar molecules, and caffeine, which are mentioned at the back of the label, which we might not notice.
- They are sold with attractive labels and are prepared with concentrated additives and other preservatives for longer shelf life.
Earlier, carbonated beverages were considered more popular sugary drinks among the common people. When the ingredients entered the light, and people started focusing on the ingredients of the foods and drinks that they consume, the craze gradually shifted towards diet drinks like Coke, believing that they only contain good and essential ingredients that do not affect our health, unaware of the fact that even they are made with certain preservatives rather than the natural ingredients.
These Diet drinks that are considered to be good for health are also added with excess added sugar and other carbonated waters along.
Why To Avoid Artificial Flavored Water? – Dangers
We are already aware that artificially available flavored waters contain additives. But most of us are usually attracted to the labels that picture the images of fruits and vegetables as their main ingredients.
Although the presence of natural or their extractions as ingredients are present in the drink, we do not notice the amount of sugar level or the type used in them. Hence, it is better to avoid consuming such drinks that contain high sugar content, preservatives, artificial sweeteners to provide the same taste like fruits and veggies, Sucralose that spikes the insulin level rapidly, concentrated artificial food colors, carbonated waters, etc.
It is better to understand that consuming these artificial beverages gives only little or at times no benefits at all and simultaneously degrading the gut health and affecting the overall wellness.
Conclusion!
In this blog, we covered the topic of “Is flavored water good for you?”. We have seen that the flavored waters become the good friend of a healthy and active lifestyle by helping for the needs of everyone according to their health requirements, from healthy weight maintenance to great gut health promotion.
FAQs
1. What is Flavored water?
Ans: Flavored waters are made by adding nutritional fruits, vegetables, herbs, or spices to plain fresh water to increase its nutritional value.
2. Is Flavored Water good for you?
Ans: Flavored waters are good since they provide additional nutrients based on the additives and other ingredients added to them. It is always recommended to consume naturally flavored water rather than artificial ones.
3. Are packaged flavored water good?
Ans: Packaged flavored water is good unless it does not contain more preservatives and added chemical additives.
4. Who can take flavored water?
Ans: Everybody can consume as flavored water gives more essential nutrients. Especially people who focus on weight loss or weight gain. Pregnant women are also recommended to intake these waters based on their personal flavor choices.
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