Recently I’ve come across a few people who think that flavored waters are a healthy drink.  They are promoted as having vitamins, herbs and as being ‘enhanced’ waters.  These enhanced waters cost more than plain water, but often are full of artificial colors, flavors and preservatives.  They claim to be healthy alternatives to soda, to boost your vitamin intake.  But a closer look at the labels will show you that they have artificial sweeteners such as sucralose of splenda.  They claim to have “proprietary blends” of vitamins of herbs, which means that there is no way to know the exact amount of the ingredient that is included in the drink.  If your diet is not perfect and doesn’t include a variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, you are better off getting your vitamins from a daily multi-vitamin instead.  If you are looking for a flavored beverage, consider adding a splash of juice to your water.  Avoid drinks with artificial ingredients and if you crave something sweet look for a drink sweetened with evaporated cane juice or cane sugar.

I recommend that a healthy person drinks half their body weight in ounces of water a day. Thus, if you weigh 160lbs, you would need to drink 80 ounces of water a day. If you are not used to drinking this much water, you will notice that your body will require you to urinate more often until your body adjusts to the new amount.

• Club soda – tap water that has been filter, carbonated and flavored with bicarbonates, citrates, phosphates and other types of mineral salts.
• Distilled water – purified by evaporation, which removes minerals. The vapors are then recondensed into its liquid form.
• Drinking water – can be drawn from any approved source including municipal tap water, springs, rivers, reservoirs or wells. It is then filtered and disinfected and the mineral content may be adjusted.
• Mineral water – contains at least 500mg of minerals per liter. Minerals cannot be added to this water.
• Purified water – has been sterilized and filtered to remove its natural minerals. This process may be done via reverse osmosis or deionization.
• Seltzer – usually tap water that is filtered and carbonated. Artificial flavors are added to some; however it contains no minerals or salt.
• Sparkling water – contains dissolved carbon dioxide gas to make it bubble.
• Spring water – must be collected at the spring or through a bore hole tapping the underground formation finding the spring, with a mineral content that is natural.