Alternatives to Water? (e.g. Crystal Light, Aquafina Alive)

Question

I'm trying to eat a little bit more healthy (seeing as I'm a diabetic and would prefer to keep my vision/all limbs)...one of my main problems has been how much soda I drink (like a two liter or more a day). I absolutely hate plain water, but I'm needing something that's a little better for my health...I like Crystal Light, but is it any better (health-wise) than carbonated beverages?

Answer 1

I suppose that depends on what you mean by health wise and the types of carbonated beverages. If you are talking about regular sugary soda I would say you are probably better off with the crystal light although there are others who I am sure would disagree with that. The truth is its subjective and when it comes to things like artificial and natural sweeteners everyone has a story or an opinion.

There are many people who swear by their crystal light or diet coke and there are others who will talk about the dangers of splenda or aspartame or cyclamates or stevia or saccharin or erythritol or maltitol or xylitol or lo han or tagatose or a host of other natural or artificial sweeteners and talk about how they swear they got cancer or ms or migraines or rashes etc. from it. I am not saying they are lying either but some people have reactions to different foods just like some people are allergic to peanuts and can die from someone with a little peanut butter on their fingers touching them.

Many will argue that water is the best. I am not going to say that. Your body can get hydrated from various things you eat or drink, not just water. If you like water, thats great. If you want to try and drink more water but don't like the taste you can try adding things like cucumbers, mint leaves, lemon or lime slices, sliced strawberries or other things to try and freshen up your water. If that isnt an option you can purchase water drops without a sweetener to add a flavor to your water.

I am not really certain what negative health consequences you are talking about with carbonated beverages to compare the 2. Honestly I prefer something like sprite zero to crystal light since I don't really care for all the added color in the crystal light and ingredients like corn syrup solids which I personally try to avoid. I still drink it but I drink a lot of things. I drink coffee, tea (a variety), crystal light, diet soda, carbonated water and still water.

Also, there really is no difference between crystal light and flavored water. Crystal light is a flavoring for water... it just has some extra color in it.

Answer 2

I make my own iced tea.  Herbal tea (in my opinion) is best because I drink about a half gallon of it everyday and the caffeine keeps me from sleeping.

I like tea with peppermint and cinnomon the best but experiment and see what you like!

Answer 3

You could drink juice, just dilute it with some water so it isn't as potent. Just make sure the flavored water you're drinking doesn't have a lot of sodium or sugar in it, and it should be fine.