What is healthy to drink other than water? From the weight-loss benefits of cabbage juice and buckwheat tea to the kidney risks of carbonated beverages, explore how daily hydration choices impact your overall wellness.
The beverages you choose to drink can make a big difference in your weight-loss efforts. Opt for high-calorie drinks and you may find yourself gaining weight instead of losing it, since it isn't hard to consume hundreds of extra calories in a day through beverages. This doesn't mean you have to stick with just water.
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Kids and adults alike often reach for a sports drink to rehydrate after exercising, even if their exercise session wasn't particularly long or difficult. In many cases, these drinks aren't necessary, because water is all you need unless you're participating in strenuous exercise for a long time.
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People have used vinegar as medicine for thousands of years, and drinking it may potentially help lower your blood pressure and blood sugar levels, according to a review article published in "Medscape General Medicine" in 2006.
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Any type of alcohol can increase your risk for weight gain, according to a study published in "Critical Reviews in Clinical and Laboratory Science" in 2005, although the size of the effect varies between individuals.
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Drinking water with lemon and honey isn't guaranteed to keep you healthy, but it may have a few benefits. At the very least, it will help you keep from becoming dehydrated, which can be a problem with some illnesses.
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Moderate consumption of alcohol may have some health benefits, with some types of alcoholic beverages, including cognac, possibly having more beneficial effects than others. However, drinking too much alcohol of any kind can increase certain health risks.
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Having fewer than three bowel movements in a week is a sign of constipation. Although you can take laxatives to help move things along, making dietary changes can sometimes help establish regularity without having to resort to these medications.
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Giving up alcohol is a small change that can be achievable for some people, making it easier to cut calories and lose weight.
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Flat, caffeine-free clear sodas are sometimes recommended to help people keep up their fluid intake and recover from diarrhea. However, sodas can also sometimes cause diarrhea, especially if you drink a lot of soda or have an intolerance to one of the ingredients.
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Ginger isn't just good for adding flavor to your food; you can also use it as an herbal remedy. Boiling fresh ginger root in water to make a ginger tea is one way to add more ginger to your diet.
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You may want to trade your after-dinner coffee for tea, especially if you sometimes have digestive issues. Both green tea and many herbal teas may help improve your digestion and limit any adverse digestive effects, such as gas and upset stomach.
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Fruits and vegetables tend to be low in calories, making them good choices for people on a weight-loss diet. Watermelon is no exception -- it is low in calories and provides beneficial nutrients, including lycopene to limit your risk for cancer and the antioxidant vitamins A and C.
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Although tea itself is healthy, providing antioxidants that may help lower your risk for heart disease and cancer, bubble tea isn't very nutritious. The "bubbles" in these teas consist of tapioca pearls, and the tea is often sweetened with sugar and sometimes sweetened condensed milk as well.
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An hour of exercise can lead to up to a quart of water lost through sweat, depending on the type and intensity of your workout and how hot the temperature is while you're exercising. This fluid needs to be replaced to help you avoid dehydration. In many cases, water is all you need to rehydrate your body.
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A mix of water, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and honey or maple syrup makes up the main food allowed on a detox regimen called the lemonade diet, the maple syrup diet, the fruit flush or the master cleanse.
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Although a glass of orange juice may count as a serving of fruit and is more nutritious than soda, it isn't necessarily your best choice if you're trying to lose weight. OJ is relatively high in calories per serving, and it won't keep you full as long as solid food will.
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Having a beer on occasion won't ruin your diet, but regularly overindulging might lead to weight gain. It could increase your risk for other health problems as well. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend drinking no more than a moderate amount, which is one drink per day for women and two for men.
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Green tea may provide a number of health benefits, such as lowering your risk for cancer, high cholesterol and Parkinson's disease, according to MedlinePlus.
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Some people buy alkaline water in the hopes of increasing their body's pH. Your body actually does a good job of maintaining the right pH on its own, and the amounts of water typically consumed would be neutralized by your stomach acids, limiting any effect on your pH.
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If you want the benefits of green tea but don't want to risk getting too much caffeine, don't worry -- decaf green tea has many of the same potential health benefits. Many of these benefits are due to the beneficial phytochemicals found in tea and not the caffeine.
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