With the growing concern over the need to drink healthy and nutritious water, some people have turned to drink modified water, such as bottled water, mineral water, purified water, alkaline water, and other flavored kinds of water.
If you want to know more about what’s in your tap water, the health benefits of alkaline water, and other ways to make your water healthier, you might want to read on.
What Is In Your Tap Water
Whether you get your water from bottled mineral, carbonated water, or tap water sources, water contains minerals and nutrients that the body needs. In a conference hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2005 for health experts worldwide, the participants shared information and results from around 50 epidemiology studies about the nutritional impact of water. These studies were done in the past half-century.
According to the findings in the WHO forum, these are some of the nutrients and minerals contained in tap water:
- Calcium: This is important to both cardiovascular and bone health
- Sodium: This is an important source of extracellular electrolytes. Vast amounts of sodium are lost when the body sweats.
- Potassium: This is needed by the body for some of its biomedical effects. But you have to drink significant amounts of water to get them
- Magnesium: Crucial for cardiovascular and bone health
- Fluoride: Important for dental health
- Copper: Good for the heart and an antioxidant
- Selenium: Important to the immune system, and it’s also an antioxidant
Ways To Make Your Water Better And Healthier
Even though tap water alone contains numerous minerals and nutrients, there are still some people who don’t like drinking tap water. Some prefer to drink bottled water, mineral water, or some other flavored water. If you’re looking for ways to zest up or give a flavor twist to your household’s water consumption, here are a few suggested ways to make your drinking water better and healthier.
1. Add Some Alkaline
One way to make your drinking water healthy is to add some alkaline. There have been numerous claims that having alkaline in your water helps regulate your body’s pH level, prevents a lot of diseases, and can even slow down the aging process.
The alkaline refers to the pH level of water. The pH level is an indicator of how much acid or alkaline is in any given substance. The pH level is measured on a scale of 1 to 14, with 7 as the midpoint. The pH level of tap water is around 7. Any pH level below 7 is considered acidic. The more it goes down means the more acidic the water or liquid substance.
A pH level that’s above 7 is considered alkaline. This is the reason why those who advocate adding alkaline in their water believe it’s good for the body since it may neutralize the acid in your body.
2. Put Some Fresh Fruits
Another way of making your water healthier and taste better is by putting some fresh fruits. Most people know that they have to drink a certain amount of water daily. Not everyone may like water, but when they’re thirsty, they’ll surely go for a glass of cold water to quench their thirst. There are people though who look for something else in what they drink, such as a little bit of sweetness, some fiber, or some thickness in their beverages.
For people who look for some sweet or syrupy puree taste in their liquids or beverages, a healthy option would be to add some fresh fruit cuts into your drinking water. Some classic enhancers of drinking water are citrus fruits, such as oranges, limes, and lemons. You can also try berries such as strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries. Others would also opt to go for watermelon, cucumber, pomelo, or other fruits high in fiber and vitamins. These fruits would add a subtle sweet twist to your daily drinking water without too much sugar.
3. Drink Juice
There are still others who’d want something more than the subtle sweetness and fiber from fresh fruits. One of the healthy options for them would be to mix fruit juice with their water. You can do this by mixing some fruit juice purees or concentrates with your drinking water.
However, juices shouldn’t be considered a substitute for plain drinking water, and you should still drink plain water in addition to your daily juice intake. Even if the juice comes from fruit extracts with no preservatives, they’re not exactly fresh extracts and can’t replace plain water.
For flavor, you can choose from a variety of fruit juices available in supermarkets to use as good base flavors for water. If you haven’t tried them, among the most delicious flavors come from apples, grapes, pomegranates, and cranberry. As much as possible, look for juices that are all-natural. Select those that have little to no added sugar, too. Take note that some of them may still contain preservatives, especially the powdered ones, so you should look for bottled juice extracts that are rich in vitamins and antioxidants.
4. Infuse Water With Tea
Another healthy option would be to infuse your drinking water with tea. Drinking tea has been generally considered good for the health in many oriental cultures long before the advent of modern medicine. Aside from the fact that they contain little caffeine, tea is known to have a lot of medicinal and therapeutic ingredients and elements. Some of the most popular tea flavors are fruit teas, green teas, herbal, white, oolong, and red teas.
You can start with tea flavors that are available in your local neighborhood store so you don’t have to go far just to source and buy your tea. Once you’ve tasted different mainstream tea flavors, you can widen your choices and extend your research into more exotic and rare tea flavors that are found in different parts of the world. Most, if not all, of these tea flavors are considered good for the health.
Takeaway: Drink Healthy Water For Good Health
A lot of the systems and processes in the body depend on water. This should be enough reason for people to drink plenty of water. If you don’t like plain water, then you may try the suggestions in this article.
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