Your Favoite Healthy Drinks?

I need to drink more water.  I was reading an article in the Readers Digest that gave a lot of alternative to water.

Of course, coffee and tea were listed.

I believe the article talked about sports drinks.

Do you have a favorite healthy drink?

When I have a bounty of berries in summer I like to make berry kvass, ala "Edible Acres."

I also like to just squeeze/muddle some tart fruit into a glass of water.  Could be a squeeze of citrus, or some smashed currants & mint form the garden.

Summer is also good for suntea, whether you make it with regular teabags or other herbal mix.

Due to the medicine that keeps my brain cancer in check, I am super-dehydrated all the time. To the point I cramp constantly.

So I saw this stuff called Liquid IV and started looking at it online and those that seem to be in the know say it does work. In real life terms, my muscles don’t seem to cramp as much when I drink it. But at $1.58 per drink, it’s not cheap either.

To be completely honest, my favorite drink is water. Preferably room-ish temperature, not as cold as fridge temperature, and I have to be seriously overheated to want (maybe the word should be "tolerate") solid water mixed in with the liquid.  I make sure I've got a mug (glasses tend to be taller and lighter, therefor tippier than mugs and don't have a nice convenient handle) sitting near all the places I tend to be relaxing. I have a selection of wide mouth stainless bottles for carrying water with me. Wide mouth are easier to clean, and I choose the ones with a lid which covers where I put my mouth if I'm going somewhere my hands are likely to get contaminated.

Next up is a great variety of herbal teas, which are reasonably low to no caffeine. My goal is to be drying more of my local herbs to make up said teas, but the weather hasn't been conducive to that lately. I do have some Apple Mint hanging to dry, which mixes nicely with Lemon Balm. However, a word of caution, many herbal teas have medicinal actions. This is why I have a good variety, so that I don't accidentally drink enough of any one for a non-desirable medicinal result. A simple example of that is Licorice tea. It can raise one's blood pressure, but it also helps if my sinuses get stuffed up with a cold/allergy. So one mug/day is my limit barring a really good reason.

Another great tip is to try to remember to drink *before* you feel too thirsty. If you have a medical reason to need to drink more than usual, set a timer (phone or kitchen ones so they're portable) to remind you to do so. I set a timer for *lots* of reasons (did I leave that hose running???) but I admit I generally don't need to do so for drinking water!

I made Kombucha in the past. Some people like it, some people only like it with a secondary fermentation with some sort of fruit. It was too much work for just me and no one else would drink it. As a general rule, I try not to "drink my calories", so that means that whatever I look for, it generally has to be no added sugar. Labels that say "concentrated pear juice" is a fancy word for "sugar added" - simply fructose from pears - still sugar people! Being slightly hypoglycemic, my body clearly tells me when labels are trying to deceive me!

when my husband had his prediabetes scare some years ago we got our eating in order, and one thing I decided to implement was advice i had gotten years earlier: if you're not growing anymore and avoiding sugar or calories, your drinks should be water, caffeine, or alcohol, and nothing else.

I don't drink much alcohol, so I'd add another category- herb tea. It gets wicked hot here in Brazil and we drink a lot of iced herb tea, some medicinal and others just because they taste good. Of course, now it's freezing and there's some hot herb tea here on my desk too.
My permie nature can't let a drink just be a drink-- it has to stack functions too!!!

Edit to add:
If you've got a well-stocked spice drawer or a kitchen garden, you probably already have a wealth of herb tea.
These teas are in our regular rotation:
mint (peppermint and spearmint)
basil
shiso
verbena/lemon balm/lemongrass (depends on what i've got)
avocado leaf
fennel seed
hibiscus
black tea with sage
fenugreek (drank it when i was nursing and developed a taste for it)
cumin/coriander with mint
i could probably add ten more. i have a lot of herbs AND spices.

Tereza Okava wrote:... I'd add another category- herb tea. It gets wicked hot here in Brazil and we drink a lot of iced herb tea, some medicinal and others just because they taste good. Of course, now it's freezing and there's some hot herb tea here on my desk too.

The neat thing I find is that there are soooo... many different ones, that it's often possible to find several that you like, even if there are plenty that you don't like. My friend bought Pomegranate Raspberry, which does have some natural sweetness, but far less than either a sugar added drink like pop, or a fruit juice would have.

And wrote:

My permie nature can't let a drink just be a drink-- it has to stack functions too!!!

Since many of those herbs have medicinal uses, I suspect it's an excellent way to get micro-nutrients in you, particularly if even some of the herbs are home grown.

Another thing I've done in the past if I'm sick and need extra fluids, is make a big batch of bone broth and drink it warm. I usually add dandelion leaves, parsley etc when I make the broth. If the goal is to get fluids in you any way you can, this would be an option to try.

I am loving all the suggestions.

I prefer to drink just water though lately due to dental problems I have not been eating much and it seems that drinking water on an empty stomach is giving me indigestion.

When foods give me indigestion I burb a lot, not out loud it is more like hiccups.

I take an antacid and that stops whatever it is.

BTW, Steve, I have not looked into Liquid IV though I have seen something on TV about Liquid Labs so I check them out it is a powder that is poured into water and costs 1.28 for each packet.  I think I can find something cheaper.  when I was at a pharmacy I saw some bottled water, now that I think about it may have been Liquid IV.  The pharmacy did not have a price on the packages so I passed it up.  

Anne Miller wrote:I prefer to drink just water though lately due to dental problems I have not been eating much and it seems that drinking water on an empty stomach is giving me indigestion.

This is just a guess, but think about this: stomachs have a lot of acid to work on step 2 of food digestion (step 1 is saliva and mastication). If you're drinking plain water which is pH neutral (more or less), the stomach acid has nothing to do. If this were me, I would try making some good bone broth which is high in calcium to see if it will neutralize the acid enough to decrease the indigestion.  

I drink essential oil with stevia.    

I do 1 drop to a large glass and add stevia to taste.


Another option is stevia and fresh lemon water.


But then again i have a vitamix and I make my own peach milk shakes with 1 can of peaches,   fill up to top with ice and 2 tablespoons dehydrated milk and stevia.

I’m a raw vegan
Depending on my mood my favorite might be a peach tea flavored kefir, or a chocolate aloe kefir , or chocolate almond chia shake or Mexican chocolate almond drink .

I require supplementary electrolytes in order to keep hydrated, and having tried a few products I can vouch for Liquid IV. It's a particularly good blend of several different chemical variations of each of the key salts.

That being said, Liquid IV and the other commercial products are expensive to buy on a regular basis. It is possible to make your own equivalent electrolyte blends out of much more affordable ingredients.

A while back I started creating a website with the idea of offering several recipes for people with needs like myself, including my effort to reverse engineer Liquid IV itself. My mini-site that I'm linking here falls short of that (still haven't finished my Liquid IV recreation), but I do have the World Health Organization recipe and enough information to serve as a starting point if you want to look into making your own: Mark William's DIY Electrolyte Recipes: https://sites.google.com/stardart.net/diy-electrolyte-blends/world-health-organization-oral-rehydration-salts

Nettle tea- helps with inflammation and honey and ginger crystal tea.

I appreciate everyone's suggestion.

I have thought about making my own supplementary electrolytes so thank you Mark William for the link to your website.

I have never been given any dietary advice by doctors or PAs so I am a little concerned about the salts in the electrolytes.

I gave up using salt years ago and only in the last few years started seasoning with it.

I have a tea drink mix (similar to Crystal Light) that I use to supplement with water for variety though I only allow myself one glass a day.

I grew up in a family that drank a lot of sun tea just tea bags in a large glass jar of water set in a sunny spot (can be on a windowsill in the winter). With lemon, no sugar (we aren't Southerners! haha)  Then I moved to Mexico and discovered red Hibiscus tea. The way Mexicans make it, it demands sugar because otherwise, it'd extremely tart. But I found that the two combined make a lovely drink! Throw some red Hibiscus flowers into your sun tea jar and you get a really really lovely drink.
I've also experimented with adding black and or green tea to other Mexican natural, but sugary drinks. Tamarind and black tea and green tea and guava, are two that are especially nice.
We are having a lot of success growing pomegranate and research says that pomegranate might be the only fruit whose juice is as healthy or healthier than eating the fruit. So of course pomegranate ice tea is a hit with me and I've been pushing it with others because in five years I'm going to be absolutely swimming in pomegrantes.

Lots of good advice already posted here.

I heard about anise hyssop from somebody on this website (Judith, I think) saying it was their favorite herbal tea. I like anise/licorice flavor so I got some seeds years ago and it's been dropping seeds and volunteering as well as staying short-live perennial around my garden ever since. It makes a nice sweet herbal tea without any sweetener added. it's also nice slivered into salads.

In India, where part of the year has dangerously hot sweaty weather, there is a tradition of having drinks either salty or sweet or both. When you order lassi, fresh lemonade or lemon soda in a restaurant, they always ask if you want it sweet or salty. Basic table salt helps your body hold water when you're dehydrated and drinking liquids fast. Of course, balanced elctrolytes are even better, but salt and sugar mixed in water have long been promoted by the WHO as a life-saving home-made rehydration mix. When you're really getting thirsty or dehydrated, it tastes surprisingly good.

South Asia also has "black salt" and "chaat masala" which are sulfurous salty mixes that taste surprisingly good in lemonade or sprinkled on fruit if you're really hot and thirsty.

Here's my rehydration drink habit:
• A little lemon juice, apple vinegar, or fruit juice.
• Water to taste.
• A pinch of salt per glass -- large or tiny pinch according to your taste and degree of dehydration.
• A small spoon of sugar per glass, if you're actually dehydrated. Or omit if the fruit juice is sweet enough.
• Or no sweetener or alternate sweetener, if you aren't so dehydrated and want to avoid sugar.

Melissa Ferrin wrote: Then I moved to Mexico and discovered red Hibiscus tea. The way Mexicans make it, it demands sugar because otherwise, it'd extremely tart. But I found that the two combined make a lovely drink! Throw some red Hibiscus flowers into your sun tea jar and you get a really really lovely drink.

Eldest daughter just returned from an exchange year in Mexico and she found a love for Hibiscus tea. You get it in every restaurant, but there is "team jamaica" (hibiscus) and "team horchata" which is more difficult to replicate as we don't get the "chufas" here for horchata (I only know them from Spain).

Hibiscus on the other hand can be found in the tea section of most supermarkets.

Rebecca Norman wrote:

Here's my rehydration drink habit:
• A little lemon juice, apple vinegar, or fruit juice.
• Water to taste.
• A pinch of salt per glass -- large or tiny pinch according to your taste and degree of dehydration.
• A small spoon of sugar per glass, if you're actually dehydrated. Or omit if the fruit juice is sweet enough.
• Or no sweetener or alternate sweetener, if you aren't so dehydrated and want to avoid sugar.

I like your recipe. My own recipe is similar which I make on those days when we are volunteering on one of the biotops (making hay for example).
As an acidic component, I use kombucha, apple cider vinegar or lemon, then a bit of homemade syrup, either elderflower, raspberry or similar, then a pinch of salt, fill up with very cold water. If not tangy enough, I add more lemon. I might add a sprig of mint or some slices of ginger.
Tasty and helps against dehydration.

As I am in Bavaria, I have to mention beer and beer-lemonade mixture which are our semi-official hydrating drinks ;-)

In our last trip to the Czech Republic I discovered a drink (actually I had it last year also but had forgotten), it is called Birell pomelo & grep which is non-alcoholic beer with pomelo / grapefruit flavour. Very tasty on a hot day. The only similar equivalent here is with real beer so not really an alternative. I might try it anyway.

this thread this morning sent me down not one but TWO rabbit holes.

First: horchata: I always knew it as made with rice, I knew the chufas are used in some places, but i didn't know other things (like sesame seeds, my favorite!) can also be used. we love horchata but when it warms up again around here i'll be trying it with sesame seeds. maybe someone might find this interesting. https://www.thekitchn.com/making-horchata-which-rice-is-93485

second: anise hyssop. I have an anise-flavored herb in my yard that i always assumed was anise hyssop, but an online search revealed otherwise!! the flowers are definitely basil family: it is what's known as "green pepper basil" in english-- something totally different! to me, it smells like anise, and makes fabulous tea (iced or hot). It also turns out it is native to the area where i live, and even survives our chilly weather, loves to be pruned, and flourishes here. Exactly what one needs in a tea herb!

Anita Martin wrote:
Eldest daughter just returned from an exchange year in Mexico and she found a love for Hibiscus tea. You get it in every restaurant, but there is "team jamaica" (hibiscus) and "team horchata" which is more difficult to replicate as we don't get the "chufas" here for horchata (I only know them from Spain).

Hibiscus on the other hand can be found in the tea section of most supermarkets.

How wonderful that your daughter had the experience as an exchange student!
Mexican and Spanish horchatas are different!! As Tereza mentioned in the Americas, horchata is made with rice. You can find recipes online by including the label Mexican before horchata. But basically, just soak rice overnight, then blend it, strain it, and sweeten it. Most recipes include cinnamon and some include pecans, almonds, or coconut, and sometimes even small chunks of cantaloupe are added.  Horchata is particularly cooling to the palate when served with spicy dishes!

Melissa Ferrin wrote:
Mexican and Spanish horchatas are different!! As Tereza mentioned in the Americas, horchata is made with rice. You can find recipes online by including the label Mexican before horchata. But basically, just soak rice overnight, then blend it, strain it, and sweeten it. Most recipes include cinnamon and some include pecans, almonds, or coconut, and sometimes even small chunks of cantaloupe are added.  Horchata is particularly cooling to the palate when served with spicy dishes!

Thanks, I only found this out when googling yesterday. Seems like Mexican horchata is easier to replicate and we will give it a try.
Yesterday I made a batch of "brazilian lemonade", substituting the vegan condensed milk with coconut cream. It was delicious! Link: https://youtube.com/shorts/MtcBtbfMozA?feature=share

maybe something you can try, if it is available in your area: job's tears drink (or milk). Check the internet for health benefits from job's tears. It's amazing! I am in thailand and here they sell small drink packets which is 100% job's tears (so nothing else added). I use it to soak my breakfast oats in, which also has added fruits etc. The drink by itself is a bit getting used to, but hey, adding a little honey or what you like might make it delicious.
fyi: the brand is called pro-fit and is produced by a company called ampolfood. I know they sell all over asia, but the west i am not sure