Testing the Flavored Waters

Posted April 6, 2008 at 01:00 PM by Caroline Shannon

Section: Her Fitness, Her Health, Her Nutrition

It is pretty safe to say that most women today understand the benefits of water. While the recommendations vary due to factors like climate, health and how much you are exercising every day, women know that they are supposed to fit plenty of H2O into their daily routine.

But what about the fact that water can get, well, blah? Has any scientist addressed the issue of boredom that comes along with chugging our agua?

Well, manufacturers have, and they have remedied it by providing us with flavored and enhanced waters.

How exciting, right? What a great way to work in more water, one of the most important nutrient for our bodies, seeing as how it makes up about 60 percent of a person’s weight.

The only problem is, however, is that amongst all of the now hundreds of choices it is tough to decide which beverages are beneficial to our health, and which of the flavored liquids are doing more harm than good.

Experts say that there are a few things that a thirsty girl can look for when trying to choose flavored water and add a bit of pizazz to her regular dose of the clear stuff.

“Sparkling and flavored waters may be something you can enjoy,” said Monica Reinagel, chief nutritionist for NutritionData, in a January post. “Just be careful to read the label and check the calorie and sugar counts so you know how many calories you are consuming.”

Reinagel said she also cautions people to avoid added sugar or artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame and sucrolose.

In addition to the health risks that have been linked to artificial sweeteners, researchers have found that the additives can also lead to weight gain. According to an article by registered dietitian Cynthia Sass for Prevention magazine, “researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio followed more than 1,000 people for 8 years, they found that on average, for each diet soft drink consumed per day, the chances of becoming overweight or obese jumped about 37%. This is probably due to an interesting phenomenon other studies have found: Even “fake” sugars increase the preference for sweets.”

When looking for a water boost, those with a parched tongue should also watch for waters that promise some sort of health benefits like, a dose of vitamins, increased energy or metabolism-boosting powers. Nutritionists caution that, if these enhanced waters do contain beneficial additives, the amounts are so small that the results are minimal. What’s more, the beverages should never take the place of vitamins from supplements or food.

“You’ll be skimping and shortchanging yourself on most vitamins and minerals if you’re relying on enhanced water,” says Leslie Bonci, director of sports medicine nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, in an article for USA Today. “You take it for the taste and fluid intake, but taking a vitamin with water is the better thing to do.”

Lastly, make sure to check a bottle’s label and read the ingredient list. If many of the words are difficult to pronounce, you may want to pick another beverage of choice. Ingredients like sodium hexametaphosphate (a flavor protector also used in ceramics) and sodium benzoate (a preservative and precursor to benzene, acknowledged by the FDA as a known cancer-causing substance) are red flags, says Sass.

And if you want to be a bit of a cheapo like me and avoid spending a sometimes hefty pile of dough on flavored waters, you can always use my trick for adding a kick to my drink. I just add a fresh lemon or about a ¼ cup of pure cranberry juice, and sip away.

Ahh!