Drinks, anyone???

Healthy Alternatives to Sodas and Caffeinated Bevereages

Water

No calories, comes in a variety of shapes and flavors and colors, but we reccomend only the clear, pure, filtered stuff.

The Nutrition Information Center at The Rockefeller University offers the following tips for maintaining proper hydration:

• Drink at least eight 8-ounce servings of water each day. The more active you are, the more water you need to replenish lost fluids.
  
  
• Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink water. By the time you feel thirsty, you have probably already lost two or more cups of your total body water composition.
  
  
• Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Convenience is a must, so carry a bottle of water with you as you commute to work, run errands or enjoy a day at the beach. While at work, keep a bottle of water on your desk, or visit the office water cooler and take a water break rather than a coffee break.
  Don’t substitute beverages with alcohol or caffeine for water. Caffeine and alcohol act as diuretic beverages and can cause you to lose water through increased urination.
  
  
• Once you start exercising, drink water throughout your workout. Keep a bottle of water with you and take frequent water breaks.
  
  
• Don’t underestimate the amount of fluids lost from perspiration. Following a workout, you need to drink two cups of water for each pound lost.
  Start and end your day with water. Your body loses water while you sleep, so drink a serving before bed and again when you wake up.
  
  
• Common colds and the flu frequently lead to dehydration. Keep a large bottle of water next to your bed so you can sip it throughout the day without having to get up.
  
  
• Cool water – not carbonated beverages or sports drinks – is the best fluid for keeping hydrated when it’s warm outside. Cool water is absorbed much more quickly than warm fluids and may help to cool off your overheated body. If you’re going to be away from home or outdoors, make sure you keep a bottle of water close by.
  
  
• Make sure your children drink enough water. Children need water to balance their intake of other beverages – especially during activities. Packing bottled water in a child’s lunch instead of juice or regular soda can also help prevent childhood obesity.

Source: Nutrition Information Center at The Rockefeller University and the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA)

Fortune Delight Concentrated Herbal Beverage

I have been drinking this stuff for about 4 months now, and it has given a whole new dimension to water and energy. It is not "energizing" like caffeine or other stimulants. It is more like taking a really good vitamin that makes you feel HEALTHY. It spruces up the flavor of water, hot or cold, and cares wonderfully for your body. I find that not only is it hydrating, but it seems to clear any brain fog I am feeling when I have been working hard physically or mentally.

Use Instructions: Mix one packet with 8 ounces of water, hot or cold, and stir. May add sweetener, like stevia.

Nutritional Info per one package, any flavor, with 8 oz. water:

Total Calories 10

Total Fat 0g

Total Carb. 3 g

Total Protein 0g

Fortune Delight Peach

Ingredientes: Camellia Extract, Chrysanthemum Flower Extract, Jasmine Extract Extract, Lalang Grass Rott Extract, Peach Juice, Apple Juice and less than 1% of natural flavors.

Fortune Delight Lemon

Ingredients: Camellia Extract, Lemon Extract, Chrysanbthemum Flower Extract, Jasmine Extract, Lalang Grass Root Extract and less than 1% of natural flavors.

Fortune Delight Cinnamon

Ingredientes: Camellia Extract, Lemon Extract, Chrysanthemum Flower Extract, Jasmine Extract, Lalang Grass Root Extract and less than 1% of natural flavors.

Fortune Delight Raspberry

Ingredientes: Camellia Extract, Chrysanthemum Flower Extract, Jasmine Extract Extract, Lalang Grass Root Extract, Apple Juice, Raspberry juice and less than 1% of natural flavors.

Canarino Hot Italian Lemon Tea

I tried this at the March 2002 Natural Foods Convention, and was immediately hooked. It has a rich, heady lemon aroma and flavor, and is full of vitamin C, cuts through the end of a meal to purge your pallet of any residual cravings for foods. It is a delight to set in front of, breathing deeply of the aroma, sipping the delicious flavor. It gives you all the "ceremony" of tea and coffee drinking while doing something wonderfully healthy for your body.

Italian Cream Soda

Okay, this is a decadent pleasure, but without the COST of decadence. You start with 8 oz. ice cold club soda and ice. Add 1 oz. syrup and 2 Tbs. of half and half. Stir and serve. Makes one fat block and one carb block and one incredible drink!!! My personal favorite syrups are from Monin and Torani. On each site you will find a list of awesome recipes. Both are made from NATURAL FLAVORS, and come in a sugar line and in a sugar free line as well. Italian sodas are just ONE WAY to use this awesome syrup!

Oh, and so you will know, even the sugar free sweetness will be perceived by your body as being something that needs to be DEALT WITH, with as with caffeine and sugar, your body will have an insulin response EVEN IF THERE IS NO SUGAR PRESENT. How is your body TRICKED into NOT having an insulin response? By the presence of FAT in the drink. That is why we reccomend premium ice cream if you are going to eat ice cream, rather than the fat free kind. Same with this soda. If you drink the Italian soda, you CAN order it without the half and half. But the half and half makes it better for you.

HA! Go figure...