Healthy drinking?

[andyswarbs]

We spend so much of our time on this forum on food, I thought I might spend a bit of time talking about the drinks that I focus on.

Water: I don't filter my water (yet) though I do plan to buy a good table top filter at some stage. You can get good filters for a few hundred pounds that get rid of around 99% of all things you really should be avoiding. These are supposed to be far superior to cheap ones like Brita. I won't know if my body is suffering until I buy that filter and see if there is any difference in the months afterwards. So right now I drink & use normal tap water. My wife doesn't like its taste and prefers carbonated water, which I don't touch except as an exception.

I don't set myself goals on drinking so much water each day, based on the luxury of eating a plant based diet with a lot of high quality water built into it as standard. My first goto food after a hot yoga class is some fruit, sometimes copious amounts, knowing all that time that is re-hydrating my body in a really great way.

(As an aside in a previous career I worked for Thames Water, whose water I drink, in water quality collating data on heavy metals in rivers etc.)

Tea: My day starts with a quality green tea. I reuse the same leaves for several cups so any extra cost in expensive leaves is recouped by getting the most out of them. Green tea is a great source of polyphenols, antioxidants you name it. Better than Green Tea is Matcha. Even better is Hibiscus Tea. Hibiscus tea is a great tonic for the body in so many ways, including helping reduce high blood pressure. Occasionally I have an Earl Grey, but black tea just does not have the same health benefits, and my body needs those benefits.

Coffee: In a previous life I drank a litre of strong black coffee each day! When my health deteriorated in 2015 that was stopped overnight and I have never had a drop ever since. I think I could probably drink some without issue, but I love my green tea so much...

Juices: I am a big fan of home made juices, straight from the juicer. If there is fruit in there then there are also greens. This mix is vital. Just fruit juice is like drinking pure sugar and all the benefits of the fibre slowing release down is lost. Shop bought juices are usually too high in fruits, too little on the greens and just not the same as home made. The best juice on the planet from a health perspective is cucumber & celery, organic. Occasionally after an intensive yoga session I will have a coconut juice.

Smoothies: Smoothies at least retain the fibre and can be a great way of getting concentrated nutrition. Sadly smoothies of fruit are not much better than fruit juices. The smoothie process breaks away all that fibre from the sugars and so the body will end up with a sugar rush. That is unless you offset the fruit with enough dark leafy greens etc.

Mocktails: Once in a rare while, but I consider these as refined sugar with added taste & texture.

Alcohol: Again once in a while I might indulge myself with a glass of whiskey. Once a month at most, I guess. I know I can tolerate white wines etc, and even beers so again once in a while. If someone buys me a pint, then I might drink half and give the other half to someone else. Its not that I am intentionally trying to avoid alcohol rather I know I need to keep my body on an even keel.

Misc Drinks: I have a miso drink with seaweed about 3 or 4 days a week, usually in the afternoon. Sometimes I have one after a yoga session.

Bottom Line: Literally. What do my pee & pooh look like. That's what I monitor. I am not passing stools so easily then it is a sign I need more liquids. Similarly if my pee is going yellow then I read it that I am eating too much protein (excess protein is just pee'd out.) Ideally and mostly my pee is an almost clear liquid. Ideally & mostly I do a good bowel movement at least twice a day. A good bowel movement is one that the cistern struggles to flush away because of the volume.

[TheAwfulToad]

TMI, andy

British tap water is vile. God only knows what's in it. When I'm in the UK, I just can't drink it. Those reverse-osmosis filters are worth every penny. The simpler ones with a ceramic filter + activated carbon will give you 95% of the desired effect.

[andyswarbs in reply to TheAwfulToad]

I think water from different parts of the country fair better. It is said that Thames Water passes though 8 people before it finally flows out of the River Thames.

[Zest]

Hi Andy,

I enjoyed reading your post, and thinking about the liquids consumed each day.

Zest

[Misslovely Volunteer]

I can tell when ive not drank enough water as i get bad headaches and sluggish digestion. I dont mind tap water in NAS cordials but not on its own, i prefer bottled

I drink decaf tea & a couple of times a week have a herbal tea or a pukka jight time tea. During summer indo drink a fee fruit teas and like you use the teabag for multiple drinks, i sometimes allow it to cool enough to pour over ice especially a Lemon & Ginger or a berry one!

I dont really do juices, may have the odd smoothie - usually a banana based one! Milk - i drink soya

Ocassionally ill have a diet coke 😱

Like you i dont drink much alcohol these days

Although were told to drink xxx amount of water, i tend to just listen to my body

[Cooper27 Administrator]

I grew up with lovely Scottish tap water, and always really enjoyed drinking plain water. I live in a big city now though, and they very heavily chlorinate the water here, so it tastes awful. I use a cheap filter, which removes most of the horrible chlorine taste, and I drink so much more since buying it

I do try to target a certain amount of water in a day - just being 3% dehydrated can slow brain function, and make it harder to concentrate. It's as good as caffeine sometimes

It's rare for me to drink anything other than water or sparkling water to be fair. We will visit a pub once a month or so, where I'll have soda water and lime or a rum and diet coke. I'm trying to find something to replace diet coke though, that isn't sugarry or wine.