Water is essential to human health. It’s inside every cell of your body, facilitates the movement of nutrients and toxins, and even helps electrical signals move from your brain to the necessary component.
Photo: Mary Markevich / freepik
It needs to be regularly replenished, that’s why experts generally recommend you drink 8 large glasses a day. Unfortunately, this is not always as easy as it sounds. Drinking plain water all the time can become tedious, and that’s why many people turn to flavoured water. But, does it really offer the same benefits?
Understanding Your Water
Water that emerges from your faucet has been treated at your local water treatment plant. It’s defined as safe to drink. However, this doesn’t highlight the fact that chlorine and fluoride have been added to the water. It also neglects to mention that the water travels miles to your home, potentially becoming contaminated on the way.
In short, the water at your faucet may not be as clean and safe as you think. That’s why many people invest in high-quality reverse osmosis filter systems. These effectively remove the contaminants and give you safe, clean-tasting water. You will notice the difference in taste.
In short, filtered water is healthier for you.
Why This Is Relevant
There are two types of flavoured water. One is simply water that has had fruit placed in the same container, allowing the water to be infused with the fruit flavour. The other is water that has artificial flavours added.
In both cases, it is possible for companies to use tap water to create their flavoured waters. In other words, you’re paying for water from the tap and have no idea if it is just as safe as yours or not. Most of the time this water isn’t filtered.
In short, your flavoured water could contain the chemicals and contaminants you’re trying to avoid, meaning it’s not good for you. You’ll want to check the water source.
Additives
Water that has been infused with fruit is generally good for you. However, the fruit will contain some sugar, meaning that your fruit-flavoured water is less healthy than standard faucet water. The sugars in fruit are generally easily absorbed by your body and used, making it a fairly good option.
In contrast, flavoured water that has artificial flavouring will have an array of other additions, such as sweeteners and stabilizers. These are not good for you or your body.
Artificially flavoured water isn’t necessarily much better than drinking soda and certainly isn’t as good for you as tap water.
However, if you’re trying to wean a child off soda then artificially flavoured water is a good technique. It has significantly fewer calories and creates a middle step for your child, moving them gradually from soda to naturally flavoured or plain water.
But, if you’re already a fan of drinking water, then switching to flavoured water is unlikely to be beneficial to you. It’s best to stick with what you already know.