Staying healthy and strong is finding a good balance between lifestyle, exercise, and diet. When a habit of consuming fruits daily is encouraged, keeping hydrated is a great way to support proper nutrition.
Adults usually drink approximately 8 to 10 cups of fluid each day in the form of plain water, soup, milk, fruit juice, coffee, tea, and other beverages. Coffee and tea might contribute to dehydration because of their diuretic effects. Other drinks such as soda and canned juice are typically laden with refined sugar and additives — so choosing healthier options is always a good thing to consider.
Lemonade and lemon infused water are popular beverage concoctions to jazz up plain water, taste-wise and health-wise. Lemon is well known for its potential health benefits from boosting our immune system to eliminating waste and toxins from the body. In general, lemon is packed with vitamins as well as minerals and is a good source of vitamin C, vitamin B-complex, potassium, magnesium, iron, calcium, as well as fiber.
The question is, which of the two drinks is more beneficial to health? Let’s take a look at 2 classic recipes to find out.
Vintage Lemonade
4 lemons
1-1/8 cups white sugar (about 16 tablespoons)
1 – 750mL bottle of Beloka Water Naturally Still Water
Ice
Juice lemons and add all the ingredients into a glass jug. Stir well until sugar dissolves completely. Serve with ice. Yields about 6 cups.
Sparkling Lemon Mint Water
2 to 3 lemons
2 pieces sliced apples (optional)
1- 750mL bottle of Beloka Water Lightly Sparkling Water
½ cup mint leaves
Thinly sliced lemons, place into a glass jug along with mint. You can also add slices of apples if you’d like to add sweetness into your lemon mint water. Pour in water and place in the fridge for a couple of hours to steep then serve. Yields about 6 cups.
Basically, the major difference between the two lemon drinks is sugar. One tablespoon of sugar contains approximately 48 calories and the lemonade recipe above contains about 2.5 tablespoons of it or 120 calories per cup! It is recommended to cut down the amount of sugar added to food and drinks, but consuming this simply will not help you achieve that. On the other hand, the sparkling lemon mint water that is slightly sweetened with sliced apples is equally delicious and refreshing, but will not fill you up with calories, only vitamins and minerals.
So go ahead and make lemon infused water with Beloka Sparkling Water for that easy, great tasting, healthy, and refreshing drink everyone can enjoy— anytime, any day.