Drinking Water for Health
I have been down and out for the last month or so, due to outrageously uncontrolled blood sugars, which is not the norm for me. Type I diabetes is a chronic and challenging disease, but it has never gripped complete control on me before. My experience was loooooong, painful and complex. And as it is not something I want archived to memory, I have chosen to delete it from my brain!
But speaking of diabetes, if you happen to be diabetic (Type I or Type II), you may have heard that drinking lots of water can help lower your blood sugar levels. Assuming you are taking care of yourself (i.e., managing your blood sugars by counting carbs, taking your meds and getting some daily exercise) drinking calorie-free fluids regularly will decrease your blood sugars In reality, any sugar free drinks, including iced tea, diet sodas and / or sugar free juices will do the trick. But with the continual controversies surrounding artificial sweeteners, water is always the safest bet because it’s pure.
Numerous recommendations from health professionals indicate we should be drinking half our body weight in water per day. If you ask me, that’s a lot to ask for a drink that is so just so freakin’ blah!
I have been tossing lemon or lime slices into my water to make it a little more tasteful for a long time. My local health store recently started stocking herbal water by Ayala, which is an awesome alternative to plain ole filtered water:
All the flavors are yummy, but my top two faves are jasmine vanilla and cinnamon orange peel. The thing is, we are in a pretty bad economy right now and considering how much water I drink daily, it is difficult to justify $2.50 per bottle.
So donning my Martha Stewart apron, I quickly bypassed Alaya and started making pitchers of my very own custom concoctions - barbara ann’s herbal water! To my Brita filtered water, I add one pitcher, one little tea ball (typically used for steeping loose tea) and fresh and /or dried herbs and spices.
As I drink several pitchers daily, I love changing it up regularly. This morning’s water infusion was a couple of sprigs of fresh lavender with 2 big sweet basil leaves. I just tore them to release their scent and enclosed them in the tea ball. The herbal water is typically infused within 10 - 15 minutes.
Some other favorites so far include:
Lime Peel and Cilantro (both fresh),
Lemon Peel and Sage (both fresh),
Dried Thyme,
Mint and Orange Peel ((both fresh)
Dried Cardamom and Lime Peel
It’s fun, creative and easy on the wallet in this stinkin’ economy! For my next trick, I may try to emulate these uber-tasty dry sodas:
Dry Soda has some cane sugar in them, so I usually dilute them with herbal water. But it seems like adding some herbs to a bottle of sparkling mineral water might be fun and easy to replicate some of these designer waters!
Posted in Healthy Living
