The 7 Healthiest Beverages in the World
Choosing a healthful diet is crucial to overall health and that includes our beverages. There are so many drinks out there, it can be confusing to know which ones are the very best. Here is a list of the top seven I’ve gathered for you.
Green Tea
Green tea It is packed with antioxidants and nutrients that have a multitude of powerful effects. This includes enhanced brain function, fat loss, a lower risk of cancer such as breast cancer, endothelial health, reduced cardiovascular disease and many other incredible benefits. Have green tea hot or cold. In fact, cold green tea with a slice of orange over ice is delicious as well.
Another type of green tea is Matcha. Matcha is a special type of powdered green tea that is typically grown and produced in Japan. The leaves are carefully ground with stone grinding wheels to produce a fine powder. The powder can then be used to brew a tea that is much more nutrient dense than green tea.
Rooibos Tea
Rooibos is a fragrant red tea from South Africa. It has such a plethora of benefits, possibly even more than green tea. Rooibos tea has up to 50% more polyphenols and antioxidants than Green Tea! It helps fight inflammation, reduces blood pressure, promotes a healthy digestive system, excellent for bones and teeth and much more.
Another bonus for rooibos tea compared to green or black tea is it is caffeine free. Those looking for a cup of tea but are sensitive to caffeine can opt for rooibos.
Pu-Ehr Tea
Pu-Ehr Tea is a fermented tea with multiple health benefits. It is a fermented tea and that fermentation promotes optimized gut health. Our gut health is the epi-center of our optimal health, mental wellness and weight. The Antioxidants in the delicious tea are natural phytochemicals that help the body fight off free radical molecules and prevent diseases.
Pu-Ehr tea not only has numerous health benefits such as reducing unhealthy cholesterol, aiding digestion, stroke prevention, reversing inflammation and much more, this tea can also help to reduce stress and anxiety.
Vegetable Juice 
We all know that veggies are healthy for us but there is an ultra-easy way to get your quota in: Juice Them. Juicing veggies has a plethora of benefits from increasing your intake of protective and healing phytonutrients and antioxidants, to alkalizing your body to prevent disease and promote weight loss. Simply toss your favorite veggies in a juicer and blend. Add in a fiber source such as chia seeds as the fiber from the veggies is lost during processing.
When you consume a veggie drink, ensure you drink it with some type of healthy fat such as avocado, seeds/nuts or olive oil to increase bio-availability of nutrients. Drink a cup to your health!
Coffee
If you like coffee, you’re in luck. Recent research shows that the more coffee you drink, the longer you live and the lower your risk of death by 64% – in fact, several large studies show that people who drink coffee live longer than those who don’t. It makes sense that coffee would be one of the healthiest beverages in the world as coffee is dense with antioxidants, can lower the risk of some cancers, help with stroke prevention and coffee can even help fight depression.
One Tip: Don’t add dairy as this dramatically prevents the absorption of antioxidants, polyphenols and more.
Kombucha
There is a slightly fizzy drink called Kombucha that benefits our heart, brain and particularly our gut. Gut health is the key factor in promoting immune or overall health, mental well-being and weight. Depending upon the types of gut bacteria we are teeming with, which most people have an imbalance favoring bad gut bacteria, will provide optimized health or continue to keep the majority of us fat and sick. This is where Kombucha comes in.
Kombucha is a fermented drink that is packed with healthy, beneficial probiotic bacteria and it is delicious. Kombucha can help manage Type 2 Diabetes, help prevent cancer, reduce heart disease risk and has strong antibacterial properties.
The side effects? Optimized health.
Water!
Yes! Water is a beverage and hydration is essential to health. Why? Our bodies are mostly water, including our brain and lungs. So it stands to reason that when mildly dehydrated, cellular function slows leaving you with a myriad of potential symptoms such as fatigue, foggy thinking, slower metabolism that leads to weight gain, anxiety, joint pain and much more.
For an added boost to your water, add vinegar. Recent studies have confirmed that consuming vinegar with a meal reduces the spike in blood sugar, insulin, and triglycerides. It also increases alkalinity and satiety – the feeling of being full after a meal.
An important component to an overall optimized health and weight loss plan is to add adequate water intake. I recommend half your body weight in ounces of water daily at a minimum. So for example, if you weigh 120 lbs, drink a minimum of 60 ounces daily.
“The present results suggest the potential benefit of H(2) in improving obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.”
~Kamimura N, Nishimaki K, Ohsawa I, Ohta S.
The type of water you drink is very important. Always choose filtered water (at the very least) such as a simple charcoal filtered pitcher or one that attaches to your faucet. Unfortunately, high quality drinking water is increasingly difficult to come by and this can have a detrimental effect upon your health.
Always choose the cleanest and healthiest water you can. Tap water is not a top choice as there are many dangerous contaminants present in our water such as flouride, chlorine, pharmeceutical drugs, lead, aluminum and arsenic.
The type of water that I highly recommend is alkaline molecular hydrogen alkaline water for optimal health. For one, alkalinity stabilizes or balances blood sugar preventing the dips and spikes in blood sugar causing incessant snacking, hunger and cravings. This very unique alkaline hydrogen water contains an abundance of hydrogen molecules which are half the size of oxygen molecules. This enables the ions to enter the cells and the mitochondria in the cell, promoting increased energy, weight loss, immunity, healthy skin, athletic performance and much more.
This special water also helps flush fat cells. Our fat cells store toxins (as do our tissues, organs and lymphatic fluid) and other compounds. As we are losing weight, we flush out these stored toxins. However, ionized alkaline water has a negative charge, which makes it a strong antioxidant that neutralizes and powerfully releases those toxins. This release results in fat loss and optimized health.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21211952
Marnewick JL. An investigation on the antimutagenic properties of South African herbal teas. Mutat Res. 2000 Nov 20;471(1-2):157-66.
https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/Press-Office/Press-releases/higher-coffee-consumption-associated-with-lower-risk-of-death
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21293445
©2017 DLS HealthWorks, LLC. Lori Shemek, PhD health and weight loss expert. Bestselling author of How To Fight FATflammation! and the bestselling author of ‘Fire-Up Your Fat Burn!’