How much sweet soda can you drink without harm to your health? How to make a healthy lemonade to start your day? Strengthens the immune system

The days of vending machines with sweet lemonade are long gone, but the nostalgia remains. Moreover, the real reason for nostalgia is not completely clear: either the ritual of obtaining a drink through a series of simple manipulations, or the taste. The most delicious lemonade for a post-Soviet person is tarragon and duchess. But time mercilessly erases them from the picture of the population's food priorities. Why did this happen and what can modern manufacturers offer in return?

The main problem with lemonade

The main problem of all lemonades that are served both in Michelin restaurants and sold in stalls at the entrance is the composition. It will surely contain either, or flavors, or flavor enhancers. Children and adults who are used to absorbing liters of sweet drinks will definitely feel or have already felt their destructive power. Metabolism becomes slower, taste buds refuse to perceive any food products without a huge share of sugar, the skin becomes covered with rashes and is trying with all its might to show how it suffers. We stubbornly ignore the problem, forget about the glycemic index, near-term diabetes and, of course, obesity, pouring another glass of foaming liquid. So harmful, but so beloved.

How to solve the main lemonade problem

The problem has 2 possible ways out. The first says that manufacturers should take the side of consumers, exclude all kinds of harmfulness from the composition, think about people, not about earnings, and sell us an organic product. It sounds utopian, so let's move on to a more realistic option. The only way to protect yourself from chemical fragrances, emerald dyes and gases is to take matters into your own hands and make your own lemonade. It may sound unconvincing, but in practice it turns out great. To create your own lemonade, you do not need to graduate from a cookery school or Kenwood courses, you just need to be able to cut fruit and screw the lid tightly on the containers.

How to drink lemonade properly

As Paracelsus said, “Everything is poison, everything is medicine; both are determined by the dose. " The Swiss alchemist was definitely right, and his statement fits absolutely everything, even lemonade. The drinking regime is a kind of ghostly phenomenon that hangs over us and very rarely makes itself felt. A person rarely feels thirsty, but this does not mean at all that we do not need fluids. Maintaining a drinking regime is a guarantee of the functionality and beauty of the whole organism.

A healthy person should drink at least 30 milliliters of fluid per 1 kilogram of body weight. In a hot period of time, this dosage increases and from 300 to 600 milliliters of liquid is added to the daily rate.

The monotony is boring, so whipping with liters of ordinary filtered water does not bring any pleasure. It is much easier to force yourself to drink from a beautiful glass a multi-colored liquid with sourness / bitterness / spice / sweet note. Homemade lemonade can be just such a healing drink.

Your homemade drink should be completely different from store-bought ones. It is necessary to create an interchangeable complex:

• chemical fragrances for the natural smell of fruits / spices;
• flavors and stabilizers on fresh pieces of seasonal food;
• food colors for a riot of colors of whole plant components.

The benefits of the drink

American physician Frank Lipman claims that tonic lemonade is able to remove toxins / toxins, restore acid-base balance and energize the body for the whole day. If you choose the right ingredients (for example and), then you can at the same time disinfect the internal cavity.

Detox

A flavored herbal drink is the easiest way to detox. Choose more citrus fruits, toss them in lemonade and enjoy the effect. Citruses are able to cleanse the abdominal organs from "unnecessary" components, improve the functionality of the body, remove inflammation and solve the very problem of the inflammatory process. Moreover, citrus water stimulates the digestive tract, increases salivation and improves appetite. You can drink lemonade (exclusively from natural ingredients) throughout the day.

We still haven't learned to distinguish between hunger and thirst. Our body sends the same signals to the brain during both the first and the second process, which is why it is so difficult for us to determine the spectrum of desires. The feeling of hunger is too often disguised as a lack of fluid in the body. The result is that a person overeats, but hunger never subsides, since the body did not ask for a cake, but for citrus water.

In addition, lemonade stimulates digestion and speeds up metabolic processes, which also contributes to weight loss.

Tone

Scientists conducted an experiment in which they determined the effect of fluids on athletic performance. The experiment involved 15 professional runners. The group who drank more of the tonic fluid showed better and more productive results compared to those who refused an additional glass of lemonade.

Headache

Do not rush to go into the medicine cabinet for a handful of pills as soon as you feel a slight pain in your head. Just drink a glass of warm or chilled lemonade - after a few minutes, the pain will subside and disappear for good. Headache can be associated with dehydration, abnormal body functionality, or normal fatigue. Homemade lemonade, which is much healthier than white blister tablets, will do just fine with all these problems.

Kidney

Scientists from Australia have shown that the amount of fluid entering the body affects the performance of the kidneys. Timely replenished water balance guarantees protection against kidney pathologies and flawless functioning of the system.

Beauty control

A glass of lemonade can be as effective as an expensive trip to the beauty salon. Even the best nourishing face cream cannot moisturize, nourish and give our skin a natural glow better than enriched skin. The skin is the largest human organ, which reflects absolutely all the processes inside. A refreshing drink will help:

• moisturize the skin;
• get rid of and prevent the appearance of the notorious orange peel;
• prevent premature aging;
• smooth out existing age-related changes;
• get into the deepest layers of the skin and deliver to them the maximum amount of useful components (which is impossible for a cream, since it works only in the upper layer);
• activate the lymphatic system;
• disperse stagnant intercellular fluid.

Lemonade recipes

Tarhun

We need:

• filtered water - 200 ml;
• Jerusalem artichoke syrup (can be replaced with honey) - 50 ml;
• tarragon leaves - 100 g;
• mineral water with gas (the amount depends on the chosen container).

Preparation

Add Jerusalem artichoke syrup to filtered water, put on fire and boil for 5 minutes. Grind the tarragon leaves in a blender, and send the resulting green mixture to hot diluted Jerusalem artichoke syrup. Remove liquid from heat, leave to cool at room temperature, strain syrup and transfer to any suitable container. Add a few tablespoons of Jerusalem artichoke syrup with chopped tarragon to the mineral water, add a wedge, 2 ice cubes, a twig, close your eyes and imagine that you are 10 years old again.

Green kombucha

Culinary Fact: This is a kombucha-based drink. In the process of secondary fermentation, you can add absolutely any ingredients to it: fruits, berries and your favorite spices. This exotic lemonade has become a real superfood of the new generation. Kombucha has a detox effect on the body, activates metabolic processes, improves appetite and fills the body with vital phytonutrients.

We need:

• spirulina powder - 1 tablespoon;
• cooked infusion of kombucha (can be bought at a chain supermarket) - 1 liter;
• berries, fruits, spices to taste.

Preparation

Mix the ingredients and let it sit for 1-2 days at room temperature.

Apple lemonade with rosemary

We need:

• green apples - 5 pcs;
• agave syrup (can be replaced with honey or Jerusalem artichoke syrup) - 5 tablespoons;
• rosemary - 4 branches;
• lemon juice - 2 tablespoons;
• mineral water with gas - 1 l;
• ice to taste.

Preparation

Peel and inner core, place in a blender and mix into a thin porridge. Pour the syrup, lemon juice into the puree, whisk lightly and send to the required container. Pour water into a container with agave-applesauce, throw, ice. Mix the contents of the bottle well and drink throughout the day.

Side Effects of Drinking Liquids

There is no need to worry about disruptions in the body due to excessive consumption of lemonade. A person simply will not be able to pour into himself the amount of water he does not want. Each has an individual level of water balance, which we maintain at an intuitive level. There is a risk of undershooting rather than going overboard with water and drinks.

Dehydration is the real problem. Modern man is in a constant hurry. We can forget to pick up our children from kindergarten, so there is no need to be surprised at the irregular water consumption.

What is the risk of dehydration? Water is involved in all chemical reactions in the human body. If there is not enough water, cells begin to separate moisture from personal stores. We age faster, move less, look worse, and digest food longer.

Preparation and storage of a drink

The right water for cooking

The main component of lemonade is water. The body uses it not only to maintain water balance, but also as a storehouse. There is a concept of physiological usefulness of drinking fluid. Physiologically high-grade water is considered, which contains, and. It is this kind of water that helps a person to cheer up and recharge with energy for a long time. Severe filtration in factories often negates important minerals, but exceptions can be found.

Additional factors:

• acidity should be 7 (more acidic or alkaline water is used only for medicinal purposes);
• the minimum hardness threshold is 1.5 mg-eq / l;
• the maximum permissible concentration of chlorides / sulfates is 250 g / l, magnesium - 65 g / l, - 20 ml / l, - 200 ml / l.
• the liquid must be clear and clean.

Correct storage container

A modern person does not have much space for choosing a container. The container can be glass or plastic. The ideal option is glass containers. It is chemically inert, does not emit harmful chemicals when heated, and does not react with the contents.

With plastic, things are a little more complicated. PET is most commonly used in the food industry. It is designed for small containers and is made of polyethylene terephthalate. A special mark is put on PET - a triangle with the number 1 inside. This material is considered the safest in terms of recycling and reuse.

For larger containers, PVC is used. This is a frankly bad material, during the production and disposal of which a lot of pathogenic substances are formed. There is no need to store your correct homemade lemonade in it, otherwise the benefits will be questionable.

How to motivate yourself to drink more fluids

At some point, even your favorite lemonades can become boring. And the craving to lie down will easily override the efforts to maintain the water balance in the norm. To add motivation to yourself, you can pay attention to 3 important aspects: economy, permanent reminding, constant presence.

Saving

Prepared homemade lemonade costs a penny when compared to the offerings of restaurants or chain hypermarkets. Moreover, you are confident in the quality of the consumed fluid, which also gives additional motivation.

Permanent reminders

Install a mobile application that will calculate your individual rate of fluid consumption and will constantly remind you to "fill the tank". Some apps are so unforgiving that they will turn your life into a hell of vibrations and reminders until you consume your daily intake.

Permanent presence

Buy beautiful containers of different sizes and fill them constantly with lemonades. Take it with you, drink in establishments, put a liter bottle next to the bed. If water is always at hand, they will definitely use it.

Lemonade originally (as the name suggests) should be made from lemon. And so it was, until the recipe began to vary. And now dozens of types of various lemonades from different fruits and berries are triumphant on our summer table. Why summer? So this is the best drink for a hot summer! And vitamin, and cooling, and thirst quencher. And what a useful one! Can you compare it to the lemonade on supermarket shelves? We will begin our story about recipes for a drink with a classic type of homemade lemonade. From that one - lemon.

Lemon lemonade

For it, prepare 2 liters of water, 6 lemons and 150 grams of sugar. We will cook homemade lemonade like this.

Rub the lemons with a brush under running water. Cut off a thin zest from three of them. Better to do this with a potato peeler. Then it is cut very thinly. We remove the white part of the lemons with a knife. If not removed, the lemonade will taste bitter. Put the finely peeled zest in an enamel bowl, squeeze the juice from all six lemons into it, add sugar. Throw away the remnants of the squeezed lemons. Pour in 1.5 liters of boiling water, stir, cover and let it brew for 8-10 hours in the cool.

Stir the next day, add more sugar, but to taste, if you think that it is not enough. Stir to dissolve the sugar if added. We filter through one layer of cheesecloth or a coarse sieve so that a little cake from the lemon remains in the drink. This is spicy and indicates the naturalness of the product. We bottle the lemonade. We chill in the refrigerator and drink with great pleasure in the summer heat, we take it with us to picnics and to the dacha. You can, by the way, dilute lemonade before serving with highly carbonated water and add ice to it. It will turn out like a real carbonated lemonade drink.

Tarragon lemonade

Half a lemon (like lemonade without it?);
half a lime;
mint leaves;
tarragon leaves;
5-6 berries of garden strawberry;
medium-sized sugar to taste;
ice.

Cut the citrus fruits into pieces, squeeze the juice out of them into a jug. We throw the crusts from them there. We also put herbs, berries, sugar in a jug. Fill in hot water (cooled boiling water, but do not pour too hot so that the glass jug does not crack). Pour just enough water to cover the contents of the jug. Literally ¼ part of the entire container. Let the future lemonade brew.

Add the rest of only cold water to the jug. Throw in ice cubes. We serve a drink chilled with ice to the summer dining table.

We asked doctor Artemiy Okhotin to tell you how much you can drink sweet carbonated drinks without harm to your health.

Cola (not a brand, but a type of drink) really can make a hole in your stomach?

No. It is a myth that cola can eat away at the wall of the stomach. The acidity of cola is lower than that of gastric juice. And there is no evidence that stomach ulcers or gastritis are associated with the use of cola.

So cola doesn't actually dissolve anything?

No, it really does. It contains phosphoric acid and can wash calcium from teeth by eroding enamel. And sugar contributes to the development of tooth decay. Cases of severe damage to the teeth have been described with prolonged use of cola in large quantities. This is what the teeth of a man who drank a liter and a half of cola every day for several years turned into.

But at the same time, he did not brush his teeth well and had the habit of rinsing the cola in his mouth before swallowing it. If you do not abuse cola, brush your teeth and go to the dentist, this will not threaten you.

What then is the main harm of cola? In preservatives?

No. The main harm is that it is very high in calories.... A 330 ml can of cola contains 35 grams of sugar - nine teaspoons. Sugar is an easily digestible carbohydrate. A link has been established between the consumption of easily digestible carbohydrates, including in the composition of soda, and the risk of obesity and diabetes.

They say scientists have already denied this connection.

Yes, there are studies that question the link between sugar consumption and the obesity epidemic. The authors of these works believe that the main cause of obesity is a sedentary lifestyle. The problem, in their opinion, is not how many calories to consume, but how much to spend. But it has recently emerged that some of the scientists who advocate this point of view are quite closely associated with the Coca-Cola Company. This undermines the credibility of their work.

Are diet sodas safe?

To date, there are no studies that show a link between diet soda consumption and long-term health risks.

Diet sodas (defined as no-calorie or low-calorie sodas sweetened with aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame potassium, or other low-calorie sweeteners) are not harmful to your health, well-being, or your appearance. What's more, there is no evidence that soda consumption inhibits weight loss or increases insulin levels that would be detrimental to our health. we have already written a long and detailed article about this.

Is it true that cola helps with stomach pain?

In many countries, warm or standing cola is used as a home remedy for digestive problems. But there is no scientific evidence for its effectiveness. Doctors do not recommend using cola for dehydration due to intestinal infections, especially in children: it contains too little sodium and too much sugar. The only disease in which cola is really effective is phytobezoars - tangles of plant fibers that form in the stomach when eating certain fruits, for example, unripe persimmons.

So how much sweet soda can you drink without harm to your health?

According to most recommendations, simple carbohydrates should be no more than 10% of the total calorie intake. This means that the average man can consume up to nine tablespoons of sugar a day, a woman up to six tablespoons, and a child up to three. It turns out that a man can drink a can of cola (330 ml), a woman - a glass (200 ml) - and then, this is provided that they do not add sugar to tea and coffee and do not eat sweets. And it is better to completely protect children from sugary drinks.

So, in general, everything sweet is harmful?

No, not all. The so-called added sugar is considered harmful, that is, it is not found naturally in foods. The carbohydrates found in sweet fruits and vegetables are not considered harmful. Honey, brown sugar, and fructose are no healthier than regular sugar.

What if I really like soda? Refuse completely?

No. You just need to maintain a balance between the benefits and joys of life. We hope that after reading our article, you will not stop enjoying sugary carbonated drinks, but you will show moderation and maybe start exercising. And most importantly: never drink a cola of Mentos lollipops.