For years, if I wanted a refreshing drink I would squeeze some lemon juice into a cold glass of water and then pop a couple of slices of the lemon into the glass too.
This was before I heard of the ‘trending term’ infused water and totally unaware if there were any infused water benefits which comes with it.
My original lemon ‘infused’ water drink comes from following dozens of weight loss diets over the years and most of them saying…
“Start the day with a hot cup of water with some fresh lemon squeezed into it”
… of which I recommend – very refreshing.
Then the diet would suggest to swap fizzy drinks (even zero sugar) for water and freshly squeezed lemon instead.
Roll forward a few years and there’s this amazing infused water phenomenon going on which goes way beyond throwing a bit of lemon into a glass of water.
So this has lead me to really dig deep to see if there are any extra benefits of putting fresh fruit and herbs into a glass or pitcher to make up these wonderful infused water drinks.
We can all see that infusing water makes it very refreshing, but does infused water have any health or skincare benefits?
Let’s start off with the main ingredient… water!
Please note: The 9 benefits of water (as in the title as above) are at the very end of the blog post.
The Benefits of Water
We’ve all heard time and time again that we must consume xx amount of water each day to stay sufficiently hydrated – but do we really need to drink literally our weight in water to stay healthy?
When I was studying towards my Diploma in Anti Aging, I came across Dr Murad and his entire life-work on the benefits of water for the human body.
I even bought his book “The Water Secret” where somehow he has managed to write over 270 pages on the benefits of water and that you must eat your water for maximum benefits to get it into your cells (this is the key).
I kid-you-not; 270 pages about water!
What he means by eating your water, is that you should eat uncooked fresh fruit and vegetables to get more of their water benefits (nutrients and vitamins) directly into your cells.
Dr Murad is a qualified Chemist and Skincare Scientist and says:
“There is nothing wrong with drinking water, but if we don’t improve the capacity to get it into our cells and keep it there, it goes straight down the toilet without doing us any good. Or worse, the water floats between our cells, aging us and making us feel fat and sluggish.”
He also warns, “Puffy eyes, swollen ankles and a bloated stomach are signs of a body that is not holding water efficiently.”
Dr Murad believes that by ‘eating water’, you will increase the water in your cells and consequently lose fat, get thicker hair, stronger nails, better digestion and more energy. Better skin comes as a side benefit of ‘eating water’.
This is the reason why you must consume plenty of fruit and vegetables each day.
Examples of water in vegetables:
- A cucumber is 97 percent water
- Celery 95 percent
- Tomatoes 94 percent
- Spinach 92 percent
- Broccoli 91 percent, and
- Carrots 87 percent
Examples of water in fruits:
- Strawberries is 92 percent water
- Blueberries are 85 percent water
- Watermelon 92 percent
- Grapefruit 91 percent
- Orange 85 percent, and
- Peaches 88 percent each
Fruit and vegetables with 85% or more water can help you stay hydrated. [Source + Chart]
Also, the water coming from the above foods is rich in vitamins – consequently this vitamin-rich water goes directly into your skin cells.
So really, what I’m trying to get across here is that you don’t have to drink a gazillion glasses of water each day to stay hydrated and be healthy. Instead it’s more beneficial to use a combination of drinking water and eating water-rich-vitamin-rich fruit and vegetables.
Blended Smoothies
Infused water is a totally different drink as opposed to juicing or blending fruits and vegetables to make smoothies. When you juice or blend, you’re literally squashing the foods which extracts their vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and sugars into the drink of which you gulp down and consume.
This is why infused water is very popular with weight loss plans and detoxes, because the sugars within the fruits are not released; because they are not blended to a pulp. You just get the flavor of them into your water.
I can remember when I used to go to Slimming World (I told you I’ve been on a few weight loss diets didn’t I!), and my Leader saying that we can eat copious amounts of fruits as long as we don’t blend them. This is because of the sugars released when blended – even though they are natural sugars.
It appears that when you blend or juice fruits, it makes it so much easier for the body to access and then absorb those sugars. It’s the fibre in the fruit as a whole, when you eat it, is the secret source when it comes to slowing down the digestion process of turning the fruit sugar into blood sugar [Source].
So the bottom line when it comes to blended fruit smoothies, is to be aware of the amount of sugars which are released directly into your blood stream. This will have an impact on your blood sugar levels; which therefore makes smoothies not the ideal way to eat your fruit especially when you’re trying to lose weight.
Which leads me nicely onto…
What Are The Infused Water Benefits?
So how does plopping some fruits and vegetables into your water compare to eating them?
Infusing Water for Weight Loss
This is a great healthy drink to lose weight. It doesn’t necessarily speed up your metabolism and it definitely doesn’t burn fat, BUT its an excellent alternative to chemically-laden fizzy drinks and caffeine.
You can choose which fruits and herbs you want to put into your water which makes the drink personal to you and your taste-buds. And in-turn, this encourages you to drink more water which is what is needed for good weight loss, health and a glowing skin complexion.
Plus, when you’re drinking such visually appealing healthy water, this then also psychologically motivates you to stay healthy with your food choices and to do more exercise.
Flavoring Your Water
When you make up your infused water bottle or pitcher, you put the fruits in which you want the water to taste like.
Pop your favorite fruits in and leave it to stand for a good one hour before you start drinking it. This gives the fruits (or herbs) time to release their flavors into the water.
Related Reading: 56 Healthy Infused Water Recipes That Make an Impact – Guaranteed!
They don’t release the sugar inside of them, but they also don’t release any of the vitamins or nutrients either. They’re still locked-up inside the fruit.
Tip: If you slightly crush the fruits first, you’ll be releasing more of the fruits’ flavor and maybe a little of the nutrients into the water too.
However, these nutrients will be minimal and won’t have any real additional benefits to you.
Health & Skincare Benefits
So where does this lead to the health and skincare benefits of infused water?
Sorry to disappoint you, but because of what we’ve just discussed above, there are not that many added benefits to literally just putting some fruit into your infused water pitcher, bottle or glass of water.
The vitamins and antioxidants are still locked-up inside the fruit. Yes some of them will seep into the water, but they’ll be so minimal that they won’t really have any effect at all.
The scent of the fruit and herbs will flavor the water, but that’s just about it I’m afraid.
But don’t despair, there are still many infused water benefits of which I discuss below.
Tip: If you want a healthy beverage that does have an impact on your skin and health, then check out my blog post ‘9 Exciting Benefits of Green Tea For Skin Health & Face Youthfulness To Get That Glow‘ – green tea may surprise you and be a good companion to your infused water!
Can You Eat The Infused Fruit?
So, should/can you eat the fruit in the water to get the benefits as if eating the fruits in the first place?
Well, you can but they’ll be pretty soggy at this stage.
They’ll also be somewhat tasteless and bland because they’ve already released their flavor into the water you’ve just drank.
Conclusion
To me, having researched into infused water benefits for the purpose of writing this blog post, I can only see very minimal health and skincare benefits of infusing your water with fruits and herbs.
Remember, this is what we found:
Drinking Water: We all know that we should be drinking at least 2 liters of water a day to stay hydrated anyway.
Eating Water: According to Scientist Dr Murad, you should ‘eat your water’ too by eating plenty of fresh (uncooked) fruit & vegetables.
Fruit Smoothies: Fruit smoothies are a great source of nutrients, but be-aware of the amount of sugars being released directly into your blood stream.
Infused Water: Infused water is a great way for you to flavor your water in order to drink more water instead of coffee and fizzy drinks.
Bottom Line of Infused Water:
- Drinking water is, and always will, play a major part in keeping yourself hydrated without any added chemicals, sugar or calories.
- Don’t compensate not eating fresh fruit and vegetables thinking that you’ll get the same benefits from infused water. You won’t.
- You should still eat plenty of fruit and vegetables each day, alongside drinking plenty of water or infused water.
- If the only way you’ll drink water is by putting fruit or herbs into it, then that can only be a good thing.
- … although this will make a simple glass of water more expensive.
Although it’s a tad disappointing to see that you don’t get much health or skincare benefits from infusing your water, let’s end this blog post on a positive note and look at all the benefits of infusing your water because at the end of the day, infused water can only be a good thing.
There’s not one bad thing about it.
9 Benefits of Drinking Infused Water:
- It makes plain, boring water much more appealing to drink
- You can change the taste of water to anything you like – simply choose your preferred fruits & herbs
- It slightly sweetens the water with natural sugars, as opposed to sugary, chemically laden fizzy drinks
- Some vitamins from the fruits & herbs may seep into the water, which you will get the benefit from
- Infused water is all natural, no chemicals
- Infused water pitchers are especially appealing at BBQs, pool parties and any other outdoor events during the summer season.
- Infused water is not just for summer, you can also make Christmas infused water recipes
- Infused water is also common among office workers who take in their infused water bottles into work.
- Fruit & herb infused water pitchers and water bottles look super healthy, which psychologically motivates you to be healthy in other areas of your life too!
If you want to start infusing your water and are not sure what to put in it, then read my blog post ‘56 Healthy Infused Water Recipes That Make an Impact – Guaranteed!‘ Here I go over many different combinations of infusing water with different fruits, herbs and vegetables. You can get creative and create even more than 56 recipes!
Cheers!
