Although water makes up 60 percent of your total body weight and most nutrition experts recommend drinking six to eight glasses of water per day, many people find staying adequately hydrated to be a challenging task. Fortunately, there are a number of enhanced water products available that provide a convenient way to increase your daily fluid intake.
The term enhanced water is generally used to refer to any type of bottled water that has added ingredients to improve its taste and/or offer additional nutritional benefits. Enhanced waters are sometimes called fortified water or herbal water. In the United States, some of the most common enhanced water products are sold under the brand names Propel Fitness Water, Glaceau Vitamin Water, Base Energy + Water, Ice Botanicals, and VitaZest.
Contrary to popular belief, all enhanced water products are not created equal. There are products advertised as spring water, sparkling water, oxygenated water, water with fruit-juice concentrate, and flavored non-carbonated water. Some enhanced water products have no calories, while others contain almost as many calories as a sports drink. There are bottled water blends to boost your energy and improve your mental focus, as well as products marketed specifically to meet the needs of women or athletes. When choosing an enhanced beverage, it’s best to read the label carefully to make sure the product fits your needs.
Drinking enhanced water can be beneficial if it helps you reduce your consumption of sugary sodas. However, it’s important to realize that enhanced water is not intended to be a substitute for a well balanced diet. Even if you’re getting extra vitamins and minerals in your flavored bottled water, you still need to make smart choices during meal time. Choosing enhanced water, then stopping for a fast food burger on the way home from work isn’t an effective way to improve your overall health.
If you choose an enhanced water product that contains caffeine or guarana, it’s also a good idea to keep track of how much you’re drinking in a particular day. Small amounts of these stimulants can temporarily increase your energy level, but drinking too much can leave you feeling nervous and jittery. In addition, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant limit their daily caffeine intake due to an increased risk of miscarriage or low birth weight.
