I am not a health professional but I DO live a healthy lifestyle. Water is definitely the way to go for hydration, but you can substitute juice or Gatorade once or twice a day. (Remember that most "servings" are only 8 ounces; that’s not a lot!) Beware the calories, though; they can add up QUICK. Green and herbal teas are good; I’ve actually seen a diet green tea out there but I wonder if it’s much better-tasting than water. (I’m not a fan.) Black and oolong teas (think standard tea bags and iced tea in restaurants) actually can DEhydrate you because of their caffeine content – they act as a diuretic similar to coffee, but not as bad.

If you really hate drinking plain water, probably your best bet is to get some Crystal Light drink mix. They make it now in a form that is perfect to mix with bottled water. It tastes good, comes in tons of flavors, and adds almost no extra calories. Or try squeezing some lime or lemon juice along with a packet or two of Nutri-Sweet or Splenda into your water to give it some zest. And have you tried sparkling water? I don’t care for it, but I know a lot of folks who prefer it to plain water because of the carbonation. Actually, that might be really good with some lime or lemon juice and sweetener. Even a pinch of table sugar will take the bite out of it and add minimal calories.

Diet sodas can be used in moderation as long as they do NOT contain caffeine. Try diet versions of 7Up, ginger ale, Fresca, cream soda, and even most root beers are caffeine-free. Weight Watchers allows you to substitute these diet drinks for water as long as you don’t overdo it.

A note about diet drinks: if you are phenylketoneuric (a genetic disorder), your body will not be able to metabolize the aspartame (the generic name for NutraSweet) in most diet sodas and drinks. This is very rare and if you have it, you likely already know it (especially if you have already indulged in diet drinks in the past). You didn’t mention your health condition so I thought it would be wise to throw this information out. If this is the case for you, there are diet drinks that use Splenda instead (Diet Rite is one). Look for Splenda on the label.

Hope this helps!

You’re smart to ask this question, because anytime you increase the amount of fluid intake, you increase the work level your body must do to manage it.

Whether you drink mostly plain water or mostly flavored drinks depends on how much you value your liver and kidneys, as these are the organs that must filter the additives out in order to make the liquids you drink closer to pure water.

The least damage (that I know of) which you can do when flavoring water is to squeeze a fresh lemon wedge into a glass or bottle of plain, unadulterated water. Anything more than that, and you’re putting your renal glands to work with each sip.