Vitamin Enhanced Water: Hydrate or Hype?

You hear it all the time. Drink plenty of water. Be sure and get your vitamins. Getting both in one fell swoop seems like the perfect solution, and on the surface, vitamin enhanced water seems like a dream come true. But when it comes to nutrition and overall wellness, these drinks fall short of what you can get from your faucet. 

Tap water doesn't contain vitamins, but it also doesn't contain sugars and artificial sweeteners. Most people don't really need the vitamins they get from enhanced waters. Getting vitamins from foods is best, but if you're falling short on your nutrition requirements a multivitamin is preferable to vitamin enhanced water.

 

Vitamin enhanced water is sold under a lot of names. Vitamin Water, from Glaceau is first to come to mind. SoBe Life Water is also popular, as is Propel, a product of Coca Cola which includes electrolytes. Normally, it takes an intense workout of an hour or more before extra electrolytes are necessary.

What is most important, for those who do drink vitamin enhanced waters is the purpose they expect them to fill. Generally, eight to ten glassed of water per day is the standard recommendation, and the best way to replenish is through plain old H2O without anything extra. If the tap water in your area doesn't taste right, a faucet or pitcher filter can help to make it taste more pure.

But those who don't like plain water often want to spruce things up, and many are reaching for vitamin enhanced waters to do it, which can put a lot of extra sugars or artificial sweeteners into their diet. If enhanced waters are meant to replace the original, they are not worth it. You spend a lot of extra money to load up on harmful sugar and chemicals for a relatively small benefit from whatever vitamins are included.

 

If you have to spruce up water, a bit of fruit juice or a slice of lemon, lime, or even cucumber are better choices than an enhanced water, and far less expensive.

 

But for some who are trying to lick the soda habit, enhanced waters is a better choice. Eight ounces of Coca Cola, for example contains 105 calories, the same amount of Vitamin Water has just 50. There are also low calorie or no calorie versions of both soda and enhanced waters, but most contain potentially harmful artificial sweeteners that have been found to increase cravings for high calorie foods.

 

If these "waters" are consumed, it should be in moderation, and the vitamins they do include shouldn't be counted on to replace healthy foods like fruits and vegetables which have numerous benefits beyond their vitamin content. Ultimately, drinking more regular water should be the goal, especially if you want to lose weight and improve your overall wellness.

While moving toward a healthier weight is always good, there can be challenges that can be addressed by a chiropractor. A person's center of gravity can change, and this can throw off the body's alignment. Not everyone thinks of seeing a chiropractor in order to help them deal with different weight fluctuations, but it can be an important part of the journey to wellness.

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Getting The Most Out Of Your Run

Running and jogging are perhaps the most effective exercises. They require no equipment or special training, and you can do them anytime and anywhere. However, most people don't realize that running is also among the highest impact exercises out there. A high-impact exercise is one that puts the most strain on your body's muscles, bones, or ligaments, and running is perhaps the most stressful of these exercises. There are many things to consider when you regularly practice high-impact exercises, but the most important thing to remember is safety. That's where your chiropractor can come in.

It may seem odd to mention chiropractic and running in the same sentence, but they actually do go hand-in-hand. Because running is so strenuous on the body, it's important to understand the appropriate measures to be taken. Running puts an especially dangerous strain on your spine. When you stand, your spine carries most of your weight. When you run, your weight regularly shifts, and it puts a sort of hammering effect on your spine. This is why it's important to see a chiropractor if you are a runner, or if you just run regularly.

Even if you practice proper running techniques, it's still important to get checked. Improper running techniques or equipment can do drastic damage to your spine and other muscles and bones in your body. For example, wearing the wrong kind of running shoes could cause a misalignment in your spine. The surface on which you run could cause problems as well. Even small things in your daily routine could affect your health, and thus, your running ability -- anything from the way you sit to what you do at work could cause issues.

A chiropractor could help you identify the things in your life that may be causing your pain, or could cause pain in the future. Proper warm-ups and warm-up exercises are also very important. If done improperly, a warm-up could hinder your running ability. You can ask your chiropractor for the most recommended exercises to get you limbered up and to avoid injury.

Running can be great exercise, but it has the potential to cause injury. Checking in with your chiropractor can help you avoid these injuries, by helping you improve your technique so you can get the most out of your run.

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