Yogurt drinks — portable, nutritious, easy to consume, and relatively low in calories. These products typically are about half juice and half fat-free yogurt and they make a lot of sense to today’s consumers.

There are reasons for optimism about the possibility of renewed double-digit growth in yogurt drinks, including new flavors and packaging, rising interest in pro-biotic health benefits, lower cholesterol, high Omega 3 benefits, and the extension of the category into new forms of hybrids, including combinations with energy drinks.

Yogurt drinks have considerable health benefits, and are beneficial to the digestive system. It may offer the perfect balance of taste, convenience, nutrition and, increasingly, specific functionality to demanding individuals.

Yogurt drinks has benefits that the widely used milk don’t have: people who are moderately lactose-intolerant can’t drink milk but they can enjoy yogurt drinks without ill effects, because the lactose in the milk precursor is converted to lactic acid by the bacterial culture.

Yogurt healthy drinks are known and consumed all over the world. Being rich in potassium, calcium, protein and B vitamins, including B-12, they help stabilize the immune system, digest lactose and dairy products, and are a good source of iodine.

Yogurt drinks have uses for a variety of gastrointestinal conditions, and in preventing antibiotic-associated diarrhea. They also promotes good gum health because of the pro-biotic effect of lactic acids present in them.

Calcium, which is found in dairy products, needs to enter the body in an acid matrix or your body will not absorb it. So the lactic acid of yogurt, as a part of yogurt drink, is a perfect medium to maximize calcium absorption. Eight ounces of yogurt will equal 400 mg of calcium, 25% more calcium than you would get out of a glass of milk.

Another benefit is helping banish the belly. The same calcium stops the production of the hormone cortisol, which increases your stomach fat. So, if you want to look and be fitter then several tubs of fat-free yogurt drink a day can help you a lot.

As the summer is coming, some good, refreshing, yogurt drink recipes will be helpful. One of the most successful is the Spiced Minty Yogurt Drink. You will need: 1 cup of yogurt, ½ cup water, 12 mint leaves, ½ teaspoon cumin, 8 ice cubes, and some whole fresh mint leaves for garnish.

Firstly blend together all the ingredients except the ice cubes and whole mint leaves for the garnish until smooth in a blender. Then add the ice cubes and continue to blend another 20 to 30 seconds. Pour into glasses and garnish with the mint leaves. Then you can serve this refreshing, stimulating, and healthy yogurt drink.

Another Strawberry Yogurt Drink can be made of 1 cup of sliced strawberries, 1/2 cup of low-fat yogurt, 1/2 banana, 3 ice cubes, and some strawberries for garnish. Combine the sliced strawberries, yogurt, banana, and ice cubes in a blender. Process until smooth. Pour into glasses and garnish each serving with a strawberry. It is very simple and tasty.

And if it’s a really hot day, then you can try this one: Cooler-Than-Cool Yogurt Drink. Blend 2 cups of plain low-fat yogurt, 1 small, diced ripe avocado, 2/3 cup cubes seeded pared cucumber, 5 fresh mint leaves, 1/2 teaspoon celery salt, 1/4 teaspoon of pepper sauce, and 1 cup of cracked ice, except garnish. This really cool recipe will be good for 4 servings.

Yogurt drink is a healthy drink. It can be bought or made at home. It is a part of modern diets and always appears on the table of people who do care about their heath. It is tasty and useful and accessible in the same time. So what will you choose when looking next time for a drink?

When Spring comes it is useful to know some simple methods of keeping your body and soul healthy, especially when the weather changes so fast and can badly affect our still fragile immune system. There are some useful and healthy drinks, that can be easily bought or made at home.

Green tea. It is one of the most useful and healthy drinks, known for more then 4700 years. It contains over 700 chemicals that protects us from more then 300 different kinds of bacteria.

Tea plays an important role in improving beneficial intestinal micro-flora, as well as providing immunity against intestinal disorders and in protecting cell membranes from oxidative damage. The role of tea is well established in normalizing blood pressure, lipid depressing activity, prevention of coronary heart diseases and diabetes by reducing the blood-glucose activity.

Tea also prevents dental caries due to the presence of fluorine. Green tea infusions contain a huge number of antioxidants, mainly used to make our lives longer. Apart from that, green tea can easily reduces your thirst in hot, sunny days.

Black tea. It is a variety of tea that is more oxidized than the oolong, green, and white varieties. Black tea is generally stronger in flavor and contains more caffeine than the less oxidized teas. It also retains its flavor for several years. In spring, cold days it is perfect for rising up your mood and to keep the body temperature higher.

These types of tea can be mixed with different fruits, usually small, dried pieces. It will add something new in the casual process of drinking tea. Every tea-drinking can become a small holiday. If you have no time for creative work – the same teas mixed with fruits can be bought in the neighbor shops.

Water. One of the oldest and most undiscovered substances and healthy drinks. Using natural water in you daily food is essential for a healthy life. Some raw-eaters consider water the only drink that must be consumed.

But only clean water is really useful for our body. There are many and difficult ways to clean it, but one of the most available and workable is just using silver in the process of purifying. It will give you the possibility to drink clean water and to have a healthy body and life.

Juice. It is a healthy liquid naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue. Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fresh fruits or vegetables without the application of heat or solvents. Juice may be prepared in the home from fresh fruits and vegetables using variety of hand or electric juicers.

It’s composition and taste depend on the fruits mixed there. Juices are often consumed for their health benefits. For example, orange juice is rich in vitamin C, while prune juice is associated with a digestive health benefit. Cranberry juice has long been known to help prevent or even treat bladder infections. Besides, today it’s popular to combine different fruits into a single juice drink.

These simple and accessible drinks do help everyone to support a healthy body and good mood. They represent a part of everyday life for all people who cares about themselves.

Healthy drinking is a vital part of our health. Learn what drinks are good and healthy choices, as well as tips for healthy drinking for your health. As you are convincing your family to decrease their sugary drink intake, you can introduce them to these better choices.

If you are healthy drinking soda, you are more likely to have a lower intake of important nutrients, such as vitamin C, vitamin A, folate, magnesium, and calcium. The decrease in calcium can result in reduced bone mass, which can contribute to broken bones in children and can possibly lead to osteoporosis later in life.

Some nutritionists say that healthy drinking high-fructose corn syrup causes weight gain by interfering with the body’s natural ability to suppress hunger feelings. For those who can’t do without their soda pop, natural varieties are growing in popularity and can be found at most health food markets. Many use cane juice to sweeten, because it is less processed but has many of the nutrients found in sugar cane. Others add no sweetener and instead let the real fruit ingredients do the job.

Healthy drinking – water.

Whether it is flat or fizzy, flavored or plain, water is a fundamental component of your family fitness plan and is the perfect beverage for everyone. Over 1 billion people worldwide have no access to safe drinking water. The United States is fortunate to have one of the best supplies of drinking water in the world. Although tap water that meets federal and state standards is generally safe to drink, threats to drinking water quality in the United States still exist. Outbreaks of drinking water-associated illness and water restrictions during droughts demonstrate that we cannot take our drinking water for granted.

Did you know that your tap drinking water may contain a number of contaminants from a range of sources that can make you ill? Some contaminants have an effect on the look, smell and taste of your drinking water, yet some will be unnoticeable and can potentially have more harmful effects on your health.

Healthy drinking – milk.

Low-fat and fat-free milk are healthful beverage alternatives. Next to water, low-fat or fat-free milk and soy milk are the best beverage options for your family healthy drinking. Milk contains calcium, which we often don’t get enough of, as well as protein. Soy milk is a great alternative to cow’s milk, especially if you are lactose intolerant, have problems with chronic upper respiratory infections (sinus infections or ear infections), have asthma, or are just looking to include more soy in your diet. Chocolate milk is healthy drink for an occasional treat; just try to control the amount of chocolate added to keep the sugar under control.

Healthy drinking – vegetable juice.

Healthy drinking of vegetable juice is a great low-calorie choice that offers antioxidants, such as vitamins A and C, and other nutrients such as lycopene, which has been linked to a reduced risk of prostate cancer. Eight ounces of vegetable juice has 2 grams of fiber, is very low in sugar, and has only 50 calories.

Healthy drinking – coffee drinks.

With the rise of the chain coffee houses has come the popularity of creamy coffee drinks that are chock full of sugar and calories You could easily get more than half of your daily calorie allowance from your coffee break. Fortunately, you don’t have to forgo your treat. There are many lower-calorie choices, such as a small café latte or cappuccino made with fat-free milk (about 120 calories). You could also try for healthy drinking a 12-ounce Chai tea with fat-free milk for about 170 calories. Choose from a selection of herbal teas or, of course, plain old zero-calorie black java. And instead of the muffins or cake, try a crunchy biscotti for around 120 calories.

Healthy drinking – 100 percent fruit juice.

100 percent fruit juice is just that — it is made solely from fruit with no sugar added. Healthy drinking of fruit juice has the added benefit of being full of the vitamins that are naturally found in fruit, such as vitamin C and folate. I would suggest limiting the total amount of juice for the day to 4 to 8 ounces.

Bradford and Airedale Community pharmacy development and clinical governance pharmacist from BAtPCT, Rachel Urban, mark out:

Top tips for babies’ healthy drinking

- Breast milk or infant formula should be the main drink for babies aged one and under
- Cooled boiled water is best if extra drinks are needed between meals
- Sugary drinks should never be served in a bottle
- Parents should not allow babies to use a bottle in bed
- Bottles should not be used by babies aged over 12 months
- Pure unsweetened fruit juice is a useful source of vitamin C and should be drunk with main meals or breakfast
- Squash, if given, should be served at mealtimes only and never in a feeding bottle
- Fizzy drinks – including diet drinks – should be discouraged
- Free-flow feeder cups should be used from six months
- Valve cups, anyway up and sip and seal cups are not recommended

Our state of health mostly depends on how well we look after our bodies, and it’s very important our diet includes good, healthy fruit. We must also get plenty of exercise, and drink lots of liquids. By liquids, I don’t mean coke, lemonade or other drinks that contain a lot of sugar.

Here’s the list of the healthiest drinks in the world:

1. Water
The best and most healthy drink in the world is water. So safe drinking water is another essential. It is the most natural drink in the world yet normal tap water can contain up to 2100 contaminants and if you are consuming these you can be exposed to all means of nasties such as poisons, lead ingestion & even chlorine. So in order to get the full benefits of water you must drink it from a pure source. Pregnant women should drink pure water as impure water can lead to birth defects.

2. Tea
Tea is actually one of the three healthiest drinks in the world. In fact, it is the most commonly consumed beverage after water. The simple tea leaf has conquered the world and has become a beloved drink that billions of people enjoy. However, tea is not just an ordinary beverage. This delicately flavored drink offers numerous important health benefits. It’s therefore not sensible to stop drinking tea in favour of sweetened, artificially flavoured drinks.

The antioxidants that tea contains in abundance can help keep our immune systems healthy and fight infections; they have anti-aging properties, and can even help in the fight against cancer causing cells. The polyphenols in tea can reduce gastric, esophageal and skin cancers. Another health benefit of tea is that it has virtually no calories. Tea is a perfect beverage for people who are trying to reduce weight. It is also a preferred alternative to coffee as it has less caffeine. Tea also contains fluoride for strong teeth. Green tea also seems to help protect the body from autoimmune disorders. As one of the healthiest drinks in the world, green tea aids digestion, boosts the immune system, promotes weight loss, inhibits carcinogens, and lowers cholesterol and high blood pressure.

It’s clear that we should be drinking as much tea as we can. And with a sophisticated black kettle as a part of your stylish black and white kitchen, boiling up that brew can be as fun as it is healthy.

3. Grape Juice
Grape juice is a fruit juice obtained from crushing grapes, and considering all of its benefits it can be named as one of the healthiest drinks in the world. The juice is often fermented and made into wine, brandy, or vinegar.

A recent study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found that grape juice was among the highest in antioxidants among the juices tested, including pomegranate juice. Red wine and certain types of grape juices have high levels of polyfenol which can stop the production of proteins causing cardiovascular illnesses. Drinking Concord grape juice can be good for the heart – much like red wine. And so, with the link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer causing concern for some women, drinking 100 percent grape juice made from Concord grapes can help your heart and perhaps your breast health. Grape juice can also lower the risk of developing the blood clots that lead to heart attacks.

4. Superjuice
One of the healthiest drinks in the world – is a superjuice that contains 19 different nutrient-rich fruits, and the whole fruit: juice, pulp and skin, so you get all the goodness and antioxidants. The main ingredient is the acai berry from the Amazon rainforest, which has been dubbed The World’s Number One Super Food by Dr Nicholas Perricone. The other fruits include bilberry, goji (wolfberry), pomegranate, acerola, camucamu, red and white grapes, all selected so that the superjuice is packed with health-protecting phytonutrients right across the entire colour spectrum.

Remember it’s important to drink much, but don’t forget about the clean drinking water.

Sometimes we want something to chew. Not too caloric and not too sweet. Jelly beans candies are most suitable for this purpose.
Jelly beans are a different flavored type of confectionery. Generally they have fruit taste and are made of sugar. They are small like groundnut. You can easy eat them at work or while moving. Nowadays jelly beans candy producers make also sugar free candies.

So you can buy a Bulk Jelly Beans and don’t worry about it… “Oh nuts” has many to choose from. But come time when it becomes too sweet. And we want to wash down candies with some drink. What one can drink with confectionery, particularly with jelly beans?

Juice
Kids love candy with juice. But don’t drink it with moderation with candies, if candies contain sugar and juice is acidic it can be not so good for your teeth.

Soda
You probably already know about mints and cola? Therefore be very careful mixing it with different candies. But I think there won’t be any problems with jelly beans. By the way, jelly beans may serve as an alternative to a cola beverage containing 50 gm of glucose, researches say.

Tea
Tea is good with any candies. Better to drink not so hot tea, it can be both black tea or fruit tea.

Coffee
You can try to drink coffee or cappuccino with jelly beans.

Water
Best water quality is that it can wash down absolutely everything, and even more.

What do you drink with jelly beans or after them?

It’s a very interesting to know about the most popular non-alcoholic drinks in the world. Where are they from, what are their compositions and some special features about them.

1. TEA

Tea is a drink made by infusing leaves of the tea plant in hot water. The name ‘tea’ is also used to refer to the leaves themselves; and it is also the name of a mid- to late-afternoon meal in the British Isles and associated countries, at which tea (the drink) is served along with various foods.

Tea has been an item of trade and tribute for at least three thousand years. It was first cultivated and brewed in China, and many of the best varieties still come from China. Some of the finest oolongs in the world are grown in Taiwan. Japan also produces a considerable amount of green tea, most of which is consumed domestically.

After the British took up tea drinking, they began cultivating the plants native to India in order to have more control over the trade. India, Sri Lanka, and other South Asian countries produce a large portion of the world harvest.

Standage says tea played a leading role in the expansion of imperial and industrial might in Great Britain many centuries later. During the 19th century, the East India Company enjoyed a monopoly on tea exports from China.

As the Industrial Revolution of 18th and 19th centuries gained steam, tea provided some of the fuel. Factory workers stayed alert during long, monotonous shifts thanks to welcome tea breaks.

The beverage also had unintended health benefits for rapidly growing urban areas.

2. WATER

Water (H₂O) is often perceived to be ordinary as it is transparent, odorless, tasteless and ubiquitous. It is the simplest compound of the two most common reactive elements, consisting of just two hydrogen atoms attached to a single oxygen atom. Indeed, very few molecules are smaller or lighter.

From a biological standpoint, water has many distinct properties that are critical for the proliferation of life that set it apart from other substances. It carries out this role by allowing organic compounds to react in ways that ultimately allow replication. All known forms of life depend on water. Without water, your body would stop working properly. Water makes up more than half of your body weight and a person can’t survive for more than a few days without it. Why? Your body has lots of important jobs and it needs water to do many of them. For instance, your blood, which contains a lot of water, carries oxygen to all the cells of your body. Without oxygen, those tiny cells would die and your body would stop working. In addition to being an important part of the fluids in your body, each cell depends on water to function normally.

3. COFFEE

Coffee is a well-known beverage prepared from coffee beans, of the coffee plant.

The story of how coffee growing and drinking spread around the world is one of the greatest and most romantic in history and starts in the Arabian Peninsula, where roasted beans were first brewed around A.D. 1000. Sometime around the 15th century coffee spread throughout the Arab world.

When coffee arrived in Europe it was similarly hailed as an “anti-alcohol” that was quite welcome during the Age of Reason in the 18th century.

Coffee raises capacity for work, gives strengths and energy and topes up. But there is a negative coffee’s influence in the human’s health because of its caffeine.

Coffee also fuelled commerce and had strong links to the rituals of business that remain to the present day.

4. KVASS

Kvass is a very refreshing Russian beverage which is made in many Russian households about once a week. Kvass is a lacto-fermented beverage made from stale rye bread. It tastes like beer but is not alcoholic. Kvass is considered a tonic for digestion and excellent thirst. It is also recognized that kvass is safer to drink than water.

Kvass protects against infectious disease, there is no worry about sharing the glass. In wealthy households, various kinds of kvass were made either with rye bread or with currants, raspberries, lemons, apples, pears, cherries, bilberries and lingonberries.

Real bread kvass using natural ingredients in its production technology – dried rye bread, sugar and water. As a result of the fermentation process, a thirst-quenching drink is obtained, with a distinct bread aroma and a strong rye bread taste. Unifying modern production technology with ancient fermenting methods, a flavor composition is obtained reflecting a product of a completely new quality, which pleasantly quenches thirst. Recommended to be used chilled!

The alcohol content is so low (0.05-1.44%) that it is considered acceptable for consumption by children. It is often flavoured with fruits or herbs such as strawberries or mint.

5. JUICE

Juice is a liquid naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue. Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fresh fruits or vegetables without the application of heat or solvents. For example, orange juice is the liquid extract of the fruit of the orange tree. Juice may be prepared in the home from fresh fruits and vegetables using variety of hand or electric juicers.

Popular juices include but are not limited to apple, orange, prune, lemon, grapefruit, pineapple, tomato, carrot, grape, strawberry, cherry, cranberry, celery and pomegranate. It has become increasingly popular to combine a variety of fruits into single juice drinks.

Juices are often consumed for their health benefits. For example, orange juice is rich in vitamin C, while prune juice is associated with a digestive health benefit. Cranberry juice has long been known to help prevent or even treat bladder infections, and it is now known that a substance in cranberries prevents bacteria from binding to the bladder.

6. LEMONADE

Lemonade is a worldwide non-alcoholic drink. Summer is the best time of drinking it especially with the mint. Iced lemonade always will slake and will raise your mood.

It’s a drink made of lemon juice (fresh better), water and sugar or honey. Lemonade much better and healthy than any soft drink. To prepare lemonade is so easy as preparing tea or coffee.

In the US, a drink made of lemon juice, sugar and water in the UK, a carbonated drink that doesn’t necessarily contain anything closer to a lemon than a bit of citric acid.

A mojito is traditionally made of five ingredients: rum, sugar (traditionally sugar cane juice), lime, carbonated water and mint. Its combination of sweetness and refreshing citrus and mint flavors are intended to mask the potent kick of the rum, and have made this clear cocktail a popular summer drink. Wikipedia

But what about non-alcoholic drinkers?

Of course, there can’t be a problem to make any non-alcoholic drink from any cocktail, all the more so non-alcoholic drinks are more cool and refreshing. Let’s discover how to make non-alcoholic mojito!

To make non-alcoholic mojito (nojito) you need:

• Fresh mint
• 1 lime
• 1 packet sugar substitute
• Crushed ice
• 6 fluid ounces lime-flavored sparkling water

Crush a sprig of mint in the bottom of a cocktail glass. Squeeze the juice of one fresh lime into the glass. Add 1 package of sugar substitute, crushed ice, and 6 ounces of lime-flavored sparkling water. Garnish with mint and serve.

Or you can try this variation of nojito (mojito) recipe:

• crushed ice
• 8 mint leaf
• 3 ounces lime juice
• 1 1/2 ounces sugar syrup
• 2 ounces club soda
• garnish with mint

Fill a pint glass 1/3 full with ice, then add mint leaves. Add the lime juice and sugar syrup. Lightly mash the leaves together with the liquid using a muddle stick or wooden pestle, careful not to tear the leaves. Fill the glass with more ice, then add club soda. Garnish with mint, serve, and enjoy!

Very nice, right?

Tomato Juice is a very healthy, tasty and easily prepared drink that can help rejuvenate your energy.
Tomato contains (per 100g):
Calories: 23 kcal
Protein: 0.88g
Carbohydrate: 3.92g
Sugar: 2.58g
Fat: 0.2g

Also Tomato gives you as much as 10% of daily dose of Vitamin A, 13% of Vitamin C, 1% of Iron and 1% Calcium.
And it’s the most wonderful – you can easily prepare different kinds of Tomato Juice at home.
Nothing tastes better then homemade Tomato Juice. It is a wonderful alternative to store bought juice, and you’ll be surprised at how great it tastes! Low-Fat Tomato Juice fights negative effects of increased fat intake, otherwise rapidly absorbed by the body.

5 Recepies of Low-Fat Tomato Juices:

1. The Gardener

Ingredients:
1 cup tomato juice
1 teaspoon celery juice
Parsley
Salt
Combine all ingredients; stir well.

2. Piquant

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups tomato juice
1 teaspoon grated onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Combine all ingredients; stir well. Chill for several hours; serve in juice glasses.

3. Easy Tomato Juice cocktail

Ingredients:
18 lbs. ripe tomatoes (7 qts. juice)
1/4 c. chopped onion
2 c. chopped celery
1 c. chopped carrots
1/2 c. sugar
4 tbsp. picking salt
1 tbsp. celery seeds

4. Fresh

Ingredients:
3 cups fresh tomato juice
1 cup fresh carrot juice
1 cup fresh red beet juice
Parsley
Salt
Pepper
Combine all ingredients; stir well. Serve in juice-jug with ice.

5. Hospitality

Ingredients:
1 liters fresh tomato juice
Tomato pieces
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
Parsley
Combine all ingredients; stir well. Serve in juice-jug with ice and olives.

The best way to get the most flavor out of your tomatoes is to juice them by themselves. However, there are a lot of options if you would like to flavor your tomato juice. You can add spices, some pure vanilla extract or some stevia to your tomato juice to suit your tastes.

Have you ever wondered if a cup of coffee or tea and milk can substitute as one of your recommended eight glasses of water a day? Most drinks do a good job of hydrating, but the components of some common drinks sharply reduce their hydrating ability. Which drinks are the best hydrators, and which the worst? Here are the three most hydrating and the four least hydrating drinks.

Drinks That Are Strong Hydrators

Water
Water is the preeminent beverage for correctly hydrating the body.

Herbal Teas (Infusions)
The leaves from plants such as mint, verbena, linden, balm, and so on give a pleasant aroma and flavor to the water in which they are steeped, which makes infusions a satisfying alternative to people who don’t enjoy drinking plain water.

The medicinal properties of the plants do not have a negative effect on the body’s assimilation of the water.

Note: The benefit does not extend to sweetened infusions, or if the tea is made with plants that have diuretic properties, such as dandelion.

Fruit and Vegetable Juices
The water in fruits and vegetables–their juice–is one of the liquids nature has provided for hydrating our bodies. Juice is water bound to a substance. To maintain our harmonic balance with nature and avoid taking in too high a concentration of nutrients and sugars, we should consider juice a secondary resource to be used in moderation.

Drinks that Are Weak Hydrators

Coffee, Tea, and Cocoa
Drinks that have a base of coffee, black tea, or cocoa are quite high in purins, toxins that must be eliminated from the body by urine or sweat in the form of uric acid. Purines need to be diluted in large quantities of liquid to be evacuated without irritation. A good portion of the water consumed with these drinks is used to eliminate the toxins.

Milk
Milk is a food, not a drink, and its digestion by adults is frequently incomplete.

Whey, on the other hand, is very easily digested, but its diuretic properties are an impediment to its consumption as a daily beverage.

Soft Drinks
Soft drinks often have a high caffeine base, a diuretic, which makes a body lose water before it has time to make its way into the intracellular environment. The other problem comes from the high sugar content of most sodas. The body has a hard time properly metabolizing refined sugar. To correct the reaction to this, the body has to surrender water from the extracellular fluid. Because that makes a person thirsty, a vicious circle is created, as the thirst is being maintained by the very beverage that is drink with the intention of getting rid of it.

Alcoholic Beverages
Alcohol itself has dehydrating properties, removing water from the tissues it contacts and drying them out and increasing the need for water.

Adapted from The Water Prescription, by Christopher Vasey, N.D.

Grape juice is a fruit juice obtained from crushing grapes. The juice is often fermented and made into wine, brandy, or vinegar. In the wine industry grape juice which contains 7-23 percent of pulp, skins, stems and seeds, is often referred to as “must.” Grape juice can also be sweetened and preserved as a non-alcoholic drink beverage.

Commercial grape juice and grape juice drinks contain preservatives and coloring, and sometimes vitamins. Like wine, grape juice also contains antioxidants such as flavonoids, providing some health benefits. These antioxidants have been proven beneficial to the skin.Typically, purple grape juice is made from concord grapes.

Benefits of Grape Juice.

A recent study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found that grape juice was among the highest in antioxidants among the juices tested, including pomegranate juice. Care should be taken when drawing conclusions from these results, since the pomegranate juice used was only a 30% pomegranate juice blend — 30% pomegranate juice diluted with sugar water and other lower-antioxidant juices.

French scientists claim grape juice can have the same protective effect as red wine. Dr. Valeriea Schini-Kerth is leading a study in Cardiovascular Research, states that grape juice shows the same effects as red wine, which is a very important discovery.

Researchers at Strasbourg Louis Pasteur University undertook experiments on the juice of red grapes with large seeds.

Red wine and certain types of grape juices have high levels of polyfenol which can stop the production of proteins causing cardiovascular illnesses.

Schini-Kerth states that not every grape juice has the same effect, but those containing polyfenol can be effective.

Grape Juice Protect against Breast Cancer

Every three minutes, a woman in the United States is diagnosed with breast cancer . While factors like age and heredity contribute significantly to a woman’s likelihood of contracting this disease, lifestyle and nutrition choices may also play a role. One dietary choice that may help provide protection against breast cancer is a glass of 100 percent grape juice made from deep purple Concord grapes.

According to a new study, published in the current issue of the Journal of Medicinal Foods, natural compounds in Concord grape juice protected healthy human breast cells from DNA damage. Healthy human breast cells were exposed in a test tube to an environmental carcinogen, benzo(a)pyrene, that is able to initiate a chain of events leading to breast cancer. However, the introduction of Concord grape juice compounds blocked the connection of the carcinogen to the DNA of the healthy cells.

“The purple grape compounds demonstrated the capacity to inhibit DNA adduct formation as well as to increase the activity of enzymes that metabolize and detoxify carcinogens, and suppress potentially cancer-causing oxidative stress,” said Dr. Keith Singletary, nutrition professor and lead researcher at the University of Illinois. “These new data suggest that anthocyanins present in Concord grape juice, as well as some other fruits and juices, warrant further study for their breast cancer chemopreventive potential.”

This research is the latest to suggest that Concord grape juice may be of value in maintaining breast health by suppressing oxidative stress and inhibiting DNA damage to cells that can lead to the initiation of cancer, or in helping to slow the progression of breast cancer by slowing the multiplication of cancer cells. Diets high in natural antioxidants have been associated with a reduced risk of some types of cancers, and Welch’s 100% Grape Juice made from Concord grapes is particularly high in anthocyanins, potent natural antioxidants that give the juice its characteristic deep purple color.

Benefits of Grape Juice for Heart

Drinking Concord grape juice can be good for the heart – much like red wine. And so, with the link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer causing concern for some women, drinking 100 percent grape juice made from Concord grapes can help your heart and perhaps your breast health.

Grapes, like nuts, seeds, some vegetables and fruits, contain flavonoids – interesting substances that are also found in red wine and act as antioxidants. The investigators studied twelve men and three women, average age 62 years, who had known coronary heart disease. They were asked to drink Welch’s 100% Concord Grapes for fourteen days – about 21 ounces or two-thirds of a quart a day. Studies were then made of the diameter of an artery in the arm and the ability of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL, so called bad cholesterol) to be oxidized, a step thought to be important for LDL to get into blood vessel walls and cause arteriosclerosis.

The results showed that, after the grape juice diet, the blood vessels showed a greater ability to dilate and the LDL was more resistant to oxidation, both reactions likely to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and heart attacks.

Grape juice can also lower the risk of developing the blood clots that lead to heart attacks, according to unpublished findings from Georgetown University researcher Jane Freedman, M.D. So can red wine, but in this case grape juice is the more practical way to go: “Wine only prevents blood from clotting (when it’s consumed) at levels high enough to declare someone legally drunk,” says University of Wisconsin researcher John Folts, Ph.D. “With grape juice, you can drink enough to get the benefit without worrying about becoming intoxicated.”

With a glass of purple grape juice with breakfast or for an afternoon snack, her heart can realize the same benefits as those of her wine-drinking friends. And if you don’t want wine at dinner, uncork one of the fine nonalcoholic reds on the market. They’re loaded with antioxidants as well as great flavor and you can drink all you like without worrying about driving home.