Soft drinks are mostly corn syrup. Most “juice” drinks aren’t much better. Even things that claim to be water are soft drinks with different marketing. (Are we not supposed to notice that the second ingredient — “crystalline fructose” — is sugar?)
Lucky for me, back in college I dated a girl who drank Diet Coke. That’s what she always had in her apartment, so whenever I was there, that’s what I drank. After a while, “regular” colas started tasting sticky-sweet, and I couldn’t drink them any more. Of course, diet sodas have some stuff in them I probably shouldn’t be drinking for other reasons.
So what am I supposed to do, drink water? Oh … right.
In the U.S. we’ve got access to public water systems that are a civil engineering miracle. Hundreds of millions of people who can turn a faucet and clean, drinkable water comes out, all day, every day. (Except if you live near a natural gas well. Sorry.)
But we don’t drink it. Some people like bottled water for the convenience, but that’s not my thing. So why don’t I drink it? I just figured it out. You ready? Because it’s boring.
No, nothing wrong with it, it just isn’t as interesting as the other things in the fridge. Wait, the fridge, could that be it?
It turns out that yes, all I had to do was start keeping water in the fridge along with all my other drinks. As soon as I had cold water handy, and didn’t need to bend over and get the ice cubes out of the freezer — and gosh, what a hassle that is — I started drinking water.
How about you? Do you drink tap water? If not … why?
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29 Comments
I don’t drink a lot of water. Most of the time, I’ll either make Crystal Light or Iced Tea; but every once in a while I’ll get on a big water kick, where it’s nothing but water for a week at a time. I love taking a little lemon or lime to help it along.
I do the same thing to drink more water. I need it to be very cold. Tap water just doesn’t cut it so I always keep some handy in the fridge. Sure bottled water is nice and convenient but if you use solely bottled water the price certainly adds up.
I also add some lemon or lime to it some days to make it a little more interesting.
I am addicted to iced tea. I always have a couple gallons of home made iced tea (unsweetened) in the fridge. I drink most my water this way.
I drink about 16 cups of water a day. It must be cold, very cold and be totally tasteless. Please do not ruin it with lime, lemon, or anything else. If I wanted flavored water, I would drink tea!
When we moved and had to purchase a refridgerator, one of the requirements was that it have an ice maker and a water dispenser in the door. I use the ice, but usually get the water straight from the tap. The water dispenser gives it a funky taste.
We’re water from the tap and a couple of ice cubes people, and we do drink alot of water. But, for something special we make ‘cucumber water.’ Thinly sliced cucumber in a pitcher of ice water. It is amazingly refreshing, and always a hit with dinner guests.
We do the same thing! Cucumber water is incredibly refreshing and tasty! =)
I don’t drink much besides water (the occasional tea or hot chocolate). I gave up sodas a long time ago and never got into coffee. I also prefer my water room temperature.
I’ve been keeping tap water in my fridge for years and I gave up drinking pop about 12 years ago. I occasionally will drink tea or some lemonade, but water is my main drink. I tried bottled water for a while but then I figured why spend the money on it when I can get it from my tap for cheap.
I drink tap water(from a well) all day long. I just keep refilling my Camelbak bottle and drink it throughout the day. I guess I never think of it as boring, plus sweet beverages do not satisfy my thirst.
Normally I only drink other beverages at meals, with the exception of a hot day where an Iced coffee or a cold beer really hits the spot!
David Gillespie, author of Sweet Poison, had a fair bit to say about how much sugar is in many popular foods and drinks. We all know soft drinks are major culprits, but so are fruit juices. Flavoured milk also has an elevated amount of sugar, though not as high as soft drink.
I’ve always been one to drink water. I try to have a cup every time I make a cup of coffee. I’ve also given up soft drink with my lunch. Now I go for milk.
We, the adults, gave up pop, since my kids never drank much pop they have given up the sweet drinks, or we dilute them more. Our tap water doesn’t have a pleasant taste (I grew up getting fresh water from a spring at my grandmothers and that ruined tap water for me), so we have a water filter to help out. I’m a sucker for sweet tea (not REALLY sweet, but sweet enough for me!) and milk. Occasionally I will make crystal light or koolaid, just not often. My hubby drinks loads of water since I stopped buying pop… I am trying… I just don’t like it.
We drink a LOT of water in this house. But with the exception of what’s used for hot drinks, it’s all filtered. Brita must be cleaning up considering how ghastly the average glass of city water tastes. I assume it’s all the chemicals they have to put in to keep it clean. Odd isn’t it; it’s supposed to be clean and safe, yet it tastes like crap.
If you’re lucky enough to be rural or at least off-main and therefore have your own well, you’re one lucky dog. My parents lived in rural New Brunswick with their own well and difference was like night and day, both for drinking and every day use for things like laundry and bathing.
I find tap water that’s been refrigerated is only passable as long as it’s cold. Once it starts to warm up, “bleurgh”. I understand it’s better or worse, depending where you live.
After my first gallon of tap water, it does get boring. I switch to water kefir soda, kombucha or raw milk with meals because it helps my digestion. Sometimes in the evening I’ll put an ice cube of pureed fruit in my water for a little sweetening and coolness, especially if I’ve been out working in the garden. I have an undersink filter to help my citified chlorine water (think: drinking swimming pool water) taste a little better.
I definitely drink a lot of tap water and I don’t like it refrigerated or iced. I think I must be the only one who prefers it to be cold but not COLD.
Filtered tap water (slightly sulphury water with iron in it), mixed with 2 C. cranberry juice and about 2/3 C. fresh key lime juice, and 4 artificial sweeteners per gallon. Does that count as drinking water? Very refreshing, has a bit of vit. C, and the cranberry juice I need.
I’m drinking a lot more water now that I’ve kicked caffeine and artificial sweeteners for the baby’s health. Also, wow — I drank a LOT of fluids before (compared to my friends/spouse) but I have had to double my intake while pregnant. I’m hoping that this healthy habit stays with me once baby is here.
I’ll probably get the hairy eyeball, buttttttttttt……….I rarely drink water. Coffee or diet coke all day…. Eh….at least I’m honest?
I wonder if cities have stopped trying so hard with their water supplies, assuming everyone is drinking bottled or filtered water anyway. Asking the question is probably bringing out all the people who don’t like the taste of their local supply, but I wouldn’t have expected this many.
Brita Filtered tap water, stored in quart size mason jars in the fridge, when ready to serve, a 1/4 teaspoon of Simply Lemon or Simply Lime mixed in to give it some zing!
So, I’m helping keep the Brita and the Simply Lemon people in business, because I drink about 4-5 quarts of water throughout the day.
I get headaches when I don’t get enough water. : (
Oops, I meant True Lemon and True Lime – I thought I might have it wrong!
The water out of the taps at home comes from a bore, and as well as being hard water, it is also contaminated with cow manure, although apparently not enough to cause disease, so they tell us. Also they recently added fluoride, and it contains chlorine, and tastes disgusting, even if chilled.
Bottled water is expensive, although I do buy it occasionally. I did have a “kick” at work where I bought bottled water and then refilled it with the chilled water from the tap – at least the water supply where I work is from a dam and not contaminated or full of minerals.
I do feel healthier if I drink water and not coke, other soft drinks, or juice. If you dont like water, why not add some lemon juice, a tiny splash of cordial, or something like that to help it taste better. Also wondering if vegie juice, like V8, is as healthy as they make out – it doesnt taste too bad and is not sweet.
My parents always told my siblings and I to drink tap water for the flouride. They said “back in the day,” that’s where they got their flouride. My father insists this is why he’s never had a cavity. Of course, my mother has had quite a few, and several root canals too, so I don’t know.
Here in Los Angeles, the cleanliness of the tap water is so varied. I grew up in a nice upper-class neighborhood where the tap water is some of the cleanest in California. I live about 10 miles north of there now, and read an article a few years ago that said there were over 100 “foreign substances” in my area’s tap water. It said the water was safe for consumption, but that put me off completely. I work about 4 miles away from my home, further north in the San Fernando Valley, and our tap water comes out of the faucets yellow and stinks like none other. We never drink that water or use it for anything but cleaning our paintbrushes and art supplies.
Drinking more water takes practice and diligence, I think. I only drink two non-water drinks per day now. One is always my morning coffee and I leave the other one open. In between, I force myself to carry bottles of Smart Water around. Oh, and drink them.
I drink looooads of water, so much so that I had to go and get a diabetes test as one of being ultra-thirsty is one of the symptoms. I don’t have diabetes but I just find water so refreshing. I have a ltr bottle on my desk that I fill five or six times a day and a pint glass at home that I fill four or five times an evening and then take to bed. I then have another pint when I wake up. I always have a bottle of water in my bag too. I think it’s normally about 10ltrs a day, which is a bit excessive! No special treatment, just straight from the tap. Delish! I also have a couple of cups of coffee a day, and a can of Diet Coke, but I don’t drink juices, sodas or other soft drinks as a rule.
I’d go as far as to say that I can feel quite panicked if I can’t get to a glass of water, although I’m blessed to be in a country where drinkable water is readily available. That’s why one of the charities I sponsor is Water Aid – the thought of not having access to water is horrifying.
A few years back I was on quite a strict diet and I had to have 3L of water a day. I soon discovered that if I went to bed with a glass of water next to me and I have first thing in the morning (before I’m even properly awake) that I’m thirsty all day and that only water will quench that thirst.
I know it’s not so nice to have water first thing in the morning but this sure worked and many people I’ve shared this with have agreed that this helped them to drink more too. Whenever I need to up my intake now I follow the same routine.
Is that one of our local dairy milk bottles I see in your refrigerator? Awesome. What a nice, if weird, souvenir of your trip. Glass keeps everything colder.
I drink water all day long–straight from the tap, out of our own glass jug in the fridge, with ice, and sometimes, in the form of seltzer when I get tired of it straight and want some bubbles. It’s particularly important to keep hydrated when producing large amounts of milk a day to feed a voracious baby, so this summer especially I’ve never been without a glass of some kind of water next to me.
Why yes, it is. And we’ve got three more of them on the counter.
In high school, I never drank enough water, but in college I started using a Britta filter because the tap at my school was disgusting, and sure enough, having cold, filtered water ready in the fridge does inspire you to drink more water! I also started carrying around a recycled aluminum water bottle, which I empty probably once or twice a day in the California heat. Carrying a bottle around is a great way to drink more, since you always have it on hand.
I have always been a big water drink, I especially was when I was pregnant with my first, and still being a nursing mother with my second child, I know how important it is to drink lots of water. Where I grew up, we had a well, so I drank straight from the tap. In college and our post-college apartment, my husband and I used Brita pitchers or Pur faucet filters. Now at our new house, we were told there was a high level of lead in our well water, so we had an osmosis filter installed so we get tap water from a little tap on the side of the kitchen sink. The water is always lukewarm, but I feel it’s easier to “pound it” and drink a lot at once at way. It also has a slight sweet taste that I like (hopefully it’s totally healthy!).
I’m an athlete so I drink about three liters of water everyday, but I am one of those unfortunates that does live next to a natural gas well. I wouldn’t use the water that comes out of my tap for anything except cleaning the floor.
In our house we have sparkling water (bubble water, in 3 year old speak) and I am the one who got my husband addicted to it. Cue the wavy line flashback.
I grew up in San Francisco in the 80s. In Napa Vally, there is a little town called Calistoga which is the source for Calistoga Sparkling Water (I can’t remember if it’s mineral). At different parties I would go to with my parents (Mom’s a nurse, Dad’s in politics) I would get a Calistoga. Sometimes with lemon, most times with lime. Fastforward some 20 odd years, and Hurricane Rita is bearing down on the Upper Texas Gulf Coast. I go to the local store, hoping to find some bottle water in case the water goes out, and to my surprise, there is no left. But there are boxes of canned sparkling water. I know it’s basically the same thing, so I grab a few cases. When I brought them home, my husband thought I had done a crazy thing and bought soda instead of water. After numerous hours of debate, I got him to try one can. It was like the Life cereal commercial, “Hey Mikey! He likes it!” Now it’s 5 years later and if I don’t have sparkling water in the fridge, my dyed in the wool Texan husband will go out and get it. It goes great with barbecue.
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