Fruity Water

 "Soda" is most definitely a four-letter word in our Clean-Eating family. I'm of the opinion that soda is one of the very worst things you can possibly put into your body. Numerous studies have shown that nothing good can come from drinking this toxic stuff. And, it turns out, diet soda is just as bad as regular. I'm proud to say that my kids have never touched the stuff, and I haven't had any since I was a child myself.

But here is our dark little secret: When I first met The Man of the House, he was *gasp* a soda drinker! Though he was already vegetarian, and had a desire to live a healthier lifestyle, he did still have a few old habits to break, soda being one of them. When he met me, he switched to Vitamin Water, figuring that was surely a much healthier choice. Going further, he chose to go with Vitamin Water Zero, which claims to be all natural and have zero calories. Sounds a bit too good to be true, but still better than soda, right?

Well, maybe not so much. Upon hearing about the lawsuit being brought against Vitamin Water for false claims about the true "healthiness" of their beverage, I started reading more closely into this. The first article I read referred mostly to the sugar-laden version of the beverage, but in reading a bit more about this, it seems that Zero isn't such a healthy choice, either.

Freshly-made Fruity Water:
Lemon-Orange,Strawberry-Lemon &Orange 

So, The Man decided that maybe he should give it up and just stick with straight water. And he did. But boy, he missed having his once-a-day fruit-flavored Vitamin Water! So to fill that void for him, we started making what we have come to call, "Fruity Water." This is exactly what it sounds like... sliced up fresh fruit in water. Pretty much any fruit will do... citrus, berries, kiwi, mango... whatever you like. It's best to use filtered water, if you can. We put ours in mason jars, because, well, we pretty much put everything in mason jars. And also because then The Man can just grab a jar out of the fridge and go. But sometimes we put it in our glass pitcher, which looks really fancy and pretty.

According to The Man, this stuff tastes best when it sits in the fridge for a couple of days before you drink it, so that the water gets really fruity.

Frosty, delicious Strawberry-Lemon Fruity Water
Ready to enjoy.