Cheers! January is National Soup Month and National Hot Tea Month and staying hydrated keeps you healthier, feeling great, and looking great too. We can stay hydrated through alternatives to just drinking water like low-sodium soups, teas, and smoothies. Drinking these to your health will get you on the fast track to hydration, possibly dropping a couple of pounds – and maybe even erasing a couple of years from your skin. This is the perfect reminder to start off the year healthy and remember why soups and teas are important staples in our diets.
Soup is a quick, hot meal which can be made with fewer calories. You can throw a few ingredients into the slow cooker in the morning and have dinner ready by the time you get home from work, with all of the flavors and textures infused with one another. The healthiest soups include fresh, low-fat ingredients and a minimum of salt and extra fat. You can use up leftovers in a soup pot and create new variations of favorite recipes, since soup lends itself to experimentation. The American Heart Association recommends that you consume eight or more servings of fruits and vegetables every single day. Eating soups full of protein and vegetables can add to these servings.
Likewise, teas can be a very healthy solution for your body. From green tea to hibiscus, from white tea to chamomile, teas are chock full of flavonoids and other healthy goodies. For thousands of years, tea has been regarded in the Far East as the key to good health, happiness, and wisdom. It is shared among friends and family and there are so many health benefits. According to webmd.com, “Studies have found that some teas may help with cancer, heart disease, and diabetes; encourage weight loss; lower cholesterol; and bring about mental alertness. Tea also appears to have antimicrobial qualities.” “There doesn’t seem to be a downside to tea,” says American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Katherine Tallmadge, MA, RD, LD.
But when you drink teas and eat soups, it can easily be ruined by bad-tasting or contaminated drinking water. Water with a strong sulfur scent can overpower the tea or soup itself. While bad-tasting or bad-smelling water is not considered a public drinking water threat, it can mask or change the true taste of your tea or soup. National Soup Month and National Hot Tea Month is the perfect time to consider one of our drinking water systems. Whether sulfur or chlorine has your soups and teas tasting off, you can now raise your class to our water filters and live better.
