Drinking habits, when, where, what to drink
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In my previous article i was discussing about our everyday eating habits and how to eat.
I started that article thinking about the fact that eating is something we do every day and has a big impact on our life and health. But seems i overlooked something that we do more often than eating and that is having an even bigger impact on us … that is drinking. We are made out of water in a big proportion, in fact any life form relies on water to live. So we do know that water is the primordial drink and that all drinks contain water in a smaller or bigger proportion.
But before we begin i will tell you that i will be using from now on in my articles references to Wikipedia or other information sources in places where i don’t want or is not needed for me to explain terms further. So you can click on the available terms and one new page will open displaying the external source. Me and my website has no responsability whatsoever on external sources and the informations other display.
We drink because we have to … or because we want to. As any other thing, we should drink as much as we need to and only because we need it. Drinking because we want to become “drunk” is not an natural thing thus is not very good from the start.
The only time when is not a good time to drink is before and during a meal as i wrote in the previous article.
Serving drinks … hot or cold?
In recent years the way we serve drinks changed a lot due to the new technologies of refrigeration that made ice readily available in all the public places. Now we can choose … either we drink our drink hot or cold… In my opinion the choice should be made based upon our body condition … not our wishes :-). If you come from outside in winter and your body is cold i would probably choose a hot drink. On the other hand if you have good winter clothes and you are not feeling cold than you can opt for a cold drink also even if outside is cold. If outside is hot … and your body is hot is probably a good ideea to take a normal to low temperature drink. If you sweat a lot that means the body looses temperature easily and you don’t have to drink a cold drink to balance it … you can even drink some hot stuff in this situation. On a normal day with normal temperatures … let’s say 26 degrees Celsius you can choose both hot and cold drinks depending on your choice.
How to clasify drinks?
Although all that we drink has an impact on all your body i consider the classification from the point of view of their impact on your mental/brain functions more usefull than any other forms of drinks classification. After all if your perceptions are flawed why make any other classifications :-). Not to forget… the brain is in fact controlling all your body functions. If the brain is not working properly all your body will be afected after some time.
Psychoactive drinks ( drinks that contain substances that in turn affect/alter your brain functions/perceptions )
I will not name any drinks or try to list them in any exact form. We all know what are the alcoholic drinks types, what coffee flavors there are etc. I will concentrate more on what they contain and how this affects our health.
– caffeine ( coffee’s main chemical compound ) – stimulant
* coffee – higher quantities of caffeine
* tea made from Camellia sinensis plant ( not to be mistaken with “herbal tea” – low quantities of caffeine
* soft drinks with added caffeine
* energy drinks
* cola type drinks
In my opinion short term usage ( caffeine ) is fairly ok … and can help you get through some important tasks.
Long term can create anxiety and sleep disorders. There are no recognizable long terms effects that i know or i have felt so i think you should drink coffeine drinks only when you need them it … if not at all. Is it worth it?
While i don’t accept coffe as a drink ( thow i am still drinking it from time to time ) what would I choose? Cappuccino, Plain black bad taste coffee, Espresso, Café au lait, Frappé, Flavored coffees (mocha etc.) or Latte ? I’m thinking the best answer is plain black bad taste coffee ( usually this is the “Americano” type ). Everytning other than plain coffe i think contains to many substances that can power a rocket or kill a dog … see the next substance. Also i’m guiding myself using the “try to drink normal concentration drinks” because any concentrations other than normal/natural has at least unknown effects on my body if not bad. Taking into condideration this “conclusion” i think tea is in fact the only coffeine product that people should drink, either for the psychotropic ( brain changing ) effects and for the everyday effects ( more energy in daily life ). Just don’t drink tea before going to sleep 🙂
– theobromine ( chocholate/cacao ) – stimulant
* chocholate drinks
* kola nut
* cola type drinks
While chocholate is not so addictive as coffe it has almost the same reactions as coffe. Good to know it that theobromine can cause death of your favourite pets ( dogs and cats ) . If this happens to this animals why we are so different?
– ethanol ( alcohol ) – partly stimulant
* this include any form of alcohol drinks as the basic underlying substance is the same.
Some forms of alcohol have smaller concentration ( beer ) while others like spirts have a bigger concentration. The fact that some drink containing alcohol is “good” or “bad” depends mostly on the other ingredients of the drink but remember that alcohol is BAD in ANY conbinations even if our perception is somewhat distorted by other good things that the alcohol mix can have. Read a little about other usages of alcohol and then think about what you are drinking. You will see alcohol is used for powering rockets, cars, as solvent ( cleaner ) etc.
Other substances that have an similar effects on the brain ( functional effects ) are: ketamine, PCP , DXM, Nitrous Oxide. I have read the materials from wikipedia about PCP and almost all other substances i could find similar to alcohol as function and it was quite a disturbing disovery. Not only that alcohol creates dependence and bad behavoir but high consumption can lead to even worse outcomes.
Some say … and i quote: “drinking beer and alcoholic beverages in the local pub is a very cultural tradition”. Tradition and culture are 2 different things… Do we have to accept and to become a part of that tradition? If my grandmother traditionally didn’t have a normal toilet in her countryside house that means is better to follow tradition? Culture… i think is about subculture and not knowing the effects of alcohol.
So why do we drink all this stimulants ? We know that stimulants stimulate our brain functions … we feel better, we are stronger … etc. Why we need them? Aren’t we good enough without them? You know what happens with a battery if you use it at a “faster rate” ? It will deplete faster… In my opinion stimulants don’t do anything special other than deplete our resources, life faster …
Non-Psychoactive drinks ( drinks that don’t affect much your brain functions )
* tea made from plants have usually only benefits to ones health as it contains the substances that the plants have in an easily to ingest ( drink ) form
* some herbal tea types can have psychoactive effects … most of them moderate
* take care of the plants you are using to make the tea, some plants that are bad for health in normal form are bad also in infusion form. Ask more experienced people, doctors if you are not sure.
* water used to make the infusions is important … althow boiled tap water is basically ok you should use better some fresh spring water if you have one available 🙂
– soda water / soda syphon / carbonated water
The adition of carbon dioxide to normal water does not pose significant health problems. “Sparkling mineral water is a negligible cause of dental erosion; also known as acid erosion.” the Wikipedia article states. ( )
In latest years people almost forgot about this type of water … making place to “soft drinks”. I believe sparkling water is the best available alternative to soft drinks and to the more expensive natural efervescent water.
– mineral water / natural mineral water / sparkling mineral water
* natural mineral water as the name states will contain minerals
* in normal quantities minerals are good for the body and even help the body recover from some types of dizeases
* hard to check what is true and what is not and it’s hard to put a correct price on this type of water. Prices are based more on Brand and less on quality… So unless you have a trusted source don’t drink too much. Kidney stones are a problem if you drink too much of this water.
– juice – naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue
* varieties – apple, orange, grapefruit, pineapple, tomato, passion fruit, mango, carrot, grape, cherry, cranberry, guava, and pomegranate
* don’t be fooled into buying juice from the stores. If you really want the juice to be good for your health then make it yourself. Buy oranges, apples, etc and make your own juice in many countries. If you need to buy juice from the shop as you don’t have the time to make it yourself at least check the labels for High-fructose corn syrup as is in direct link with obesity levels as the Wikipedia article describes. Many companies ( almost all from US ) add this syrup to drinks, using it as an sweetener. Don’t drink juice that does not taste like the juice you can make yourself at home. Is probably bad for you.
– “soft drinks” – first of all i don’t agree with the term of “soft drinks” being assigned to this category of drinks. We are easily fooled by the connotation of the English word soft. In fact it’s the same as selling “mild” cigarettes. The name somewhat implies that this drinks are better for your health when the reality is the opposite.
* the most common soft drinks are colas, flavored water, sparkling water, iced tea, sweet tea, lemonade, squash and fruit punch
* about health “benefits” read the Wikipedia article
There are no conclusions to this article as it’s far from being complete or correct by my own standards. Feel free to form your own conclusions and comment.
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