It’s free, it’s fresh and it’s one of the simplest things you can do for your body!
As a nutrition and health coach, one of my strongest messages to my clients is the importance of water consumption. While water in and of itself does not make one lose weight, it certainly aids in the weight loss process. Water, particularly cold water may speed up your metabolism as well. The kidneys will utilize the water we drink and help the body get rid of certain waste products and toxins. With too little water, the body cannot remove metabolic waste as efficiently as it should.
As adults, we can understand the direct health benefits we can gain from water. But what about our kids? Children naturally gravitate towards sweetened beverages. A glass of orange juice, which one may deem as “healthy” contains 22 grams of sugar! That is equivalent to eating 5 ½ teaspoons of sugar! Same to a cup of grape juice. A cup of Kedem grape juice has 34 grams of sugar per 8 oz. cup. That is equal to eating 8 ½ teaspoons of sugar! Would we allow our children to eat sugar by the spoonful? No! So why would we allow them to drink these sugar infused beverages?
In my home, the only drinks my children will drink is water and lemon-flavored seltzer. For breakfast my children will sometimes get warm milk frothed in my milk frother (see this Between Carpools post for frother picks) or hot tea (with no sweetener). For the rest of the day they get water only. On Shabbos they are allowed to choose one sweetened drink per meal.
I devised the water tracking system for my children to use and the heat of the water competition is on!
The recommended amount of daily water intake is 5 glasses for 5 to 8-year old’s, 7 glasses for 9 to 12- year old’s and 8 to 10 glasses for 13+ years. The chart pictured below is on my fridge. As they drink their water, they get to check off a glass of water. At the end of the week we see who reached the recommended amount of water intake and the winner gets a healthy nosh or snack that I usually don’t keep at home during the week. Feel free to print out the attached chart so that you can track your children’s water intake and help them be responsible for their health. All you need to do is fill in their names on the blank line. You are empowering your children to want to live healthy lives!
What is an idea that you give for healthy treat?
A “nosh” with no added sugars such as a 100% fruit-fruit leather or a healthy ice pop etc.
FYI, the “no added sugars” “100% fruit” are essentially the same as regular sugar since the process involves concentrating the fruit enough in order to extract and refine just the sugar and then leaving in a bit of fruit for flavor.
These products usually don’t have all of the other junk added, so that’s good….
Wow this is great! Can’t wait to share with my kids
Awesome!! Great to start while kids are young, for me it’s so difficult since I didn’t practice while growing up.
I thought room temperature water is better than cold water for your system?… Is that true?
Amazing idea! I love this chart it is so kid friendly! It will help me keep track of my drinking too!
Hi Yehudis,
Truthfully there are so many opinions on this matter. Researchers believe that both warm, and cold water have benefits. In a study conducted in 2003, it was noted that the people who drank ice-water experienced a 30% increase in metabolism. It further suggested that drinking half-liter of ice-water every day helps to burn approximately 100 calories. Bottom line is- is water good for you? YES!!!! Drink it any way you like it and drink enough per day.
Hope this helps!
Shaindy
Great article! Awesome way to keep kids motivated and dehydrated!
Great idea! We, too, keep soda for Shabbos, so nobody feels deprived.There’s a bottle of Coke on the table along with cold water from the freezer. Invariably, especially as the kids are getting older, the water bottle needs refilling and there’s always soda left over.
This is such a good idea! As a mother and grandmother I realise that the kids today drink much to little, and unhealthy drinks(juices and soda) we are trying to teach them the importance of water.and to drink it a few times a day, not always easy as they got used to sweet drinks.
Great article!!
What a great idea! Thanks for the useful chart! as a mother of young children I try to make sure the water is always accessible to my little ones.
We are loving this! Reprinting again for this week! Thank you so much!
Amazing article! I totally agree with you.
What a great idea to improve the water drinking at home!