As a nutritionist, I often do many pantry and fridge clean outs for my clients, as I find this is so beneficial for clients who are trying to reach their goal and trying to eat healthier. The majority of the time I walk away with almost 80% of their food contents from their kitchen, as most of their food items are full of hidden sugar, preservatives and unwanted toxic ingredients. Client’s quickly turn to me and ask what’s inside my fridge and what essentials I always keep on hand. Well if you take a peek inside my fridge, you will definitely find the majority of my fridge contents to be a variety of rainbow coloured whole foods. Everything from dark leafy greens to nuts stored in glass jars to farm fresh eggs. For beverages you will find homemade nut milks, coconut water, and even cucumber infused water. It may come to no surprise, but I don’t drink any sodas. I don’t even purchase or consume fruit juices, flavoured water drops or even the good old traditional orange juice. Many fruit juices, even the juices labeled as “fresh” and “not from concentrate” are loaded with artificial colour and flavour, preservatives and sugar. By the time your fruit juice’s fruit was picked off the tree, squeezed, package and delivered to your local grocery store might be as far back as 180 days ago or even longer; yikes! Seems a little misleading for these juice companies to advertise their product as “fresh”. This is why beverages are the first things I toss from my client’s fridge.
So now with summer just around the corner what is a nice refreshing, thirst quenching beverage you can enjoy and keep in stock in your fridge? I always recommend keeping a jug of fruit and herb infused water, but sometimes it’s just not satisfying enough. However, I have a healthier alternative to sugary soda for you to fall in love with, sparkling tea! Sparkling tea is just like a soda with all the bubbles, but without all the added sugar and junk. I enjoy making a large batch of Turmeric Tea’s signature organic loose-leaf blend Summer and letting it chill for a couple of hours in the fridge. You can enjoy this herbal tea simply cold, but if you want to make it into a refreshing bubbly beverage add equal parts or less of carbonated water (one without any artificial flavours or colours.) And ta-da! You have a refreshing bubbly herbal tea beverage loaded with tons of flavours and healing properties from our favourite herb, turmeric. Turmeric Teas signature blends are deliciously hydrating, especially with summer quickly approaching.
Blog post by Alexandra Daugherty, Holistic Nutrionist