Drink to Your Health - New Beverages in the Mix

If you think drink mix choices come down to the current Chrystal Lite choices - you've got some catching up to do. From high end beauty beverages like Borba, to Luna's new "Luna Elixir", there's a drink for every need!

(Note on formulations when you're choosing a drink mix: the liquid concentrates mix better - though there's a lot more variety in the powder versions.)

Luna Elixir

Here's the buzz: "LUNA Elixir is a convenient, all-natural and portable drink mix option that, when mixed with water, offers a healthy twist on staying hydrated by delivering great nutrition in four exotic fruit flavors including: Orange Passionfruit, Pomegranate Berry, Raspberry Lychee and Dragonfruit Kiwi. Designed for women to use on-the-go, LUNA Elixir helps women to stay hydrated throughout the day via simple packets they can carry in a purse or backpack, or keep in their desks at work."

The Review:
Luna's Elixir was very difficult to mix and tasted too much like a children's drink at first, then finished with a slightly medicinal after taste. It made me immediately crave a soda to get the taste washed out of my mouth. Definitely not the effect I was wanting.

Borba

The buzz: "The creative brand's headlining assortments of delectable drinks and candy confections have beauty mavens sipping and snacking their way to healthier complexions. And their topical solutions are as inventive as their fellow skin-enhancing indulgences, too-the top-billed fiber-knit technology works with your body's chemistry to smooth and soften from the outside in."

The review:
Borba's flavors are mild and not too sweet, but you have to get past the steep price tag. ($2.50 a bottle or $100 for 60 packets.) Plus, the benefits are a bit intangible - so credibility is an issue. Will these really help your skin? Maybe, but so would keeping hydrating and eating right. If you want loads of antioxidants in a drink for, V8 is quite a bit cheaper.

Garden of Life Organic Tea Packets

The Buzz: "Our revolutionary liquid packet makes tea portable, so you can enjoy tea's health benefits hot or cold anywhere in an instant, and without the time and inconvenience of brewing. Our patented gentle brewing process preserves important natural antioxidants in the organic tea, such as tea polyphenols, which support a healthy heart and metabolism."

The review:
My favorite product in this category - by a very large margin - is Garden of Life's Organic Green Tea. There are several varieties, including Oolong tea which also tastes lovely. It doesn't finish with a bizarre after taste or have sugar that can be a problem for many people. The biggest selling point to Garden of Life's teas? The immediate effect. I literally felt better after drinking it. This is how a health drink should make you feel - better with a soothed tummy and it didn't send me searching for a soda to get rid of the aftertaste! I felt energized without feeling wired - and this has no sugar to send me crashing later.

The Bottom Line

Here's what to look for when shopping for healthy drink mixes:

- Check the sugar. If this has as much sugar as your soda, then take a hard look at the benefits the product is touting. This is especially true for diabetics and others who are watching their blood sugar and/or their weight.

- Is the ingredient list full of items you can't pronounce? If you don't know what the ingredients are or what they do - it's best to skip it.

- Be wary of drinks that combine sugar with caffeine. Caffeine prolongs the effect of sugar and inhibits proper insulin response.

- If you have questions about working some of these vitamin drinks into your routine - always check with your doctor. And be sure to let your doctor know if you're supplementing your diet with them. Combining these drinks is just like taking additional supplements in pill form. Drug interactions can occur.

- Calories count and if the drink has loads of calories, take a good look at what the purported benefits are.

- Taste is still king. You won't use it if you don't like the taste. Buy a small quantity at first just to make sure you can stomach it.