"You are what you drink." That's the implication of major new studies indicating that what you drink may be as important as what you eat when it comes to health problems like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and many others, according to Dr. Cheryle Hart, medical advisor for AquaHydrate, the first high performance sports water .

One study referred to America's obsession with sugared drinks as "America's hidden drinking problem," with four out of five children and two out of three adults drinking sugar-sweetened beverages daily, whether sodas, sugary waters or so-called sports drinks. According to research at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and elsewhere, sugared beverages are the leading source of added sugar in the diet of young Americans. In his book, The World is Fat, Barry Popkin claims that the average American gets 400 calories a day from beverages alone.

According to Dr. Cheryle Hart, Mayo Clinic trained physician and author of several best-selling health and nutrition books including The Insulin Resistance Diet, the medical evidence is clear. "'You are what you drink' may be truer than 'you are what you eat,'" she said. "Junk drinks - sweetened beverages such as sodas, sugary waters, and sports drinks - may pose even more serious problems in terms of obesity and related health problems than junk foods. And artificially sweetened drinks are also implicated in weight gain. The solution is clear: Americans need to get back to drinking water, and nutritionally enhanced waters such as AquaHydrate are the best choice." Dr. Hart points to several recent studies that confirm the link between obesity, disease, and 'junk drinks.'

Research at HSPH showed that the addition of only one can of a sugary beverage every day for a year could result in a weight gain of 15 pounds. And researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that while both liquid and solid calorie intake were associated with weight change, only a reduction in liquid calories was shown to have a significant affect on weight loss during their study's follow-up period.(1) In addition to being a major contributor to weight gain, there is now strong evidence that sugary drinks are linked to "diabesity" and heart disease in women. Recent studies show that women who have one or more servings of a sugary drink per day have nearly double the diabetes risk of women who rarely have sugar drinks and that women who have more than two servings of sugary beverages a day have a nearly 40% higher risk of heart disease.(2)

And artificially sweetened beverages may pose their own health problems. A long-term study of 3700 people showed that those who averaged three or more artificially sweetened beverages a day were more likely to have gained weight over an eight-year period than those who didn't drink artificially sweetened beverages.(3)

Enhanced waters: the new health drink

According to Dr. Hart and many other authorities in the field, Americans need to train their palates away from sweet drinks. A promising alternative to these drinks is a new breed of enhanced waters, such as AquaHydrate, which provides an all-natural choice and offers health and sports performance benefits without the sugar, caffeine, and artificial colors and flavors that are loaded into many waters and sports drinks.

AquaHydrate, the first high performance sports water, is a highly engineered water that provides optimal health and hydration and offers many benefits over plain or purified water. AquaHydrate combines a proprietary blend of three hydration and performance-boosting technologies known as AIM for alkaline pH, ionic minerals, and micro-clustering. An alkaline pH helps battle the acid-producing effects of exercise, stress, fatigue, and poor diets. Ionic minerals improve hydration at the cellular level by creating a gradient that literally draws water and minerals into the cells. Finally, AquaHydrate is micro-clustered, increasing absorption by reducing the size of the water molecule clusters, making it easier for them to enter cells.

The ionic minerals, trace elements, and electrolytes in AquaHydrate are provided through an exclusive agreement with Trace Minerals Research--a renowned, 35-year global leader in the natural foods industry. Through this agreement, AquaHydrate is the only bottled mineral water to provide these ionic minerals, trace elements, and organic electrolytes. AquaHydrate is also one of the purist waters in the bottle water market, and undergoes a proprietary seven-stage purification process using a filtration system that is finer than the human kidney.

About AquaGenus

AquaGenus, headquartered in Huntington Beach, CA, specializes in all-natural beverages designed to give fitness and health-minded individuals a competitive edge, enhancing both performance and recovery. Its flagship product, AquaHydrate, the first high-performance sports water, is available through a variety of health and natural foods stores throughout the U.S. and through the website. To find a store nearest you that carries AquaHydrate, visit the AquaGenus website. Take the AquaHydrate Challenge and drink ONLY AquaHydrate for six days (as close to 2 liters as possible) and feel the difference.