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Natural Choices to Add Flavor to Water

There are several options to add more flavor to water. (Getty Images)
There are several options to add more flavor to water. (Getty Images)
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Natural Choices to Add Flavor to Water

There are several options to add more flavor to water. (Getty Images)
There are several options to add more flavor to water. (Getty Images)

A recent report published by the Harvard Heart Letter stressed the importance of quitting soft drinks for their potential negative health effects, and to replace them with natural or flavored water.

Dr. Katharine Riccrod, professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard University, who participated in a large study on the link between soft drinks and the risk of strokes or heart attacks, said water is always the best choice, but there are many options to make it more appealing and flavorful, like drinking a cup of water that contains fruit slices.

If you're seeking for a low-cal alternative for soft drinks, you can try flavored water, which is available in cans or bottles and can be either sparkling or regular. You can also prepare your own drink at home. But, if you do not have the time, you can buy a bottle of fruit-enhanced water, which has a place for sliced fruit, or other flavors such as peppermint or cucumber to intensify the taste.

There are more ideas for other options to add flavor to your drinks:

- Sweet flavor: Frozen fruit, such as strawberries, berries, or pineapples, can be added to iced water or orange juice can be added to sweeten sparkling water.

- Refreshing: Some fresh mint leaves can be added to iced water.

- Strong: Unsweetened black tea or unsweetened coffee (decaf or regular) can be added on ice.

- Delicious: You can try cold herb drinks with their different flavors, such as pear, peach, raspberry, licorice or mint.

- Strong: You can drink vegetable juices such as tomatoes, cucumber, and celery. You can also prepare your own blend by using a mixer or juicer. If you buy ready vegetable juice, make sure to choose a low sodium type.

- Spicy: A few drops of honey can be added to hot water, then sprinkle a few of your favorite spices such as cinnamon, or cayenne pepper.

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White Truffles, Italy's Gold, Menaced by Climate Change

A truffle farmer sells his production during the truffle market in Sorges, southwestern France. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau.
A truffle farmer sells his production during the truffle market in Sorges, southwestern France. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau.
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White Truffles, Italy's Gold, Menaced by Climate Change

A truffle farmer sells his production during the truffle market in Sorges, southwestern France. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau.
A truffle farmer sells his production during the truffle market in Sorges, southwestern France. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau.

Deep in a thick forest in Italy's northwestern Piedmont region, the hunt is on for the white Alba truffle, with excited dogs zigzagging and digging into the wet earth.
But the culinary treasure is becoming increasingly rare, undermined by climate change.
"Go find it! Where is it?" Carlo Marenda, a part-time truffle hunter, calls out to Gigi and Buk, seven month- and 13-year-old crosses between the Spinone Italiano and Lagotto Romagnolo breeds, prized for their keen sense of smell, AFP reported.
Autumn leaves crunch under the weight of boots sinking into muddy soil. Below a picturesque hillside vineyard not far from Alba, trails wind along the Rio della Fava, crossing damp ground ideal for growing truffles.
Sought after by gourmets and starred chefs around the globe, the white truffle of Alba, the most prestigious in the world, is an underground fungus growing in symbiosis with certain hardwood trees by attaching itself to their roots.
Its intense and refined scent, a mixture of hay, garlic and honey, allows hunting dogs to detect it, even if the truffle is sometimes buried up to a meter deep.
Introduced to truffle hunting at the age of five by a family friend, Carlo Marenda, 42, founded the "Save the Truffle" association in 2015, alongside Edmondo Bonelli, a researcher in natural sciences.
It was an octogenarian "trifulau" loner, Giuseppe Giamesio, known as "Notu" and the last descendant of a family with a century-old truffle tradition, who revealed his secrets to him and bequeathed his dogs just before his death in 2014.
The master's message was a testament: "If we want to prevent the disappearance of the truffle, we must protect the forests, stop polluting the waterways and plant new 'truffle' trees".
Ten years later, thanks to donations and the support of some winegrowers, the association has planted more than 700 such trees in the hilly Langhe area, including poplars, oaks and lindens.
Notu's legacy
"Notu passed on to me his passion for truffle hunting and tree preservation," said Marenda, emerging from his metallic grey Fiat Panda 4X4, the preferred car of truffle hunters.
In the last three decades, the areas dedicated to white truffles in Italy have dropped by 30 percent, gradually giving way to more profitable vineyards, but also hazelnut groves.
The Langhe hills provide a large quantity of hazelnuts to the chocolate giant Ferrero, which was founded in 1946 in Alba, a small prosperous town of 30,000 inhabitants.
But the main threat to the white truffle, whose harvest was classified as an intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 2021, is climate change.
Global warming, drought, deforestation and sudden temperature changes are all factors weakening the natural habitat of this fungus.
To survive, the truffle needs cold and humidity. At the beginning of November, however, the temperature was at 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit).
"With the prolongation of summer weather, production is definitely falling", he lamented.
Soaring prices
The harvest, running from October to the end of January, is getting shorter. And with the delayed cold and snow to arrive, "the aroma of the truffles is not yet 100 percent and they don't keep as long", Marenda said.
Abundant rain, as seen in recent weeks, can also be harmful, he said.
"If there is too little water, the truffle does not grow. If there is too much, it rots."
Alerted by Buk, Marenda crouched down to the ground to delicately scratch the earth with a narrow spade, extracting a truffle, albeit rather modest in size.
On whether the white truffle is on the brink of extinction, experts say it isn't too late.

"Not yet. But if we don't act, it could become so," said Mario Aprile, president of the Piedmont truffle hunters' association.
"The white truffle cannot be cultivated, unlike the black one. Without trees, there are no truffles. We plant them to rebuild biodiversity," Aprile said.
Faced with limited supply and booming demand, the white truffle is trading at a high price, reaching 4,500 euros per kilo this year at the International Alba White Truffle Fair which ends December 8.
Two "twin" white truffles, bound to the same root and dug up by Aprile, were the stars of the annual world charity auction for white truffles in Alba Sunday.
Weighing a total of 905 grams (2 lbs), the fungi were sold for 140,000 euros ($150,000) to a Hong Kong finance tycoon.