Woohoo!! We’re so excited about this!!  After our last newsletter with our Nutrition Twins’ Do Your Body Good Challenge of the Week, with the goal to drink more water and to try to replace soda with some of our “detox” drinks and “flushes” that you’ve requested (hello Orange-Lime Sparkling Refresher, Lemon Mint Detox Drink, Morning Detox Shot,  Sparkling Cucumber Detox and Refresher,  Citrus Reboot and Detox Flush, and Kale Recharge Smoothie)—you know, the ones that we typically suggest to help you to get your mind and body back on the healthy track after overdoing it–and to get there ASAP…

It dawned on us…

With so many people trying to get healthier and cut or cut out all the sugary and artificially sweetened sodas—or at least cut back on them– and with all the DIY sodas trending on pinterest, why don’t we create sodas from our detox drinks?!

This way, our DIY- sodas not only are free of anything artificial and are not loaded with sugar, they’re also healthy for you and have anti-bloat, toxin flushing properties too! And we’ve become quite obsessed with our creations! The cool thing is we simply change the concentration of our “detox” drink to make the concentrate for the soda (yup, we take all the anti-inflammatory goodies to include in the soda!) and from there, we mix the concentrate to create our sodas—and our stars are born!  We hope you love our Raspberry Ginger Lime Soda as much as we do!

 

 

This drink was originally inspired by a cocktail at NYC’s trendy Standard Hotel’s Biergarten. The drink was super delish and had so many components that help to fight inflammation and the damage from too much overindulgence.  Plus it had anti-bloat ingredients and even a few potential fat-burning advantages–minus the splash of vodka that was in that drink, of course —that we knew we had to make it for ourselves!

Why we love this drink and how it works it’s magic

The concentrate contains the same powerful ingredients that are in our Raspberry Ginger Lime Detox Drink, helping you to feel light and bloat-free so it:

1.It instantly gets your mind and body on the healthy track–i.e.- you’ll feel clean, lean & healthy and want to do less damage when you’ve just done something to get healthy!

…and sometimes, the most important piece is just getting your mind on the healthy track–even if aren’t able to make this drink, at least drink a huge glass of water–because  just knowing you are starting your day by doing something good for your body can help set the tone for the entire day!

 

2. It helps to fill your stomach so you eat less when you get to your next meal. Yes!–Drink this so you don’t show up at a meal ravenous and can avoid downing bread at the table, hourderves– and the loads of calories (and the bloat!) that comes with those salty, high calorie numbers!

 

3. This drink counteracts sodium and the puffiness and bloat that comes with it, so you’ll feel lighter. We’re the first to admit we don’t enjoy feeling bloated from having too much salt or being constipated. That’s why you better believe this drink both hydrates and provides potassium to help you to flush out bloating sodium from your body, “de-puffing” you by restoring normal hydration status.

—-and when you stay hydrated and drink plenty of fluid, you’ll get your digestive tract moving and prevent any bloat from constipation! Who’s got your back…and your belly, baby? We do!

Benefits you’ll get from:

The vitamin C:

It’s coming from the raspberries, lime and from the mint and will make your skin glow by promoting collagen formation. (Plus being hydrated from this drink helps your skin to glow and you can kiss goodbye to a puffy face and eyes as it flushes bloating salt). 🙂

It acts as an immune-booster to help strengthen your body to prepare it for any havoc it may go through.

 

The lime:

We love lemons and limes and really spritz them over everything! They are a great flavor sub for salt too. Pssst…careful when you open Lyssie’s fridge–a lime from the packed cold-zone may drop out on your toe!

• The ideal flushing food–packed with potassium and water to restore normal fluid balance and flush out any bloating salt that may be causing you to store water and puffiness.
• Great source of vitamin C

The Ginger:

By now you know, this is one of our faves, especially Lyssie, who tosses it in everything she eats, she must think it’s candy! (healthy candy, of course!  )  Ginger soothes the stomach and intestinal tract, and has anti-inflammatory properties that protect cells from harmful free radicals. Ginger is ideal to help you to reset your body so you can arrive at the event with a calm, intestinal tract, free of tummy troubles and bloat.

 

The Mint:

We like to think of mint as a peace maker in the body It eases indigestion and calms the stomach, possibly by improving the flow of bile through the stomach, which helps to speed and ease digestion. Thanks in part to it’s anti-inflammatory antioxidant rosmarinic acid, it “calms your insides” to ease the havoc inside your body!

 

The Raspberries:

Research suggests they actually may assist in weight loss (yahoo!) because they contain the phytochemical C3G that may increase production of both adiponectin (which enhances fat metabolism) and leptin (which suppresses appetite).  Plus, raspberries powerful, anti-aging and disease-fighting phytonutrients arm your body for any assault coming it’s way! Oh yeah!

 

Raspberry Ginger Lime Soda- DIY- Make-Your-Own Natural Soda

What we’ve done here is we’ve taken all the goodies from our Raspberry Ginger Lime “Detox” Drink and made a concentrate to use for making the soda to give you all the healing properties in a 20-calorie natural soda!

 

Makes 1 cup concentrate, 4 cups of soda.

Ingredients:

Raspberry Ginger Lime Concentrate:

¼ cup frozen raspberries

½ lime, sliced

1 tsp chopped or sliced ginger

3 mint leaves

1 cup water

 

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a pitcher or large jar and smash them with the back of a wooden spoon to release juices.
2. Add the water and stir.
3. Let infuse in the fridge overnight, then strain.
4. To make soda: combine ¼ cup concentrate with ¾ cup seltzer water and 1 tsp simple syrup (recipe below)

 

Simple Syrup Ingredients:

1 cup water

1 cup sugar (organic, preferably); you can use honey if you prefer.

Directions:

Simmer the water and sugar, stirring occasionally until completely dissolved.  Let cool.

Note: Start by adding a teaspoon of syrup to your natural soda and slowly add more, if needed.  Each teaspoon simple syrup has approximately 15 calories and 4 grams of carbs (sugar).

Nutrition info per 8-oz serving of soda with 1 teaspoon simple syrup: 20 calories, 0 g fat, 0 mg sodium, 3 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 2 g sugar, 0.2 g protein