Try These Recipes for Homemade Detox Drinks

Whether you’re looking for big health benefits or just want a tasty beverage to serve the family, detox drinks are a tempting choice. While they may not technically provide medical detoxification, they can still do great things for your body — especially if you start with fresh, pure-tasting drinking water as the main ingredient.

Here’s how to stir up DIY detox drinks that will leave you feeling refreshed.

3 Homemade Detox Drinks

Watermelon Citrus Detox Water

• 4 cups of watermelon (cubed)
• 1 orange
• 1 lemon
• 2 liters of filtered water
• ½ cucumber (sliced)

To make watermelon citrus detox water, start by cubing a fresh watermelon. Next, squeeze orange and lemon juice — and remember to save a wedge from each fruit. Finally, take a handful of cucumber slices and combine it all in water. Put your concoction in the refrigerator for a few hours, allowing the ingredients to infuse the water, and then enjoy.

This drink is full of vitamins and antioxidants, making it a great way to keep yourself and your family or friends hydrated — especially during the summer. That’s all thanks to excellent ingredients. For example, watermelons are made up of about 92% water and contain vitamins A, B6 and C to support your immune system and nerve function. Lemons and oranges are great, too, offering vitamins that help prevent fatigue and insomnia.

Grapefruit Mint Detox Water

• 1 grapefruit (sliced)
• 4 mint leaves
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 1 gallon of filtered water

Infuse grapefruit, mint leaves, rosemary and water for a refreshing detox drink. If you want even better results, plan ahead and plant some of your own mint and rosemary — that way, you’ll have fresh, home-grown ingredients later on.

Aside from being delicious, this detox beverage has some benefits that might just feel like a body cleanse in a glass. Grapefruit can potentially do all kinds of things for your health, from reducing the risk of stroke to aiding healthy digestion, while mint provides vital nutrients and rosemary acts as an anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant all in one.

Mint Green Tea Lime Detox Water

• 1 green tea bag
• 2 cups hot water (for steeping tea)
• 1 lime (sliced)
• 3 mint leaves
• 4 cups filtered water

Steep a green tea bag and let it cool to room temperature. Next, add this to a pitcher of water along with mint leaves and lime slices. Allow this to sit for a while so the lime flavor can fully infuse the cold water, then serve it up.

Green tea has a striking reputation, with potential health benefits ranging from metabolism boosts to disease prevention. While the mint and lime are mostly added for flavor, they have their own vitamins and nutrients, too — and if you want to switch them out for lemon water or a splash of apple juice, you can reuse this recipe plenty of times without anyone ever knowing.

Good Water and Good Health

Although drinking detox water has potential benefits for your whole body, water itself is still the main ingredient. That’s because better water has plenty of connections to better health:

What You Drink — and What You Don’t

As tap water travels to your home, it may pick up impurities such as sediment, minerals, bacteria, viruses and even emerging contaminants like “forever chemicals” that scientists are still learning about. While municipal water is treated to address some of these problems, private well water isn’t — and either way, there may still be issues with your water by the time it reaches your tap.*

Simply put, you might not always know what’s in your glass. That’s why water testing empowers you to learn about what you drink — and water treatment helps control what you don’t. By taking charge of what you put in your body, you can protect your family and still have the best-tasting DIY detox drinks on the block.

How Much You Drink

When your water has unpleasant odors, colors or flavors, you’re not going to drink as much. That impacts your overall hydration — which, in turn, can undermine the benefits of your detox diet or other health efforts.

The more you trust your water, the more you’ll want to drink it.

Water Outside Your Glass

Of course, water isn’t just for drinking. There’s more to health than what you put in your body — and hard water is an excellent example.

When you have hard water, you may notice mineral buildup, soap scum, spotty dishes, stiff laundry and more. It’s generally safe to drink — but when you wash your hands or bathe with it, you might end up with dry, brittle hair and itchy skin. In this way, water problems can impact your overall health even when they’re not in your drinking glass.

FAQs About Detox Drinks

You know that water plays a key role in health, especially when it has tasty ingredients that add vitamin C, key nutrients and even anti-inflammatory properties. But is there more to the story? Here are a few FAQs that will help you get the most from every sip:

Do Detox Water Recipes Eliminate Toxins?

Remember, while these drinks are tasty and refreshing, medical detoxification is a far more complicated process. That means you’re not technically experiencing a body cleanse when you enjoy these recipes. However, detox drinks with the right ingredients may help your internal systems get better at reducing toxins on their own. Plus, the fun flavors may encourage you to improve your hydration — and that alone can support your overall well-being.

Do All Ingredients Provide Health Benefits?

It’s safe to say that most healthy ingredients can provide some kind of benefit for your body. From fresh ginger and cranberry juice to apple cider vinegar and honey, there are near-endless combinations — each with different potential advantages.

Keep in mind, however, that you may not see results right away — or at all. There are a few reasons for this:

Normal serving sizes of detox drinks may not provide enough of each ingredient to show significant results.
Everyone’s health is unique; for example, you may not need any more vitamin C, so you may not noticeably benefit from the ingredients that provide it.
Many of the health effects of these detox drinks happen quietly inside your body — so while you may feel better, have more energy or sleep longer, it would be difficult to determine what exactly caused these changes.

Of course, detox drinks don’t work alone. Think of them as tools in your diet repertoire — a fun and tasty way to get more of the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that might not be present in other meals and beverages.

What Water Should You Use for Detox Drinks?

Let’s say you’ve just found a recipe for detox tea that calls for purified water. What does that mean? Do you have to go out and buy it?

The good news is that “water purification” is an umbrella term for various water treatment approaches. If you have a filtration solution like a reverse osmosis drinking water filtration system, your tap water is ready to use.

However, if you don’t have any type of treatment system installed, you may want to think twice about what’s in your detox drink. After all, you’re adding lemon, mint and grapefruit — but your water system and plumbing might be adding ingredients of their own, from metals and pesticides to bacteria and sediment. Although most North American tap water is safe to drink, that doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

Does Water Temperature Matter?

For the most part, there’s only one rule about water temperature for detox drinks: Do what tastes the best. That’s because the temperature shouldn’t impact the main functions of your ingredients.

This also means you can experiment with your recipes or adapt them for different seasons or purposes. For example, drinking cold water may have some unique benefits, such as preventing overheating during workouts. Hot or warm water may have advantages, too, including improved digestion and circulation.

Delicious Drinks On Tap

If you want better recipes, start with better water. Professional tests will tell you what’s happening when you turn on the tap, while personalized recommendations will help you address contaminants, hard water and other concerns.

Get started today. Schedule your free, in-home water test and consultation.