Drinking on a Paleo Diet

What do you drink while eating like a caveman?  It's simple - keep it natural.  For me, that's water, freshly brewed tea and coffee.  No sodas (I used to be a heavy Diet Coke drinker so this is big for me), no juice (too much sugar), nothing with more than 3 ingredients.  Some people drink milk but if you're lactose intolerant like me, skip it.

Source: Motograf

In our house, we drink a lot of homemade iced green tea.  My kids and I go through a large 2-gal pitcher a day - and you know what?  They love it!

Now, I've had some people act shocked when they find out I feed my kids green tea.  Come on, guys!  We're not talking about that strong black tea you find in the Lipton bags but rather the lower-caffeinated green tea.  It's mild, can be dressed up with simple flavorings (sometimes I toss in a Celestial Seasonings herbal tea bag to add some zing), and best of all, it has lots of antioxidants to keep everyone happy and healthy.

What I love the most about switching the kids to green tea is that it's super cheap!  I buy 100-bag boxes of green tea at my local Asian store for around $2-3 a box.  Much cheaper than the bottles of 100% juice, which average between $2.50 to 5 per small bottle!

When I switched the kids over six months ago, I quickly realized that I would be making tea often - once a day on average.  So, to make things easier, I started cold-brewing our tea..  If you took a peek in my fridge today, you'd find this sitting in the way back recesses of the top shelf:

This is a carafe from a coffeemaker I had years ago.  The coffee machine died but the carafe lives on as my tea brewer.  I toss six tea bags in there and fill with cold water.  Yes, cold water.  Then I place the carafe in the fridge.

Simple, huh?

It usually takes 24 hours before it's at full strength, which works out great for our tea-drinking schedule. When I need to make tea, I pour the "tea concentrate" into the big blue pitcher, top off with cold water and add any sweetener (usually a little bit of homemade simple sugar syrup).  Then I washed out the coffee carafe and start another batch of "tea concentrate".

This saves me a lot of time and energy.  I don't have to heat up the kettle nor deal with cooling down hot liquids with either ice or a long timeout in the fridge.  What I like the most is the taste of the tea when it's made this way - it's less bitter and seems to be more complex.

So, don't be afraid to go natural when it comes to your drinks.  Your body will be happy!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get another cup of tea.  ;-)