Many of us with kids and probably heard it before: “But Mom! I don’t like the taste of water!” This often puts us in a difficult position as to what to do next. But believe it or not, this isn’t just a problem with kids. Many adults claim not to like the taste of water either. So what’s going on?
What’s actually going on is what psychologists often refer to as conditioning. We get conditioned into certain behavioral patterns that are often difficult to change. This usually happens when there are a lot of reinforcers to that behavior pattern.
In the case of water, we are conditioned from an early age to drink other things instead. Gatorade tells us that we should drink their product after we play sports. Pepsi and Coca-Cola brand themselves as being American and wholesome so that you feel good emotionally when you drink their product. Fruit juices are branded as being healthier alternatives to water (which isn’t true because of the sugar and lack of fiber). Milk is branded as being essential to bone growth (it’s not, milk actually weakens bones). And while there are some commercials for bottled water, they usually don’t target kids.
As parents, we often give in to this marketing. Usually, our grocery shopping list includes a gallon of milk, a couple half-gallons of orange juice, some box drinks for our kid’s lunches, Kool-Aid or lemonade mix, a twelve-pack of soda, sports drinks, etcetera. With all of these beverages that we buy for our kids, they can go the whole day without ever drinking water! Orange juice for breakfast. Milk for lunch. Pepsi when they get home. More milk for dinner. Gatorade after little league practice. You get the idea.
Another key factor that is playing into this is the fact that sugary drinks are addictive. Added sugar is in fact a drug. It produces a chemical high in kids that is addictive. So if they are getting extra sugar in their fruit juices, Pepsi, Gatorade, and other drinks they are developing an addiction to sugar! If they are drinking soda as well, they are also getting addicted to caffeine and some of the other chemicals they put in those sodas. So when your kid is telling you that they don’t like the taste of water, what they are really saying is that water isn’t cool to drink, and their bodies are craving the chemicals and sugar in the other drinks.
The same thing can happen with adults. Most of us have a hard time getting our day started without our coffee. Coffee becomes our drink of choice throughout most of the day until we get to lunch and usually have something sugary, like a blended fruit juice. We can go back and forth between coffee and sugary drinks all day long without ever drinking water. We, too, are addicted to sugar and caffeine.
The first step is to cut out all of these sugary and caffeinated drinks. They are giving your body extra calories they just don’t need which can lead to weight gain. They also throw your body’s hormones and other chemicals out of whack. Most importantly, they stop you from drinking water which is what your body really needs.
In fact, water is not only superior at hydrating our bodies compared to these other drinks it is also the key component of our body’s detoxification. Water flushes out toxins in our bodies. Antioxidant water, like what you get from a water ionizer, also neutralizes free radicals and makes our bodies healthier at a cellular level. This improves every function of our body.
In our experience, it takes several weeks of new conditioning to break a behavior pattern. That means you have to intentionally not drink caffeinated and sugary drinks and force yourself to drink water for several weeks before it will become normal. If you can get through this, if you can break the old conditioning, then your body will start to crave water when it is thirsty. And the water will make you feel great because it’s hydrating you better, detoxifying your body, and giving you natural energy.
So when your kid tells you that they just don’t like the taste of water, first you should look inside your refrigerator. Analyze what you are buying that could be contributing to them saying that. Next, get your kid his own water bottle and keep it constantly full with ionized water. Insist that your kid keeps it with them or all the time. Whenever they are thirsty, they can drink from their water bottle.
As adults, We can do the same thing. Keep a bottle of ionized water with you at all times. This will increase the amount of water that you drink and help you to detoxify and develop really healthy behavior patterns that will benefit you for the rest of your life.
