She was on that pedestal ever since I put her there.

Or should the title read Water and Juice? Would it really matter? You decide.

Wala lang. Gising na naman ako at 3 am (parang Exorcism of Emily Rose na ito). I just remembered a conversation we had over dinner last week. It's a long read, or should I say, rant. So proceed at your own risk and click here.

Juice. Why do we put such novelty in it? After all, more often than not it’s just flavoured water. Or is it?

So juice has more flavour to it. But is that equivalent to saying that water is bland?

Some guys, mountaineers, most especially, would tell you natural spring water taste better than your ordinary tap water. In other countries they have sparkling water. It tasted like gasoline if you ask me, but my dad actually prefers it over plain water when he eats his meals. He would actually pay for cans of these in the grocery just to prevent his frequent indigestion.

But then water like these are very hard to come by. So do they still count? The water we know, the one we literally group up with, is just right there. Always within our grasp should we need it.

We live in a tropical country so water isn't a problem (There's too much of it that when the rains come it sometimes becomes a problem). I bet if we all lived in a desert, where we're all parched, we'd be asking for water. I am reminded of my ROTC days. At the end of the day, nothing beats a bottle of, what was then cold, now lukewarm, but nonetheless refreshing, water. We actually preferred it over soda, and yes, over juice.

Some say juices have these electrolytes that help replenish the nutrients lost in the body. A pretty helpful thing for athletes. Maybe that's why they never want for a bottle of juice. Sometimes they even have juice prepared especially for them. Well, I'm no athlete. So does that mean I would have to stick to water? But why do I get the feeling I still need juice in my life?

Some juice manufacturers also claim that they help remove harmful free radicals that cause cancer. Yeah, whatever. We're all going to die anyway.

Still, there are some times when I'd welcome a glass of juice more than a glass of water.

I guess it has something to do with the flavour. I mean, the juice you're drinking is a personal preference. It's what you like, it's what you chose. It's not as general as water. Or is it? You wouldn't normally drink a glass of juice that you don't like. Would you?

It is funny to note, however, some things in our two much debated liquids.

One, if you were in a someone else's house and the host asked you what refreshment you would like, the safest thing to answer, next to the usual, "Huwag na lang po," would be, "Tubig na lang po." But then again if you were the owner of a house and you knew beforehand that some guys would be coming over, you wouldn't normally offer plain water.

Another thing to note is that most kinds of juices in fact require water. If the juice is in powder form, you add water. If it's in liquid concentrate form, you add water. When you like your juice cold, you either chill it or most of the time, you add ice, frozen water. My mom would even add water to the ready-to-drink packs she buys from the store. She says the juice flavour is too strong for her taste. I know some people who prefer their juice to taste almost the same as water.

I remember some old tv ads of athletes telling kids to "stay of the JUICE." Of course being the innocent kid that I was during that time didn't understand that those guys were talking about drugs. But then that actually left a question in me. Are juices really addictive? If so, in what levels? How come it is still tolerated?

Have you ever noticed in the old telenovelas when the antagonists tries to kill old, sickly but extremely wealthy characters to get their money? They'd normally use poison. Funny thing is, they'd almost always put the poison in a glass of juice. Well it’s a fact that you don't know what's inside the glass when you're drinking juice. It could be anything in there. Maybe that's the reason why some people think twice, and even thrice, before drinking a glass of juice, they've had something bad in their juice before.

That's not to say water is harmless. I remember when our health teacher in high school would talk of water-borne diseases. Water is natural breeding ground for disease. There are different sorts too, from the ones that could give you stomach pains to the ones that could very well kill you. People should be very careful of their drinking water too.

People with ulcer can't drink juice when they're hungry. Acidic people stay away from juices with citric flavours, while people who suffered from amoebiasis would drown themselves in water-substitutes for fear of relapse.

So which is which really? It's a reality that you can't last 3 days without water. Does that say that you can live life with water alone?

Just some questions to ask yourselves while I go drink...



A cup of coffee... :)