So it’s a hot summer day and you’re craving a sip of soda. Or perhaps want to gulp down the entire carton of juice. You know you shouldn’t, but it’s hard to break the habit of drinking both soda and juice when you’ve grown up with the sweet flavors of apple, grape and cola. While water is by far the best option for quenching your thirst, occasionally you crave a bit more than a drink from the nearest faucet. The good news is that YoNaturals vending machines offer healthier choices. While not perfect, the following options are far better than your average beverage.

1. Steaz Green Tea Soda:

Brewed by the Healthy Beverage Company, Steaz tea is the perfect option for fans of green tea. It’s true: green tea has long been known for its health benefits. However, while these teas are packed with polyphenols and antioxidants, what makes this drink so unique is its flavor. The sparkling soda adds some punch to standard green tea, making this option great for soda fans as well. Furthermore, Steaz’s teas are made with organic cane sugar from the Florida everglades. You can’t beat that!

2. Hansen’s Natural Soda

Hansen’s has long been a favorite of health gurus and it’s no wonder why. Hansen’s soda boasts of having no caffeine, no preservatives, and no artificial flavors or colors. But you wouldn’t know it by the taste. Many people actually prefer the taste of Hansen’s Soda to that of standard soda, and it’s no surprise why. Hansen’s comes in a variety of flavors, including root beer, ginger ale, strawberry, as well as more unique flavors, such as grapefruit and mandarin lime.

3. Appletiser

Appletiser advertises its products as 100% pure pleasure. In truth, they are both that as well as 100% juice. The only thing added to Appletiser’s beverages is what they call a “touch of sparkle.” What this means is that their drinks resemble apple cider, but with the healthy bonus of no added sugar, coloring, or preservatives, making Appletiser a great option for fans of apple juice and soda alike.

While these are not the only beverage alternatives on the market, they are all delicious and healthy alternatives to the sugary and caffeinated beverages typically displayed. The good news is that many of these are available in your regular supermarket, health food stores, as well as places you might not think to look, such as a YoNaturals vending machine.

So by all means, drink water to stay healthy. But it doesn’t hurt to spoil yourself once in a while on a natural—and tasty!—soda or juice substitute.

By Bethany Cox

Author:  Mike Selvon

Organic food health benefits are debated more than ever. With people demanding to buy organic food more, researchers are tying to find the benefits and risks of eating organically.

Sometimes researchers have said that the organic food health benefits are really nonexistent, while with other studies, multiple benefits have been found. By researching organic foods, a person can find the real story about organic food health benefits.

Organic food health benefits may begin with the debate of the nutrition level of certified organic food versus regularly grown food. Depending on what information is read, different information is given.

According to the research on organic food that the New York Times did in 2003, their report was that “recent preliminary evidence suggests that the levels of certain nutrients, especially vitamin C, some minerals and some polyphenols — naturally occurring antioxidants that may help bolster the immune system — are higher in organically grown crops.”

This comment alone reinforces such food health benefits that a person can gain by eating fresh organic food.

Outside organic growing, many farmers, in order to have their plants grow larger and more bountiful, add pesticides and toxins. Such food health benefits stem from the lack of these toxins and pesticides.

Pesticides have been linked to making people ill, and can cause a person to avoid fresh vegetables that are needed for an overall healthy diet. Toxins in the body can cause problems such as headaches and tremors.

Because organic food health benefits help reduce the risk of these undesirable benefits, natural and organic food should be definitely taken into consideration when choosing foods.

One particular such food health benefit occurs when the additives that are found in almost all foods are not used. Organic food production prohibits the use of food additives such as preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and hydrogenated fat.

This in itself is excellent for all people but especially children. The less artificial sweeteners that children can be exposed to the better according to most doctors.

Organic food health benefits are numerous. Debates rage as to what exact benefits organically grown food can offer the public. Some claim that the nutrient levels are higher, others say they are the same.

But one thing is for sure. Organically grown food offers little to no pesticides, and this can help everyone be healthier. No matter whether studies are right in linking certain ailments to pesticides or not, even children can gain from such food health benefits.

Author: Carrie Reeder

Having spent most of my life living off of junk food, I was pretty shocked when I started learning about what goes into the produce we consume every day from the grocery store.

Most of the produce you would buy at the grocery store has been genetically modified to be more appealing to the customer. But, evidence suggests that genetically modified food can be harmful to your health. There are very few regulations on genetically modified food, and there aren’t any long term studies on how they affect human health. About 70% of the food you pick up at the grocery has been genetically modified.

Also, there are many types of insecticides used on produce, that are potentially harmful to your health. Farmers, nowadays, do not use the proper crop rotation when growing their produce. Crop rotation means: The successive planting of different crops on the same land to improve soil fertility and help control insects and diseases. The by-product of no crop rotation is that food in general is much less nutritious and raises a need for more insecticides to be used.

To avoid the health risks that can be associated with eating food that has been genetically modified, has been treated with pesticides and does not use proper crop rotation, eat organic food.

Organic food has been proven to contain sometimes 2-3 times the nutrients that conventional produce has. And with so little research available on this subject, who know how many other ways conventional produce is damaging to our health. How many other ways could organic food be better for us?

If you don’t believe it, try it. When I first began learning about organic food and the differences between it and conventional food, I went to a health food store and bought a bunch or organic produce. I couldn’t believe the difference in taste. The tomatoes I had bought in the grocery store had very little flavor and could only be used as an ingredient in a dish, definitely not something you would want to eat plain. But, the organic tomatoes I bought, I found myself just sitting down and eating plain. They actually had a garden fresh flavor to them. Usually when I would buy fruit, it would sit and rot on the table until I threw it away. It just never sounded good. Now, when I buy organic fruit, I can hardly keep myself from snacking on it all day. It just tastes so much better and healthier.

Author: Jeanette Joy Fisher

The term “organic” is being tossed around quite a bit lately, and you’ll soon be seeing a big jump in the number of organic choices when you visit your local Safeway or Wal-Mart store. That’s because the demand for organic produce, milk, and meat has been steadily increasing, to the point where the giant retail chains have begun to take the trend seriously. In turn, there will be a growing concern over the certification process as factory-style farms begin to muscle their way into the organic food market as a result of increased demand.

In 2000, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established what were supposed to be clear guidelines for gaining organic certification, but various ambiguous areas will continue to confuse consumers until those guidelines are made even more clear.

For instance, under USDA rules, growers of fruits, vegetables, meat, and milk are forbidden from using most synthetic pesticides or fertilizer in food production. They’re also prohibited from using genetic engineering, irradiation, or sewage sludge. To be certified organic, livestock must be fed nothing but certified organic feed and can’t be given any sort of growth hormone. They must also be allowed to be outside at least a portion of every day, though the rules for what that actually means have been open to serious dispute over the past few years.

The USDA guidelines were meant to be fairly all-inclusive, but there are a number of gradients, as well. Here are some of the labels you’ll see in your local co-op or supermarket:

100% organic: For produce, this designation means that fruits or vegetables were grown completely without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. In the case of meat or milk, it means that all the USDA stipulations concerning hormones, feed, and time spent outdoors were met.

Organic: This type of produce or meat doesn’t quite meet the highest organic standard, but the remaining 5 percent of its ingredients have been approved for organic use by a nationwide certification organization called the National Organics Standards Board.

Made with organic ingredients: This certification assures consumers that no less than 70 percent of the produce, milk, or meat was produced using organic ingredients.

The last two other labels you’ll see are considerably more ambiguous. First, there’s the term “free-range,” which is used interchangeably with the term “cage-free.” The USDA regulates the use of either term when it comes to poultry, but not to eggs, and there’s no clear definition of how much outdoor access animals should receive.

The other term is “natural,” which has no real meaning in any food commodity other than meat and poultry, which can’t have any artificial coloring, chemical preservatives, or ingredients. Although it’s supposed to have only minimal processing, there’s no certification process that meat or poultry producers must comply with in order to place the term on their labels.