Barley water is a simple and refreshing beverage prepared by boiling barley grains in water. It has been consumed and enjoyed for centuries across different cultures due to its remarkable health benefits. Barley water is a rich source of fiber, essential vitamins, and minerals, it supports your overall health and well-being. Let’s dive deeper into numerous benefits of this wholesome natural drink.
1. Keeps You Hydrated
Barley water is an excellent drink to stay hydrated, especially during hot weather and summer season. Since it’s mostly water, it helps in replacing lost fluids in your body and keeps your body cool. You can also add few drops of lemon juice and honey to enhance its taste and make it more refreshing drink.
2. Supports Digestion
Barley water offers significant benefits regarding digestion. It is rich source of fiber, which helps improving bowel movements, and ultimately preventing constipation. Additionally, it promotes growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut, leading to enhanced digestion and improving overall health of your gut.
3. Helps in Weight Loss
If you are looking to lose extra weight, then barley water is a great drink. It is high in fiber and low in calories, which helps you feel full longer. This reduces craving and prevents overeating, making it easier to manage you weight and helps to shed extra weight.
4. Helps Control Blood Sugar Levels
Barley water can be very helpful drink for people with diabetes. It contains low glycemic index and beta-glucans, a type of fiber that helps to control your blood sugar levels. Additionally, regular consumption of barley water may support effective diabetes management.
5. Good for Heart Health
Barley water is heart-friendly drink as it supports heart health by lowering bad cholesterol (LDL) and increasing good cholesterol (HDL). High fiber in barley helps flush out excess cholesterol from your body, lowering the risk of heart disease and promoting better heart health.
6. Improves Kidney Health
Barley water is known to support kidney health as it acts as a natural diuretic. It helps flush out toxins from your body, keeps the urinary system clean, and may prevent kidney stones while reducing the chances of infections.
7. Boosts Immunity
Barley water is rich source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, it helps in strengthen your immune system. It also helps the body fight off infections and prevents you from getting sick. Regular consumption of barley water can help enhanced immunity and overall well-being.
8. Promotes Healthy Skin
Barley water contains anti-inflammatory properties, hence very beneficial for skin health. Antioxidants in barley water can slow down aging process and keep your skin youthful. It helps in reducing acne, keeping your skin hydrated, and improving skin texture.
9. Supports Liver Health
Barley water helps your liver by assisting it in removing toxins, promotes better liver health. This is an excellent natural drink for detoxifying the body and maintaining a healthy liver.
A Miracle Drink for Kidney Stones
Now a days kidney stones are a common health problem; they are hard deposits of minerals and excess salts that form in the kidneys. They can cause severe pain and discomfort. While medical treatments are available to cure kidney stones, natural home-made remedies like barley water can help manage and prevent kidney stones by keeping your urinary system clean.
How Does Barley Water Help with Kidney Stones?
- Flushes Out Toxins: Barley water is diuretic by nature, it helps to flush out excess fluids and toxins from the body. This lowers the possibilities of kidney stone formation.
- Dissolves Small Stones: If you consume barley water regularly it can help breakdown small kidney stones and helps them to pass through urine easily. Some scientific researches says that, barley water is also having potential power of dissolving small kidney stones.
- Reduces Pain and Discomfort: If you have kidney stone issues, then consuming barley water regularly can help reduce pain by enhancing urine flow and lowering irritation in the urinary tract.
- Prevents Stone Formation: Barley water helps to maintain right balance of essential minerals in the kidneys, preventing kidney stone formation.
- Alkalizes the Urine: Barley water also reduces the risk of kidney stone formation by neutralizing acidity in the urine.
How to Prepare Barley Water
Making barley water at home is very simple.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup of barley grains
- 4 cups of water
- A pinch of salt (optional)
- Lemon juice or honey for taste (optional)
Instructions:
- Rinse the barley grains thoroughly.
- Boil 4 cups of water in a pot
- Add the barley grains and let it simmer for 30–40 minutes.
- Strain the boiled water and let it cool.
- Add few drops of lemon juice or honey for taste if desired.
- Drink 1–2 glasses daily for better results.
Precautions
- Barley water is generally considered as safe, but people with allergies or gluten intolerance should avoid drinking it.
- If you are taking any medications or if you have any medical issues, then consult your doctor before consuming barley water.
- You should not overconsume barley water, as excessive intake of this natural drink may lead to discomfort in digestive system.
Barley water is a simple, nutritious and refreshing natural drink that help prevent and manage kidney stones. It helps to flush out toxins, maintain healthy kidneys, and helps kidney stones to pass naturally by increasing a urine flow. Consuming barley water regularly can support kidney health, improving digestion and heart health, boosts immunity, promotes vibrant skin, and improve overall well-being.
Try to add barley water into your daily diet and enjoy its numerous health benefits!
Note: If you experience severe pain or recurring kidney stone issues, consult your doctor for medical advice.