Flavored Water

A widely known rule of the fitness industry is "don't drink your calories". A lot of the IIFYM "flexible dieters" follow this rule. They also are huge advocates of drinking lots and lots of water. Their reasons for this during bikini prep (for a show) is to reduce boating, water retention and to flush out toxins.
The problem is, many of them say "I hate drinking water" or "It doesn't taste good" or "It's hard to reach my water intake goal because I get bored". So I've seen a lot of people use flavored water packets to help them reach their water intake goals. Crystal Lite, powdered Gatorade, Propel, Mio, etc.
I personally don't think this is such a bad idea, but of course, just like everything else in life, it's all about moderation. A lot of the powders have hidden ingredients. First, let me back track with a short story. So I was looking in my pantry for something when I found a box of peach tea powder that you mix in with a 2 quart jug of water. I re purposed it into making my own stronger, more concentrated version of it by filling up my own regular water bottle and adjusting how much powder went into it. This got me thinking about how much I loved the Propel packets I used to mix in with water bottles.
I did my research and compared boxes to find that a majority of them have artificial sweeteners, as expected. However, not all have fake dyes and added sugar. In fact, some have added vitamins which made the ingredient label appear longer than it really is.
If you are the type of person to get addicted to things very easily, I'd recommend that you get the packets that don't have any dyes or the ingredient aspartame. If you can't help but to love the bright red and yellow colors, here's my strategy: Drink an 8 ounce glass of PLAIN water. Then "reward" yourself with a 16 ounce bottle of your flavored water, and alternate them to help ease up on the consumption of artificial ingredients.
Flavored water isn't exactly "healthy" but there are a lot worse things out there than drinking calorie free water. And at the end of the day, if it helps you reach your goals, then go for it.