Berlin Yerba Mate Drink and Vegan Food at the Nude Spa

In Berlin, what would be the interesting health-centric activities and food products? You’ll definitely become well-acquainted with veganism if you aren’t already. You’ll also notice unique herbal mate tea drinks which are more common in Berlin than any other city. Lastly, there’s the FreieKorperKultuur (FKK) sauna culture. Read below to find out if this sounds like something you’d like to give a try.

Berlin Wholefood Supermarkets

There are plenty of easy to find wholefood supermarkets selling healthier alternatives in Berlin. Simply go walking in the city (as opposed to only taking the metro train and taxis), and you’ll find e.g. LPG Biomarkt, Denn’s Biomarkt and Alnatura Super Natur Markt. Also, check out the Veganz grocery store. It has a wide variety of good vegan products, along with a small in-store cafeteria restaurant. In fact, you won’t find anything inside that isn’t vegan.

Seitan vegan meat is very prominent in all health shops in Berlin. Unless you are gluten intolerant, it’s a great alternative to Soya meat and Tofu. Seitan recipes are approximately 80% simply Wheat gluten. You can make your own wheat gluten by processing wheat flour underneath running tap water until only the stringy parts remain. Otherwise, purchase pre-made wheat gluten in good health shops. Traditional meat seasoning spices like Salt, Pepper, Paprika, Coriander, Garlic, and Cumin are then added to improve the flavor. Wheat gluten is very high in protein (around 75gram per 100g). But it is not a complete protein as it doesn’t contain all the essential amino acids.

Other wholefood shop products include a good variety of dark chocolate, nut-milks, vegan cheese, kombucha, kale chips and pretty much everything else you’ve ever seen in a wellness store.

Berlin Vegan Restaurants and Food Markets

In some neighborhoods e.g. Kreuzberg, you’ll find a vegan or vegetarian restaurant around every corner. Berlin is as much a mecca of veganism as Israel. I’d rate Eastern European cities like Bucharest as the least vegan-friendly in Europe, while Berlin is the most vegan-friendly.

Would you like Currywurst but without all the saturated fat? No problem, in Berlin you’ll find vegan Currywurst. Or get a vegan Burrito at Bamerang (permanently closed), otherwise vegan streetfood at Emma Pea in Friedrichshain. Or pretty much any other type of vegan food, for which the HappyCow app is useful. However, simply by walking around in the hipster neighborhoods, you’ll haphazardly stumble upon good vegan and vegetarian options.

The Turkish market in Kreuzberg (Wochenmarkt Maybachufer) is worth checking out on Tuesdays and Fridays from 11 am to 6h30pm with a few healthier (and bio/organic) food items.

There are plenty of annual vegan fairs in Berlin (e.g. Rohvolution). These can usually easily be reached by train if it coincides with your visit to this city.

If you would like to visit a good vegan lifestyle market, go to the Green Market in Berlin (Nalepa Street 18). It is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 12 noon to 10 pm. Entrance fee is 4 Euro’s (kids for free). In the open air part of the market, you’ll find food trucks. While inside there are vegan lifestyle and food product stalls.

Berlin’s Tap Water

In Berlin, tap water is safe, drinkable and regularly tested for quality by authorities. Moreover, Germany has an anti-fluoridation policy. Thus you don’t need to stress about the dangers of sodium-fluoride chemicals in your tap water. Nevertheless, there is a large mineral water market in Berlin. However, drinking water from plastic bottles is not necessarily a healthy thing to do, as plastic may leech into the water over longer time periods.

Where to Work Out

Not all gyms in Berlin accommodate tourists with day-passes. With this in mind, Superfit is a good option. Apart from day-passes (for 20 Euro), Superfit also offers a monthly pass at a good rate (50 Euros for one month). You can then work out in any Superfit branch in the city. One of them is very central next to Alexanderplatz. In addition, there is a sauna inside each branch. Plus, there are foreigner-friendly fitness classes, which you can partake in before or after your gym-training.

Another interesting work-out option is Berlin Strength gym in Friedrichshain. When I visited, they were promoting themselves as the vegan gym of Berlin. Selling only 100% vegan protein powder and protein shakes. It’s much smaller than Superfit, but still has the necessary equipment for a good workout.

Yerba Mate Tea Drink

The most unique and health-centric drink in Berlin is the bottled yerba mate. It is closer related to the cold mate (Terere) of Paraguay, than to the hot-water Argentinian Mate. Unlike South American Yerba Mate, in Berlin the Mate is sweetened. Each brand has its own way of sweetening. For example, Club Mate uses white sugar and glucose/fructose syrup, Ulticha Mate uses sugar and fruit juice, and Biozisch uses agave syrup. Out of the brands listed below, Biozisch is likely the healthiest choice due to low kilojoules, organic (bio) certification, and quality of water used to brew the tea. This brand of Mate is sold specifically at health shops, while mainstream brands such as Club Mate and Mio Mio Mate are sold in most grocery stores.

Here is a small selection of the yerba mate tea drinks available in Berlin:

• Biozisch Mate: Sweetened with Agave Syrup 84kj/100ml. Made with mineral water. Organic certified. [Recommended]
• Kolle Mate: Contains organic beet sugar, and normal water. Kolle-mate is also certified organic. 84kj’s. [Nice taste]
• Mio-Mio Mate: Flavored with natural plant-based extracts, mineral water, normal white sugar, energy value ranges from 119kj to 156kj/100ml depending on flavor. [Too sweet and too many calories]
• Ulticha Mate: Normal water, white sugar, and fruit extracts, 106kj’s.
• Club Mate: Water, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, white sugar, 85kj’s. [Easy to find, cheap, basic option]
• Flora Mate: Water, white sugar, caramel flavoring, 96kj’s.

Although regular yerba mate is not very popular in Berlin, Meta Mate is Berlin’s main yerba mate importer. They try to source the healthiest, least processed mate from the south of Brazil. Brazilian Mate is called “chimarrão” and has a distinct bright green color. Chimarrão is fresher than Argentinian mate and undergoes less processing.

Have a seat at the Meta Mate bar, grab one of the mate-related books or articles to read, and try chimarrão for around 5 euros. They also sell other Mate products such as Mate soap, -gourds and -bombillas.

In German cities, there’s also the option of buying yerba mate at most of the local ethnic Arabic grocery stores.

Relaxing at the Nude Spa

Freikörperkultur (FKK) or Free Body Culture is a naturist movement in Germany, which encourages body acceptance while relaxing in- and outdoors naked. There are various spas (German word: “Therme”) throughout Germany and Berlin where you can practice FKK nudism in a safe and completely non-sexual environment. When asking locals whether they are not shy to be naked at a nude spa, the response is that if you are in good shape physically, there is no point to feel insecure. You should feel proud instead. If anybody should be shy, it is those who are not taking care of themselves physically. However, as you can derive from the first part of this post, eating healthy and staying in shape is an important part of the local culture.

Vabali is a Bali-themed nude spa, close to the Berlin main train station. Once you’re inside, it’s somewhat reminiscent of what the Garden of Eden may have been like. At Vabali, clothes are rightfully seen as a burden towards detoxifying and de-stressing. They sell 2-hour, 4-hour and full-day passes. Considering the different resting rooms, sauna’s and steam baths for relaxation, it is probably quite easy to loose track of time and stay the whole day.

There is not much doubt that visiting a spa such as Vabali will boost your wellness, body acceptance and self-esteem. This comes with a caveat. If you don’t stick to the rule of “no sexual behavior”, or you make a burden of yourself through e.g. inappropriate staring, you’ll be asked to leave. This is so that everyone else can focus on relaxing. Camera’s and Cellphones are strictly forbidden inside all German spas.

Many decades ago, outdoor nudism in Germany used to be as popular as indoor nudism. However, after cameras became the norm, lack of laws and legal protection against making recordings at public nude beaches killed outdoor nudism. Although this can change with the help of lawmakers and new legal policies, modern spas are meanwhile a healthy alternative to the nudism of the fifties and sixties. Indoors you can restrict camera equipment and cellphones. But this is very hard to do in an open outdoor environment. If undercover filming (at nude beaches) would carry a prison sentence (otherwise a criminal record and some form of physical punishment), more people will be able to enjoy naturist beaches.

Liquidrom has a textile-free sauna. However, in this swimming pool, you keep on your swimwear. While floating around you listen to the relaxing meditation music playing through the underwater speakers.

Therme Ludwigsfelde is another good option for relaxing and getting rid of stress. Ludwigsfelde is easily reachable by train from Central Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Leave your shyness at home, grab a towel and flip-flops, and enjoy a day (or a few hours) at this luxury, but affordable spa. Here you’ll find 8 indoor saunas, 5 outdoor saunas, and 2 steam baths. Each sauna has a different temperature and herbal infusion. Definitely fit in an Aufguss as well.

Aufguss is a sauna experience consisting of the sauna-master pouring water on the coals. This heats up the room. Next, he uses a towel to spread the heat to all the attendees of the Aufguss. The wave of warm air surges through the room, further raising the room and bodily temperatures. This very intense sauna session lasts about 20 minutes. If you’re concerned you’ll pass out, you can leave the room, but do try to stay seated throughout. It becomes easier to tolerate the heat waves of the Aufguss the more regularly you attend the sauna.

Afterwards, re-hydrate with your bottled water. You may also be presented with an orange slice. Now is a good time to do the cold water plunge into the freezing plunge pool. Stand in line and wait your turn.

What to bring to the nude spa: Money, flip flops, ideally two towels – one for the sauna’s inside, and one for showering afterwards. A bathrobe is optional and can also be rented. And lastly, at least 1 liter of mineral water to keep you hydrated throughout.

Two more, quite famous nude spa’s (in other cities) include Friedrichsbad in Baden-Baden and Spa Zuiver in Amsterdam.

Berlin Health Travel Junkie Challenge

Drink Bottled Yerba Mate, Go to the Nude Spa, and Eat Vegan Food.

The Berlin Health Travel Junkie Scale

Fitness activities – 9
Food – 9
Cost of traveling – 7.5
Other Health-related activities – 8.5

Overall rating: 85%

What do you think about Health and Wellness in Berlin? Do you have any tips or questions? Comment below to help fellow travelers make the most of their visit to this German city.