Some facts about Water

It is only when you are afloat on a ship with nothing in view except the sea yet having to buy bottled water and bathe in water from the ship’s own processing plant, or travelling around the USA trying to keep water supply topped up, that you appreciate how lucky we are to have fresh clean water daily (and up here in Scotland, it falls more than average from the sky). Most of you probably drink plenty but how much is actual plain water? When I mean drink water I mean actual water or herbal tea – not fizzy water, not sugared or flavoured water, not tea or coffee but just plain water.I still filter water to take out any residue chemicals. Here are a few reasons why you should drink more and invest in a filter (no need for bottled water unless you are caught short).

Water is needed for every function the body provides. We lose 6 cups of water a day through various means of elimination (skin, urine, gut). It flushes out waste and toxins which are aplenty these days and helps keep the body hydrated. This needs replacing if the body is to protect us and do its job. Sometimes we even mistake the body’s need for water as the need for something to eat – hence why we snack.

Water helps keep weight down (it contains NO calories) and if we drink plenty, the body doesn’t need to hold on to fluid, as it knows there is no drought. Another point to remember – tea, coffee and alcohol are diuretics and as such, lose the body fluid so remember whilst drinking alcohol, always replace with water and flush the body the day after for minimal damage (the Europeans always drink their espresso with a glass of water so take heed!!). So help you to help yourself and drink plenty of mineral/filtered water and you will feel the difference.

Here are some facts: –

*Mild dehydration slows down your metabolism as much as 3% (so you put on weight basically). The majority of the population is actually dehydrated (75% of Americans are and look at the weight issues and problems they are having).

*Lack of water triggers the syndrome of daytime fatigue.

*8-10 glasses of water per day could significantly ease joint and back pain in up to 80% of sufferers.

*Sufferers of symptoms like bloating, constipation, PMT, headaches and fluid retention may have these problems simply because their intake of water is too little. Drink 8 large glasses of water to solve these annoying problems.

*A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

The Problem is…

The body simply thinks it is undergoing a drought. Add to it environmental issues like central heating, double-glazing and air-conditioning and the conditions worsen. We need water to live – simple as that.

Make a point of getting all the family to increase their intake of plain water, whether tap, bottled or filtered, and you could be taking a positive step to ensure a healthy life later.

A water rant…

However, don’t rely on drinking loads of bottled water that is in the supermarkets in large quantities in plastic. Remember, some water has been bottled for up to 2 years…yuk!! Drink lots of tap water and, here in Scotland, our water is fab for drinking and tap water passes a lot more stringent tests than bottled water does.

Also, you may laugh at Del Trotter when he bottled tap water and sold it as mineral, but that has actually happened in real life so these bottled waters are not always what they are cracked up to be, especially the cheaper bargains. So, the best option is to use a filter jug or under-the-sink filter for your tap water than to rely solely on bottled (though some of the major cities may be a bit iffy…) see if the filters alter the taste. I can actually tell by taste when my filter is done because I can taste the impurities are back in the water!!.

They do actually work and you can always fill up the water bottle daily with fresh filter water: add some crystals and make your very own personalised mineral water: much better than water that has been sat in the plastic for 6 months, don’t you think? Fair enough, sometimes you just have to buy a bottle of water and that is fine as better to drink bottled water than dehydrate, but at the price it is sold (coke is cheaper than water), let’s use the free stuff from the tap much more and get our bodies the fluid it needs for optimum health. I know I have the office bottled water in the shop but I use a company that has only had it bottled for up to 7 days before I get it unlike the previous company that I found out stored it for up to a year!!! See what I mean…