How to Drink More Water
Release : 2 October 2010
Field : Healthy Lifestyle
Focus : Expert Advice
Status : First Revision
Release : 2 October 2010
Field : Healthy Lifestyle
Focus : Expert Advice
Status : First Revision
We are supposed to drink 8 glasses of water each day, right? But most of us drink one or two glasses of tap water and the rest we supplement with tea, coffee and fruit juices. Our health is suffering and there are easy steps to beat the trend. Read on to find out more.
The Problem
If you ask a hundred people from different locations and backgrounds why they don't drink 8 glasses of water a day you will get about a hundred different reasons: "I drink 6 cups of coffee", "I prefer fruit juice", "I'd rather something with taste", etc.
The real reason is that our bodies have a negative reaction to the water we're drinking.
Tap water and most bottled water has high concentrations of dissolved solids, or salts, that react with our tastebuds and send a subtle message to our brain that we should limit the amount we consume.
Our bodies wants pure, clean water.
It may sound far fetched to some people however the chemicals and other things in town water are the underlying reason we don't drink much of it.
The Solution
The short answer is drink pure water!
That isn't as helpful or as simple as it sounds because you can't tell by looking at a glass of water if it's pure or not.
Firstly, without proper filtration, town or city water contains salts, chemicals like chlorine and potentially other harmful substances. Second, bottled water comes in as many different varieties and not all are particularly good for you or the environment.
Like any fad diet, many people latch on to brand of bottled water because:
it's fashionable
celebrities are drinking it
it has a cool tv commercial
an authority figure recommended it
it is reputed to have healing powers
Before you decide the answer is bottled water you may like to watch the following video.
While I agree there's a huge problem with the bottled water process and the video conveniently overlooks a number of problems with tap water, rather than hit you upside the head with a barrage of sales speak here's a good place to start by increasing your consumer awareness.
So at least for the long term bottled water is not the answer.
Another interesting point raised in the video is that both Pepsi and Coke bottle filtered tap water. The fact is that tap water is basically good, certainly in most first world countries.
Rather than glamorise a particular mineral water spring, the best water for your body is pure water. The best way to get pure water in the city is in the short term purchase ultra filtered water or buy a decent water filter.
Bottled Water
Selecting the right bottled water can be a challenge but here's a couple of simple guidelines:
Firstly, the less stuff in water the better it is for you. Most water bottles have a label showing a typical analysis of the water.
The Problem
If you ask a hundred people from different locations and backgrounds why they don't drink 8 glasses of water a day you will get about a hundred different reasons: "I drink 6 cups of coffee", "I prefer fruit juice", "I'd rather something with taste", etc.
The real reason is that our bodies have a negative reaction to the water we're drinking.
Tap water and most bottled water has high concentrations of dissolved solids, or salts, that react with our tastebuds and send a subtle message to our brain that we should limit the amount we consume.
Our bodies wants pure, clean water.
It may sound far fetched to some people however the chemicals and other things in town water are the underlying reason we don't drink much of it.
The Solution
The short answer is drink pure water!
That isn't as helpful or as simple as it sounds because you can't tell by looking at a glass of water if it's pure or not.
Firstly, without proper filtration, town or city water contains salts, chemicals like chlorine and potentially other harmful substances. Second, bottled water comes in as many different varieties and not all are particularly good for you or the environment.
Like any fad diet, many people latch on to brand of bottled water because:
it's fashionable
celebrities are drinking it
it has a cool tv commercial
an authority figure recommended it
it is reputed to have healing powers
Before you decide the answer is bottled water you may like to watch the following video.
While I agree there's a huge problem with the bottled water process and the video conveniently overlooks a number of problems with tap water, rather than hit you upside the head with a barrage of sales speak here's a good place to start by increasing your consumer awareness.
So at least for the long term bottled water is not the answer.
Another interesting point raised in the video is that both Pepsi and Coke bottle filtered tap water. The fact is that tap water is basically good, certainly in most first world countries.
Rather than glamorise a particular mineral water spring, the best water for your body is pure water. The best way to get pure water in the city is in the short term purchase ultra filtered water or buy a decent water filter.
Bottled Water
Selecting the right bottled water can be a challenge but here's a couple of simple guidelines:
Firstly, the less stuff in water the better it is for you. Most water bottles have a label showing a typical analysis of the water.
If you find a bottle with this label, don't buy it on principle that they are attempting to completely deceive you, the consumer.
It provides no useful information and is simply a statement that water contains no fat, calories, carbohydrates or protein. This is not news and is a short term marketing tactic that has attracted the attention of lobbyists and other activists.
We need better information. At least the following label has some information that tells us something useful:
The numbers in the label on the left represent mg/L or parts per million. This is a label from an Evian bottle.
I personally would not buy this water because I can see it is full of minerals that my liver has to actively remove to make use of the water!
Besides that, the only advantage this water has over tap water is that is has a lower level of Chlorides. Otherwise it is virtually identical to 90% of 1st world countries tap water!
To be fair, according to the Evian website:
To clear up a few things
Sodium is salt. Plain table salt known as Sodium chloride or the chemical shorthand, NaCl. We get plenty in a typical Western diet and we don't need extra in our water. Happy to say 6.5mg/L is quite low.
Calcium is used by our bodies to make and repair bones but we need it in conjunction with Vitamin D to be able to use it. We don't need it in our water although it is relatively harmless.
Magnesium and Calcium contribute to water hardness. Less is better.
Sulfates are bad, full stop! We are carbon-oxygen machines and sulfur is poison. Low levels our bodies can tolerate like air pollution in the city.
Nitrates again are poisons. A level of 0 is beneficial to our body. While they occur in nature and we can tolerate a level of them, ideally water should have zero, zip, zilch. Water, the universal solvent, is what flushes these toxins out of our bodies. The less contaminants in the water to begin with the better the water can do its job to keep our bodies health.
Bicarbonates are used for cooking, right? A rising agent in bread and so forth? Well, this 'ingredient' in Evian's water is the result of the 15 year long journey their water takes through some French Alp underground aquifer... or something...
Not a harmful substance in itself although through years of consumption this contributes to kidney stones. It's basically dissolved limestone.
Right.
Want a good metric? If the total 'ingredients' add up to less than 100 then the water is pretty good. General tap water is typically 200 to 300 ppm, the combined level of all contaminants.
If I have to buy bottled water I go for ultra filtered water like the Coke and Pepsi brands. On the Australian market we are fortunate to be able to purchase Nobles' ultra filtered water in a cask. It's a better packaging solution and more affordable too.
Just bear in mind the marketing machine. Doesn't it strike you as odd that filtered water from Coke costs more than a bottle of coke? Their filtered water is the same they use in coke, just before they add all those special ingredients and a huge dose of sugar. So why does it cost so much? Hmm... There is a better way.
The Right Water Filter
If you want a simple answer as to what the right water filter is then buy an RO filter system. The long answer is that you should really inform yourself as to what water filtration is all about. I have prepared a series of articles to make the process easy but here is a superficial treatment of the subject:
Filter jugs normally have a carbon filter. This generally improves the taste by removing chlorine. These are only half measures towards real water filtration. They are also costly when you consider that most jug filters are ineffective after only a month of use.
Ceramic filters and fancy benchtop jug systems work more or less by removing some of the contaminants of the water. They mostly look good but do little to improve water quality.
Single and twin undersink and benchtop filters are the real entry point towards real water filtration. They use filter cartridges in a plastic housing to filter the water.
In general the first cartridge is a coarse filter designed to remove sediment and heavier particles from the water. The second filter is a carbon filter designed to remove chlorine and some other contaminants like pesticides.
Reverse osmosis, or RO, systems pre-clean the water using a series of cartridge filters like the twin undersink and then forces the water through an ultra-fine membrane, usually made from latex, that gives the finest filtration possible.
It is generally inadvisable to drink distilled water although a good distillation system can remove almost every contaminant from the water.
Water conditioners come in a range of types from ion exchange to soften the water - which is good for showering and laundry water - to magnetic or electronic ionisation devices. A water sweetener for example uses a strong magnetic field to align the precession of the water molecules passing through the filter. Arguably the water tastes sweeter however this is generally a subtle improvement.
After a month or so of drinking and cooking with reverse osmosis water - the same process Coke and Pepsi use to filter their water prior to use in their sugar drink products - your tastebuds will actually be able to tell the differences in different waters. This is also the point that an additional water condition can be added to the system for optimum performance.
I'm an advocate for RO water and I make no bones about it.
The list of advantages are long and even after wading through the plethora of sales information available the real difference to your health and vitality from making a simple lifestyle choice is huge.
As I add more articles to explore the details of water and water filtration I will update the relevant links.
To your health and longevity drink pure water.
Enjoy
Before we go on though, let's have a quick look at why our water is the way it is.
Why Our Water Is The Way It Is
It provides no useful information and is simply a statement that water contains no fat, calories, carbohydrates or protein. This is not news and is a short term marketing tactic that has attracted the attention of lobbyists and other activists.
We need better information. At least the following label has some information that tells us something useful:
The numbers in the label on the left represent mg/L or parts per million. This is a label from an Evian bottle.
I personally would not buy this water because I can see it is full of minerals that my liver has to actively remove to make use of the water!
Besides that, the only advantage this water has over tap water is that is has a lower level of Chlorides. Otherwise it is virtually identical to 90% of 1st world countries tap water!
To be fair, according to the Evian website:
- Sodium is good for liver
- Calcium strengthens bones
- Magnesium is necessary for nerve system
- Bicarbonates stimulate peptic
To clear up a few things
Sodium is salt. Plain table salt known as Sodium chloride or the chemical shorthand, NaCl. We get plenty in a typical Western diet and we don't need extra in our water. Happy to say 6.5mg/L is quite low.
Calcium is used by our bodies to make and repair bones but we need it in conjunction with Vitamin D to be able to use it. We don't need it in our water although it is relatively harmless.
Magnesium and Calcium contribute to water hardness. Less is better.
Sulfates are bad, full stop! We are carbon-oxygen machines and sulfur is poison. Low levels our bodies can tolerate like air pollution in the city.
Nitrates again are poisons. A level of 0 is beneficial to our body. While they occur in nature and we can tolerate a level of them, ideally water should have zero, zip, zilch. Water, the universal solvent, is what flushes these toxins out of our bodies. The less contaminants in the water to begin with the better the water can do its job to keep our bodies health.
Bicarbonates are used for cooking, right? A rising agent in bread and so forth? Well, this 'ingredient' in Evian's water is the result of the 15 year long journey their water takes through some French Alp underground aquifer... or something...
Not a harmful substance in itself although through years of consumption this contributes to kidney stones. It's basically dissolved limestone.
Right.
Want a good metric? If the total 'ingredients' add up to less than 100 then the water is pretty good. General tap water is typically 200 to 300 ppm, the combined level of all contaminants.
If I have to buy bottled water I go for ultra filtered water like the Coke and Pepsi brands. On the Australian market we are fortunate to be able to purchase Nobles' ultra filtered water in a cask. It's a better packaging solution and more affordable too.
Just bear in mind the marketing machine. Doesn't it strike you as odd that filtered water from Coke costs more than a bottle of coke? Their filtered water is the same they use in coke, just before they add all those special ingredients and a huge dose of sugar. So why does it cost so much? Hmm... There is a better way.
The Right Water Filter
If you want a simple answer as to what the right water filter is then buy an RO filter system. The long answer is that you should really inform yourself as to what water filtration is all about. I have prepared a series of articles to make the process easy but here is a superficial treatment of the subject:
Filter jugs normally have a carbon filter. This generally improves the taste by removing chlorine. These are only half measures towards real water filtration. They are also costly when you consider that most jug filters are ineffective after only a month of use.
Ceramic filters and fancy benchtop jug systems work more or less by removing some of the contaminants of the water. They mostly look good but do little to improve water quality.
Single and twin undersink and benchtop filters are the real entry point towards real water filtration. They use filter cartridges in a plastic housing to filter the water.
In general the first cartridge is a coarse filter designed to remove sediment and heavier particles from the water. The second filter is a carbon filter designed to remove chlorine and some other contaminants like pesticides.
Reverse osmosis, or RO, systems pre-clean the water using a series of cartridge filters like the twin undersink and then forces the water through an ultra-fine membrane, usually made from latex, that gives the finest filtration possible.
It is generally inadvisable to drink distilled water although a good distillation system can remove almost every contaminant from the water.
Water conditioners come in a range of types from ion exchange to soften the water - which is good for showering and laundry water - to magnetic or electronic ionisation devices. A water sweetener for example uses a strong magnetic field to align the precession of the water molecules passing through the filter. Arguably the water tastes sweeter however this is generally a subtle improvement.
After a month or so of drinking and cooking with reverse osmosis water - the same process Coke and Pepsi use to filter their water prior to use in their sugar drink products - your tastebuds will actually be able to tell the differences in different waters. This is also the point that an additional water condition can be added to the system for optimum performance.
I'm an advocate for RO water and I make no bones about it.
The list of advantages are long and even after wading through the plethora of sales information available the real difference to your health and vitality from making a simple lifestyle choice is huge.
As I add more articles to explore the details of water and water filtration I will update the relevant links.
To your health and longevity drink pure water.
Enjoy
Before we go on though, let's have a quick look at why our water is the way it is.
Why Our Water Is The Way It Is
