Water, Water Everywhere...

Whatever happened to good clean water? In my late teens (back in the stone age), I took a trip with a church youth group up into the Montana Rocky Mountains and drank, unafraid, at the most delicious cold, clear mountain spring. It was the best water I ever tasted -- I can still remember the experience. There may yet be places like that in the world, or even in this country, but certainly not in your local neighborhood or mine.

And yet water remains a critical element for survival. More than ever before we find ourselves asking, where did it come from, what’s in it, and is it safe to drink? Tap or bottled? Filtered or spring water? Flavored or unflavored? Sweetened or unsweetened? Sparkling or flat? Purified or distilled? The choices seem endless.

So let's talk about water. With the hot days of summer, and the warnings to drink plenty of water, we're left to wonder...what does that mean, exactly? Water makes up about 70% of the human body (optimally), and we all know the dangers of dehydration. Water helps regulate the body's internal temperature and keeps our cells functioning properly. We need to drink enough water to stay hydrated...but, how much is "enough?"

Experts have been telling us for as long as we can remember, that we should be drinking at least eight 8-ounce glasses a day. That's 64 ounces. Two quarts! I don't know about you, but I've never drunk that much water in a given day in my entire life. And yet I just had my body fluids checked and was found to be in the normal hydration range. So, who came up with this eight glasses a day rule?

In a June article by my favorite health guru, Dr. Mercola, he discusses this very topic.  It seems there are absolutely no scientific studies to be found that support this seemingly arbitrary water requirement. In his article, he sites a commentary by Dr. Margaret McCartney, a general practitioner from Scotland writing for the British Medical Journal who suggested that the 8 glasses a day "nonsense" was being spread by bottled water companies in order to "churn up more business."  That wouldn't surprise me.  But the fact is, the bulk of the health/medical community is telling us the same thing -- how do THEY profit from such advice?

Anyway, I suppose we can all relax about the 8-glasses a day rule and fall back on the old fashioned way of discovering how much water we should drink-- you know, the method our ancestors relied on:  Thirst.  Your body will tell you when you need water, and like any self-regulating system, it may need more on some days and less on others, depending on the existing environmental factors.  If you're running on a hot day (some fools actually DO such a thing), you're probably going to need a heck of a lot more than 64 ounces!

Have you seen the water isle at the grocery store lately?  Americans have been convinced en masse that drinking water must be bottled.  Boy, are we gullible!  On the other hand, with problems like chlorine and fluoride in municiple water systems, and sometimes just really unpleasant flavor, we run to the supermarket and bring home a case of bottled water just to be safe.

You can find a raft of blogs and commentaries listing all the reasons not to buy bottled water, but I will focus on just two:  cost, and toxins.

Using the 64-ounce rule, just for argument's sake, bottled water will cost about $500 per year per person (assuming $6 for a case of 24 12-oz. bottles, $1.33/day per person).  On the other hand, a good reverse osmosis water filtration system that fits under the sink runs about $250, providing the whole family with clean, filtered, bottle-quality water for an entire year.  You could replace the ENTIRE SYSTEM every year for less money than it costs to buy bottled water.  But you don't have to.  Only the filter needs to be replaced annually, and it runs about $50 (more or less).

The second reason not to buy bottled water has to do with the problem of leaching.  Most plastic bottles used by bottling companies leach a carcinogen known as BPA (bisphelol A), which is an estrogen-like chemical used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles.  It keeps them soft and pliable so they don't break. A 2010 article by Ashley Staker for Medifast Health sited a report from the US National Toxicology Program that "revealed that even low exposures to BPA produced alterations in the brains and behavior of rats, along with precancerous changes in the prostate and breast, and early puberty."  Hmmmm...sounds a lot like the common problems in today's human population.  I wonder if there's a connection.  Coincidence?  The article goes on to say that "the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has detected trace amounts of BPA in more than 90% of Americans tested."  A 2008 study from the Harvard School of Public Health confirmed that "drinking containers made with BPA release the chemical into the liquid in sufficient amounts to increase the amount of BPA excreted in [the] urine."

Lesson?  Don't drink the water... at least not from plastic bottles.  Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives to plastic these days.  I have a nice stainless steel bottle I fill from my filtered water spigot.  It's durable and has a nice pop-top with a cover.

There is really no good reason to buy and drink bottled water on a regular basis.  Flavored waters contain artificial ingredients you should avoid anyway.  Vitamin waters not only contain fructose sweeteners, a substance that is very hard on the liver and contributes to other health problems, but the vitamins it contains are synthetic and your body will not process them in the same way as the vitamins naturally occurring in food.

Good clean water is still abundant and reasonably inexpensive.  If you can't afford a good filter, tap water filtered through an inexpensive device like a filtered water pitcher is probably still preferable over bottled water.

Here's to good health!  Drink up!