Read Part One
I’m often asked what is the ideal amount of water to drink on a daily basis.
Eight glasses of water a day is a good start, but your body may need more. A good rule is to use the color of your urine as a guide. When you’re well hydrated, your urine should be clear, or nearly so. (Please note this guideline does not work when you are taking B supplements with riboflavin which will turn your urine bright yellow.)
It’s been estimated that over two-thirds of all people don’t drink enough water, and suffer from some degree of dehydration.
Did you know that just a 5 percent drop in body fluids can cause a 25 to 30 percent loss of energy? Unfortunately, many people turn to stimulants like caffeine and sugar to boost their energy level when they feel drained.
 Problem is, these substances only increase your need for more water, as well as potentially cause a myriad of other health issues. Next time you feel a drop in your energy, pour yourself a cool, tall glass of water and see if it doesn’t make a difference in how you feel!
Your children need healthy water when they head out to school and play, just as much, or even more so than you or me.
Children need three times as much water per pound of body weight than adults. As their immune and detoxification systems are not yet fully developed, any ill effects from contaminants in the water are far more impactful to children’s bodies.
Lead in particular is dangerous for kids. Studies show that fluoride, added to most public water supplies, can actually increase your child’s absorption of lead.
Pesticides and herbicides are beginning to show up in school drinking water supplies as well. Since developing children are less capable of fully removing them from their bodies, researchers are increasingly suspecting them as one cause for the exploding number of cases of autism and ADHD.
As attention deficit and hyperactive behavior in children have been linked to changes in levels of thyroid hormone, so are irritability and aggressive behavior. Pesticides and herbicides are proven to adversely affect thyroid hormones.
Unfortunately, you can’t always depend upon schools to protect your children against unsafe drinking water. When schools get their water from municipal supplies, as many do, they’re not required to test for toxins.
If your child attends an older school with lead-soldered pipes, he or she may be drinking lead contaminated water. This highly toxic metal can flake off into the water, or simply leech into the water as it sits in the pipes over weekends and holidays.
According to a 2010 National Geographic report, a nationwide investigation discovered that the drinking water in schools in 27 states was contaminated with lead and other toxic substances from lead-soldered pipes installed before 1985. However, I have no information that the water supply at your child’s particular school contains lead.
As bad as lead is for your child, it’s not the only potential concern with your school’s drinking water. In 2009, the Associated Press analyzed school drinking water data from the Environmental Protection Agency and uncovered some disturbing findings.
About 100 school districts and 2,250 schools nationwide were found to have drinking water that violated federal water safety standards, including one out of five schools with well water.
What did they find in the water? Lead, pesticides, and toxins such as coliform bacteria, copper, arsenic, and nitrates. It is for this reason that I suggest packing water for your child for school.
Drinking bottled water opens up a whole new set of health and environmental concerns. Is drinking bottled water the solution? Evidently, many people believe so. Bottled water represents, by far, the fastest growing segment of the beverage industry with annual sales exceeding $11 billion.
How has the bottled water industry created such a demand for a commodity that’s available for free? By slick marketing tactics and taking advantage of lax governmental regulations. Playing the message that bottled water is cleaner, and therefore healthier, the bottled water industry has successfully created one of the most incredulous scams of the century.
Here’s how you’ve been duped:
- Studies reveal that about 40 percent of bottled water is actually regular tap water with possibly no additional filtering treatment.
- The EPA standards that apply to public water supplies do NOT apply to bottled water
- There are no restrictions protecting against a source of bottled water being located near industrial facilities or waste dumps.
- Overall, bottled water is less regulated than tap water.
- A recent Environmental Working Group test uncovered 38 contaminants in 10 brands of bottled water, including DBPs, nitrate, caffeine, arsenic, Tylenol, bacteria and industrial chemicals.
In the time it takes you to read just this one short sentence, over 8,000 empty water bottles are being thrown away worldwide. According to the Container Recycling Institute, in the U.S. alone, more than 67 million plastic water bottles are discarded each day. That’s enough empty plastic water bottles to…
- Fill 5500 garbage trucks each day.
- Bury Manhattan Island one foot deep each day.
- Wrap around the planet 149 times each year!
Not easily degraded, empty plastic water bottles have become a major contributor to worldwide pollution. In fact, water bottles make up a sizable portion of the garbage patch of discarded plastic swirling in the Pacific Ocean just a few hundred miles off the coast. This enormous plastic “stew” is currently larger than twice the size of Texas and growing rapidly!
The waste issue is not the only problem. According to the Sierra Club, the U.S. alone uses 1.5 million barrels of oil to produce all the water bottles we toss each year. And along with oil, comes unwanted toxins. The processing of plastic water bottle releases toxic compounds such as nickel, ethylbenzene, ethylene oxide, and benzene into the environment.
As I mentioned earlier, I believe that the best way to protect you’re your child against the uncertainty of school drinking water is to pack clean water you trust from home.
And, of course, you want pure and clean water in a safe, non-toxic, and reusable container. What kind of container should you choose? My personal favorite, and the kind I use myself, is glass. Glass is non-toxic and does not leach any undesirable contaminants. If breakage concerns you, purchase a silicone sleeve to slip on the outside to protect the bottle.
If you feel you must use plastic, be sure to select a water bottle designed for reuse labeled with one of the following numbers, as these are known to not leach harmful substances:
- High-density polyethylene, labeled as "#2 HDPE"
- Low-density polyethylene, labeled as "#4 LDPE"
- Polypropylene, labeled as "#5 PP"
Above all, be sure to avoid all plastic bottles labeled “Nalgene”, PVC #3, and Polycarbonate #7. These can leach potential endocrine disruptors and/or highly dangerous dioxins. However, not all plastics labeled with #7 contain BPA. For instance, corn PLA plastic and other biodegradable and renewable resource resins are classified under 7 as well. Be sure to inquire about what #7 plastic is made from before using it.
Make sure the bottle you select – whether it’s glass or one of the safer plastics – has an opening that allows you to hand wash the insides with hot water and a bottle brush.
If not cleaned thoroughly and often, your water bottle will begin to harbor unhealthy bacteria and mold growth – definitely not something you want in your water!
Dr. Joseph Mercola writes about health for his website, Mercola.com  |