Stop Choking on the Water Bottles
By Janet Lawson, Healthy Practices Catalyst

By now, we are somewhat aware of the importance to drink your ½ - 1 ounces of water per pound of body weight each day. Some key reminders:

• Our bodies are on average 70% water.
• Water is as important as oxygen for our body to function and repel maladies.
• A 128 lb. adult should drink a base minimum of 64 ounces (1/2 gallon) of water daily
• In addition to the base minimum, add up to another ½ ounce per body pound to replace dehydrating effects of sugar, alcohol, altitude, exercise, heat, stress, medications, diarrhea.
• Reject the acidic dehydrators such as sodas and energy drinks.
• Perceived hunger is often just thirst.
• Hydration improves weight loss.

What Water to Drink?
This topic, like most, has conflicting scientific and medical opinions. Natural spring water is best; however, we don’t have that magical spring in our back yards. Bottled water is NOT a good daily choice due to the damage to our environment, our bodies, and wallets. I suggest filtered tap water as your “water of choice”.

The EPA regulates our tap water between the water treatment plant and your faucet. The FDA regulates the bottled water only up to the sealing of the bottles, and is light on label requirements. There are no regulations for bottling companies to test the water after being bottled. Plastic contaminants have been found in humans. For tap water, municipalities are required to publish water quality reports. While tap water may have bad things such as fluorides, chlorines, synthetic chemicals and sediments, these can be handled with a filter.

Why Not the Bottled Waters?
1. Demineralization of the Reverse Osmosis: The majority of bottled waters are tap water and undergo reverse osmosis (RO), such as Dasani and Aqua Fina. The RO process strips the naturally occurring minerals (magnesium, calcium, potassium, iron) out of the water via a water-wasteful process. The WHO states “Demineralized water that has not been re-mineralized . . . is not considered ideal drinking water… its regular consumption may not be providing adequate levels of some beneficial nutrients." Additionally, the demineralization reduces the PH of the water so it is more acidic, a bad thing. A few companies then add back in minerals and alkalizing chemicals to market “healthy bottled water”.

2. Loss of Essential Minerals from Body: The RO water, aka “dead water”, when consumed, may leach vital minerals out of our body. This mineral-stripped water is “hungry” to reunite with its natural-state minerals of magnesium, potassium, and calcium in your body, and flushes them out, furthering our malnourishment plight. While this mineral robbery is debated, personally, when I returned to the U.S. after 2 years living in Mexico, my body and palate were cravingly excited to gulp the minerals of tap water, not the empty tasteless RO water we relied on in Mexico.

3. Plastic Bottle Leaching: Most plastic bottles risk leaching toxins (BPA, DEHP, PET) into your purchased water. Heat exacerbates this. You know, you’ve tasted it. Think of those pallets of water bottles sitting in hot warehouses and trucks. Scientists assert that the toxic amount is tolerable, and deemed safe by our understaffed FDA, who may not have reviewed safe levels for many years.

4. Pollution from the: A) plastic bottle production, B) plastic trash and C) transportation of plastic bottled waters. 50 Billion bottles per year choke our ocean life and landfills! These can take over 700 years to degrade only to release toxins into our air. Over 20 billion barrels of oil are used each year to produce the 50 billion plastic bottles, resulting in 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide pollution. Add in the warehousing and transporting of water bottles to this environmental damage equation. Top it with the waste of 3 x more water used to produce 1 bottle of water.

Does it make common sense to regularly drink water that has been re-handled and subjected to processes of 1. stripping (RO), 2. re-adding minerals or chemicals, and 3. storing in plastic? For one of the most important substances for our bodies?

Filtered tap water.
While our tap water has some undesirables in it, mentioned earlier, it still has essential minerals and its process doesn’t endanger our bodies or pollute like the plastic bottling industry. A variety of filters are available to remove certain contaminants. You can obtain your locality’s water quality report and find a Carbon Block Filter to best fit, removing 50-60 contaminants. You can also add a fluoride reduction cartridge and a ceramic cartridge. Hardware and online stores sell filters. At the minimum use a Gravity-Based filter (such as the Brita Pitcher) which removes 5-10 contaminants, but be sure to keep the filter wet and pitcher appropriately filled to avoid bacteria growth.

Home Reverse Osmosis (RO) System
If your tap water is particularly bad quality and you prefer the demineralized purified water, go ahead and install an RO system for your residence. It is still healthier and cheaper than the plastic leaching and pollution of bottled waters.

Your Take-Aways
Be a leader, not only in your business, but as an ambassador of hydration health and as a steward of our planet. Influence your own circles to reduce our reliance on bottled water and return to tap water, with a filter where feasible. Why Filtered Tap Water?
• It has its natural essential minerals, unstripped
• Demineralized RO water is more acidic  than tap
• Better cell absorption without flushing out your body’s’ minerals
• Eliminate plastic bottle chemicals leaching into water
• A $1 bottle of water costs less than $.01 of filtered tap water
• Do your part to stop the choking of 50 Billion plastic bottles per year in our oceans and landfills. Go Green!

LET’S GO! 4 Simple things you can do to stop water bottle damage to your body and our environment.
1. Shop and install a water filter in your home (Carbon-Block or other). At the minimum, get a Gravity-Based filter, like a Brita.
2. Get glass, steel, or ceramic water bottles (nice steel ones sold at Costco and online)
3. New Habit: Fill your bottles daily with filtered tap water and drink your ½ to 1 ounce per pound of body weight. (At home I use wine bottles as a fun drinking chalice. When on the go, I carry a couple steel bottles in a wine bag.)
4. When really on the go, drink any water available – tap or the commercialized bottled RO. Most any water is better than dehydration!

Breathe Deeply, Appreciate Daily
Janet Lawson, CPA and Health Catalyst