This month I would like to talk about water. You would probably react like Paul (I think he laughed at me when I told him the topic of the month ). Water is underestimated and not appreciated enough by most of us on its ability to heal and keep us healthy. Think about it, you can survive three weeks without food, but only three days without water. It is the most abundant and important substance, both on Earth, and in the human body. The adult body is at least 60% water.
Water is the primary component of all body fluids, such as blood, lymph, digestive juices, urine, tears, and sweat. Not to mention its involvement in almost every bodily function such as; circulation, digestion, absorption, elimination of waste, and so on. Water’s high level of importance in almost all bodily functions from the blood coursing through our veins to the sweaty results of a work out were some of what inspired me to choose this topic for this month.
To stay hydrated, on average, we need 12 cups worth of water each day. This can include water from our food as well as the water released from digesting said food (equals 4 to 5 cups itself ). We need to drink those remaining 7 cups of water. According to Wirthlin Worldwild (a market research company), 20% of us drink no water at all and 42% of us consume a mere two glasses of or less. At the same time, people are consuming on average 1.8 cup of coffee, 1.3 cup of soda, 1.2 of milk, and 1.1 of juice a day. As Crossfitters we train hard and sweat even more. It is recommended to drink as much as possible during a work out as we release a dramatically larger amount of water through sweat. Followed obviously with the proper hydration post workout.
Without enough water, we basically dry ourselves out; dehydration! Medical research shows dehydration is linked to a long list of chronic health problems including; diabetes, arthritis, asthma, back pain, cataracts, chronic fatigue, syndrome, colitis, depression, heartburn high, blood pressure, high cholesterol, kidney stones, migraine, multiple sclerosis, and muscular dystrophy. Even 3 to 4 cups a day is not enough to lower the risk of these diseases. Sorry to say 2 cups of coffee will cover your 2 cups of water… Au contraire! Coffee upsets our water balance. It is a diuretic and causes us to excrete more water than the coffee contains itself. Anytime you have a cup of coffee, you should have a glass of water to equal the loss.
The moral of the story: WE NEED TO INCREASE OUR WATER INTAKE!!!!!!
What to drink?
I urge people to use purified water over tap water. Even if municipalities have their own adapted filter system, the water is cleaned up with chemicals to make it fit for human consumption. Tap water can still be contaminated with bacterias, viruses, parasites, chlorine, bromate, heavy metals, asbestos, nitrates, pesticide to name just a few. Let’s look at our drinking water choices before we decide what the right thing to do is. Being second importance only to air for sustaining life, we want to do the best we can to choose a good source of water.
Well water
Comes primarily from ground water supplies and can vary in it’s minerals content; some are low in minerals and some with high level of beneficial iron, zinc, selenium, magnesium or calcium. Unfortunately, groundwater may also contain toxic heavy metals or agricultural and industrial chemical pollutants ( pesticides, herbicides, asbestos, etc ). If your water source is a well have the water analyzed for bacterias, mineral content, and organic chemical pollutants.
Springwater
The “natural” water found in surface or underground springs. Some companies retrieve and bottle this water, other than being disinfected (chlorine may be used), springwater is not processed. It tastes good and to from my perspective it is my first choice when I have to buy water.
Filtered water
Or “purification”, involves the removal of many matter -be it chemicals, metals, or bacterias- from water. Legally anything called “purifier” must remove 99.75% of incoming bacterias. Here’s 3 types of the most popular filtration.
Activated Carbon is the most common type of filter. Carbon, used for centuries as a filtering substance, is activated by exposing it to chemicals at high temperatures and steam in the absence of oxygen. Carbon filters the water and removes the unpleasant odour and taste by cleaning it of bacteria, parasites, most viruses, chlorine, and heavier minerals and particulate matter. However, there is some concern that carbon filters may breed bacteria and dump it back into the water. Hot water should not be run through carbon filters as it can cause contaminant release.
Distilled water involves vaporizing water (turning it into steam) in one chamber and then condensing it into liquid in a separate chamber. This removes most minerals, organisms, and chemicals from the water. Chemicals that have a higher boiling point than water, however, will not be removed by distillation. Distilled water contains no minerals, when consumed, it tends to attract minerals and toxins to balance with the other body fluids. The regular consumption of distilled water specially by someone who may already be slightly deficient can cause mineral deficiencies.
Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a semi-permeable membrane to separate water molecules from other substances. RO applies pressure to overcome osmotic pressure that favors even distributions. RO can remove dissolved or suspended chemical species as well as biological substances (principally bacteria), and is used in industrial processes and the production of potable water. RO retains the solute on the pressurized side of the membrane and the purified solvent passes to the other side. It relies on the relative sizes of the various molecules to decide what passes through. “Selective” membranes reject large molecules, while accepting smaller molecules (such as solvent molecules, e.g., water). RO is most commonly known for its use in drinking water purification from seawater, removing the salt and other effluent materials from the water molecules.
In conclusion, water is the substance we need most. Having good drinking water is important to health, we should know what the water we drink contains. Water contamination is inescapable; if there is any question about the water we drink, we can have it checked for bacteria, count, mineral content, and the presence of a wide number of chemical pollutants. If there is concern, we should find a filtration or purification system that makes the water safe or find another source of drinking water. I hope this topic has been interesting and educating enough for inspiring you to drink more water!
❤️ R.H.N Eve