Wonderful Water

I was never much of a water drinker. Atleast not as a child. All I wanted was soda because that's what I saw my parents drinking. When I asked my mom for soda, she gave it to me. When I asked my dad for soda, he denied me. He tried to teach me that water was the better way to go. However he didn't exactly set the example and since my mom had been giving it to me all along it undermined his intentions and I got addicted to sodas. Today I'm in that same pattern. I prefer soda to water. Since water is the basis of all liquids you do get some benefits from drinking any drink. However if you're trying to stay hydrated and replace the water that you lose throughout the day, drinking flat out water is the way to go.

Okay, but what kind should I drink and why drink it at all? Those are the first two questions that came to my mind when I decided to introduce the clear liquid into my diet. The water I had tasted from my dad's tap was well water and didn't have very good taste so I decided to try bottled water. The way I answered the first question was to simply try different brands-Dasani, Aquafina, Ice Mountain, and Deja Blue. Out of those four there's only one that I prefer for taste. However, in high school I had to make due with Deja Blue since that's the only kind that was sold at my school. Once I settled on a brand I did some research. I don't recall my high school Health class ever teaching me the benefits of drinking water, only that I should-much the same way my dad did earlier in my life. If I wanted answers I was going to have to get them for myself.

I came online and did a google search for the benefits of water and this is what I came up with.

1. Water regulates your body temperature.

2. It helps to break down minerals in your body making them more widely available to your organs and tissues for absorption.

3. It gives your kidneys a helping hand by flushing toxins out of your system.

4. Water carries nutrients to your cells and provides a moist environment for your ear, nose, and throat tissues.

I'm sure none of that is earth shattering news to most of you. Water-the substance that makes up 60% of your body weight-makes up a good portion of your blood, we're all taught that blood carries nutrients, cells, platelets, and oxygen through our circulatory system to our organs. What most of us don't know is when we should drink water. Of course we should when we're thirsty but sometimes waiting until our brain sends us a message that we're thirsty we could be already slightly dehydrated. It's best to drink a glass of water with every meal and one in between each meal. And of course if you work out you should also add extra water to your diet. According to the Institute of Medicine the recommended daily intake of water is 3Liters for me and 2.2Liters for women. I currently have 1PT (or 700mL) sitting in front of me that is only half gone, I need to get moving on the rest of my intake.

Skip to the end of the day when you've drunk all the recommended water that you should. You now have a few water bottles lying empty in your trash right? Did you know that only 25% of all water bottles get recycled? That leaves the other 75% to clutter up landfills. Recycle those empty bottles!!

Aside from recycling the empty bottles there is another way you can use what water you drink to help the environment. I did some research on the most popular brands of water and found some interesting tidbits. For example, Ice Mountain has a bottle called the Eco-Shape bottle that is easier to crush and uses 30% less plastic than the average .5L bottle. It also requires less energy to make because it is lighter which results in less Carbon Dioxide emissions into our atmosphere and uses smaller labels to save more trees. Dasani is donating $60 million to build on of the largest recycling plants and factories in America. They speculate that the plant will produce about 100 million pounds of food-grade recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic per year-that's about 2 billion 20 oz plastic bottles. Over the next 10 years the plant is also expected to eliminate the production of 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. that would be like taking 215,000 cars off the road! Dasani and Aquafina have also reduced the amount of PET used in their bottles by about 30%.

My original preference for bottled water was Ice Mountain. I chose it only by taste. But now after doing some research on the different companies efforts for ecoconservation Ice Mountain is still my preference and now even more so.