BY MARTHA HALL
When I was in college, I read an article that changed me. It was about the benefits of water. After I read all the things water can do, I became a believer. I had water at my desk when I worked. I drank water with meals. I took water with me anywhere I drove. I drank extra water when I worked out.
But still, most people I know do not drink 64 ounces of water a day. With all the flavorful drinks on the market, many people think they don’t need water. They’ve even been told by weight experts that a diet pop is the same as water. It’s not.
Water is a basic part of life. Sixty-five percent of body weight is water. Water keeps the moisture in the body, transports oxygen to blood, and helps carry nutrients through blood. Typically a person needs to drink six to eight 8-ounce glasses of fluid per day, plus one 8-ounce cup for each hour of light activity.
When choosing water over other drinks, you get zero calories, and water quenches your thirst better than anything else. Plus it helps keep your body cool in the summertime heat.
Drinking a proper amount of water has many benefits. First, you will have a clearer complexion. Your skin will be more soft and supple. It keeps the moisture in the body, including skin and eyes.
Second, you’ll have stronger, healthier teeth and bones because of the added fluoride in most water supplies.
Third, drinking water helps maintain regular bowel and urinary functions. Many people complain when they start drinking more water that they have to run to the bathroom more often. However, keeping a healthy digestive system far outweighs the momentary inconvenience of extra bathroom trips.
Fourth, drinking extra water can help you maintain a healthy weight. Your body requires adequate water to metabolize properly, and thus to maintain a healthy weight.
Probably most importantly, drinking water helps prevent dehydration, which can be a very serious condition. I knew a man who got dehydrated and was hospitalized. Why? All he ever drank was iced tea. Tea is a diuretic, which means it causes the fluids in your body to be flushed out.
For children, the benefits of drinking water are even more essential. Because their bodies are smaller than adults, children can suffer from dehydration more quickly. For children under 4, the needs are critical. The younger and smaller a child is, the more difficult it is to re-hydrate once dehydration begins.
And now new research shows additional benefits of drinking water, such as protection from coronary heart disease. People who were consuming five eight-ounce glasses of water daily were about half as likely to die of coronary heart disease as those who were consuming less than two glasses a day.
TIPS FOR DRINKING MORE WATER
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Carry water with you in the vehicle.v
Drink water before you eat a meal. It helps you eat less and helps you digest your food when you do eat.v
No matter what kind of exercise you engage in, water is the one to travel with. This is an instant fluid replacement and keeps your mind alert.v
When you go out to eat, order water to drink instead of soda or tea. Not only will you have something healthier to drink, but you’ll also be saving money.BY GABRIELLE NABI
If you go into any home improvement store in central Indiana, you are presented with a wide array of water purification systems, from relatively inexpensive filtration pitchers to under-the-sink reverse osmosis tanks.
How does a consumer choose the right filtration system for his home? According to Cheryl Luptowski of the National Sanitation Federation (NSF), not everyone needs a water filtration system. The water quality in a particular area may be perfectly adequate. Therefore, before you trek out to the hardware store, research the quality of water in your area. The level of contaminants in a water supply can vary dramatically from one locale to another. For example, one county might be plagued by hard water, while another county only ten miles away might be having problems with arsenic – but not water hardness. Identify the most troublesome contaminants in your water supply and choose a filtration system that most successfully treats those contaminants.
The simplest and least expensive way to purify household drinking water is with a filtration pitcher. In this type of system, water is poured into a compartment at the top of the pitcher, where it runs through a carbon filter into a lower compartment. Most pitchers can hold about two to two and a half quarts of water; prices range from approximately $15 for a no-frills model to about $30 (Pur’s basic pitcher, for example, costs $17.99; its large 10-cup pitcher, pictured below, costs $29.99).
Keep in mind that the carbon filters must be replaced on a regular basis (every two to three months). Also, drinking water isn’t instantly available, since you have to wait for water to filter through.
Another option is to install a water filter on your kitchen faucet. GE’s SmartWater "Faucet Mount Filter" costs only $19.97 (plus one filter cartridge). Additional cartridges, which must be changed every three months, cost $14.97.
You may want to opt for a faucet mount filter over a filtration pitcher if purified cooking water is important to you. The pitcher’s small capacity provides an adequate drinking water supply, but if you used it for all your cooking/household-related tasks, refilling the pitcher would become a real nuisance.
Another source of filtered drinking water is your refrigerator. Most current models are equipped with some of sort of water/ice dispenser, with a concomitant water filtration and monitoring system. Like filter cartridges for pitchers and faucet mounts, refrigerator cartridges are easily obtained at hardware stores (or through the manufacturer) and are relatively inexpensive. Of course, you may not want to go out and buy a new refrigerator just to get clean drinking water, but if you do, it will adequately replace a filtration pitcher or stock of bottled water.
You can also buy more heavy-duty under-the-sink reverse osmosis or carbon filtration systems. GE’s 10-gallon "Reverse Osmosis Filtration System" costs a whopping $269.00, but it is an effective system for the drinking and cooking needs of an entire family. Other reverse osmosis systems are available for less than $300.
For more information about water contaminants and water treatment methods, contact the National Sanitation Foundation’s general information line at 1-800-673-6275. Leading manufacturers of water purification systems include Pur (www.purwater.com), Brita (www.brita.com), and GE SmartWater (www.geappliances.com/smartwater/).
Gabrielle Nabi is a freelance writer who lives in central Indiana with her husband and cat.